Cars 2 - Review

I can picture it all in my head: John Lasseter, high on the euphoria of bringing total satisfaction to every single person alive either with joy or money, just suddenly snapped. He runs up and down the corridors of Pixar before tackling his future co-writer and director Brad Lewis. He screams out, "It's time! It's time! It's Mater's time!!" And thus, the streak is over.



Very eerily similar to the main failure of the recent PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN film, CARS 2 makes the foolhardy decision of placing the comic relief character upfront as the new headliner. Never mind that the character already had a televised series of animated shorts that mined the rest of his persona and he doesn't work as an audience surrogate, Lasseter wanted this film to be all about the Mater. This final verdict is depressingly sad since CARS 2 is certainly the worst Pixar output ever released.



I did actually really enjoyed CARS, both for its simplicity in story and its visually interesting animated environments. CARS 2 is bigger but not better with its many bloated and stupid plotlines and a very harsh ending moral. Former main protagonist Lightning McQueen, now a four-time Piston Cup champion, embarks on a series of races around the world in order to showcase a former Big Oil tycoon's newly created alternative fuel. Now say sayonara to this story after its inception because it moves to the back-burner for Mater's spy games and car scatological humor. The previously cute sidekick is mistaken for an American spy and becomes tangled up with an international crime plot to smear the image of the new fuel and further raise the power of Big Oil. This wannabe topical issue is obviously hard to take seriously for adults when your star is fart-friendly and a huge Ugly American.



Mater's demeaning attitude to world culture throughout the film leads to the biggest error in judgment in that, according to Lasseter and his fellow screenwriters' main moral, it is very okay for someone to be ethnocentric and be proud to be an Ugly American. This message is a more nihilistic state of affairs than the world of WALL-E. It also doesn't help that that the art directors chose the obvious and easy stereotypes of the cultures of Japan (sumo, wasabi), Italy (food, love), and England (the Queen) to cement into children's minds. Of course, when these same directors aren't cementing the idea to buy the new toys spun from this feature film.



Finally, there is the weird aspects of the film. For a G rated flick, it certainly has some gory and violent moments for something that is very childish. When you remind yourself that the car characters are sentient beings, the scenes involving forced spontaneous combustion and a plunge off an oil rig are fairly graphic. But the most peculiar is the entire incused subplot of McQueen and Mater's power of friendship that practically has them ready to make out with each other's fenders. CARS 2 is really the most homoerotic film involving vehicles I've seen since David Cronenberg's CRASH. This may sound insane but look closely at the diminished female roles, the many scenes of them angsting over an early fallout, and the entire closing credits where the two buddies travel the globe together while Brad Paisley sings about how Mater's is only the fool for McQueen.



So, what saves the film from being totalled completely? A couple of good voice performances, mainly Michael Caine and a cameoing Bruce Campbell, the vibrant animation and some well-choreographed action sequences. Oh, and there's the animated short before the screening with the TOY STORY characters that actually brought the laughs and wit needed for the main feature. If Lasseter wanted to continued the CARS franchise, whether to please Disney or his own love in the product, he should have made it for television. That way, this extensive toy commercial can hang out with the real commercials.




FINAL REVIEW: 2 / 5