One of the great joys of raising a child these past 14 years (other than, you know, the child) has been raising her during the age of Pixar, a studio with an unerring knack for making family films that actually appeal to the whole family. And it’s this Looney Tunes–esque ability to play on multiple levels, as much as the cutting-edge computer animation and gag-packed script, that’ll make Cars 2 the latest in Pixar’s streak of critical and commercial hits.

Back for the sequel are Lightning McQueen and his rust-bumpkin sidekick Mater, but gone is the bucolic Southwestern setting and unhurried pacing of the sentimental original. Cars 2 is nonstop action—faster, busier, brighter, louder, dimensiony-er—from the James Bond–like opening sequence aboard the evil villain’s secret deep-sea oil rig through the spectacularly reimagined streets of Towkyo [sic], Italy, and Paris, and all the way to the final chase scene’s climactic denouement in front of Buckingham Palace. Whereas Cars was essentially about cars, Cars 2 is an anthropomotorized spy thriller. It’s also surprisingly violent, filled with gunfights, explosions, wheel-to-wheel combat, and a handful of un-Pixar–like implied “deaths.” (Cars can “die”? Tow trucks eat ice cream? The Cars franchise and its post-human landscape can be confusing, even discomfiting if you think about it. So don’t. It’s a goddamn cartoon.)

It’s not the tightest story line to come out of Pixar’s hit factory. Okay, it’s the least tight. And it lacks the emotional pull we’ve come to expect from classics like Up, WALL-E, and the unexpectedly endearing yet equally energetic The Incredibles. But Cars 2 is packed with plenty of puns and punch lines for kids and adults, not to mention Pixar’s breathtaking animation (now in 3-D!). You know, fun for the whole family. recommended

4 replies on “Cars 2: An Anthropomotorized Spy Thriller”

  1. I really disliked the first Cars film, so this will be the first Pixar film that I won’t see in the theatre, instead waiting for it show up on Starz in a year.

  3. Seriously? I can’t believe the Stranger is letting Cars 2 just get by like this. Cars is unquestionably the most cash cow film Pixar has ever made and this sequel is completely abandoning the heart that Pixar’s gotten especially good at in previous years. Letting this slip by just because “It’s a goddamn cartoon” is bullshit. When you can make a movie with as good a story as Up or The Incredibles, why should it be passable for kids’ movies to be loaded with cliche pop culture references and completely unbelievable logic?

    Come on Goldy, you guys are smarter than this.

  4. Up?
    Up was a slow-mo piece of dried dung, studded by a few interesting character concepts, framed by a balloonstring made of actual multicultural heart-strings, coated in an inch-thick lining of gilded sugar crystals farmed from Steven Speilberg’s tear ducts.
    But still dung. Pixar blew their WALL*E-earned cred pretty fast on that tripe.

    ‘Cars’ wasn’t “great” either, so the next ‘model year’ being mediocre isn’t a surprise. But the soup-nazi shit that pixar serves, even on a bad day, is still swallowable compared to ICE AGE and OVER THE HEDGE and ‘Tinkerbell and the Launching of the New Disney Toy/Ride Franchise’ and LAND BEFORE TIME 16; LITTLEFOOT STILL CAN’T GET TO PUBERTY ISLAND, at least.

Comments are closed.