Cars 2

	"I'm Norm of the North, king of nothing." — Norm, Norm of the North This is a good article.

Cars 2 The plot would have been fine if the espionage and racing storylines had been separate, but this is what happens upon refusal. Genre: Spy Sports Action Animated Adventure Comedy Directed By: John Lasseter Produced By: Denise Ream Written By: Ben Queen Starring: Owen Wilson Larry the Cable Guy Michael Caine Emily Mortimer John Turturro Eddie Izzard Photography: Sharon Calahan Cinematography: Jeremy Lasky Distributed By: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Release Date: June 18, 2011 (Hollywood) June 24, 2011 (United States) Runtime: 106 minutes Country: United States Language: English Budget: $200 million Box Office: $562.1 million Franchise: Cars Prequel: Cars Toy Story 3 (by release date) Sequel: Brave (by release date) Cars 3

"As an average animated kids film, this just blends in with those other films. But as a Pixar film, especially after WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3, this is a major disappointment."

— JacobHessReviews

Cars 2 is a 2011 American computer-animated spy action-adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to the 2006 film Cars and the second installment in the series, directed by John Lasseter, written by Ben Queen and produced by Denise Ream as Pixar's 12th feature film. This was the final Pixar film animated with their old system, Marionette.

The film premiered in Hollywood on June 18, 2011, and was released in the United States on June 24, 2011 in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D, as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats. A sequel, Cars 3, was released in 2017, which was generally considered an improvement over Cars 2.

Plot

Racecar Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and his pal tow-truck buddy, Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), have had their share of adventures together but nothing like what they experience when they head overseas for the first-ever World Grand Prix in Japan, Italy, France, and United Kingdom. While Lightning has his eye on the road to the championship, Mater takes a detour to international espionage when he meets British master spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and stunning spy-in-training Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer).

Bad Qualities

1. It is basically a deviation from the first movie, which majorly focused around racing, whereas this one revolves around espionage; it would essentially be what would happen if a horror movie had a sequel that is mostly a romantic comedy.
2. The world of Cars became more confusing and nonsensical here. Such as in London when there are somehow fences on the side of the road. Why are they necessary? If it is to stop cars from crashing into buildings, why are they so small? Why are there sidewalks on the sides of the road? Also, what is inside these cars? How are they alive? Now the answer is necessary since the characters also board planes to fly around the world.
3. By having Mater, a side character who served as comic relief, as the main protagonist instead of Lightning McQueen in the actual film, it makes the movie feel more like a spin-off than an actual sequel. This is worse and misleading advertising when the posters, cover art, commercials, trailers, and even the cover for its initial DVD release all seem to give the illusion that give Lightning McQueen for main protagonist center stage.
   • One trailer for the movie also basically misleads its viewers into thinking the film would at least almost entirely be about international racing, whereas it turns out the actual film involves espionage, with the "international racing" storyline being more of a B or C plot.
4. Despite having a G rating of all things, it can get rather too dark and intense as much of the action sequences involving gruesome death, with Rod Redline being tortured and subsequently destroyed by Professor Zündapp after the latter igniting the Allinol in a way that it explodes and incinerates him, Leland Turbo's crushed remains being shown in the form of a cube, the pacer and Trunkov killed from the elevator building, and Finn releasing tiny explosives from his axels that get pulled into Tony Trihull's magnet-like object which then activate and explode, killing the latter. This holds the records for having too many kill counts for Pixar film.
   • It should be noted that even Finding Nemo and The Incredibles suffered from this tone despite being a G and PG-rated films respectively as well.
   • To be fair, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Brave were the only Pixar movies to have a higher body count but ALL of these were off-screen.
5. Every character from the first film are barely in the movie, or some cases, downright not in the movie at all such as Chick Hicks and Strip "The King" Weathers; the only ones who have big roles are Lightning McQueen, Mater, Sarge, Filmore, Luigi, and Guido (though even there, Sarge, Filmore, Luigi, and Guido don’t have as big of roles as they did in the first film, only Lightning and Mater do).
   • Due to the death of Joe Ranft, Red doesn't have any new lines, just so it would feel heavily underutilized.
6. Still some obnoxious humor, like when Mater farts after he exited the bathroom.
7. The main story surprisingly doesn't revolve around racing, and instead heavily features a very generic espionage story, in which is focuses more on, with the World Grand Prix only being a side plot; the former is also rather generic for a Pixar film, despite the studio being known for its unique and original storylines.
   • On the topic of unoriginality, it has a use of clichés, specifically the clichéd "be yourself" moral.
8. Tow Mater himself is out of character; in the first film he's a silly comic relief, however in this movie, he acts way more immature and idiotic to the point where he becomes incredibly annoying and unlikeable at times.
9. At one point in the sequence at Italy, Topolino asks McQueen as to why he would ask Mater to be someone else during the trip; this sends a rather incorrect message, as it seems to frame, for example, parents to be in the wrong when children are required to be on their best behavior in public and behave differently in different situations.
10. Almost all of the characters are underdeveloped, especially Lightning and the rest of the Radiator Springs gang, who are very underutilized, with the film barely giving us any time to get to know the new characters, their motives, or even anything new about the returning cast. The only one that does stand out is Miles Axelrod, who is not only the creator of Allinol and the World Grand Prix but also the twist villain and mastermind behind the events of Cars 2, whereas the other characters can only be described as these:
    • Finn McMissile as an expert spy and Holley Shiftwell as a spy-in-training.
    • Francesco Bernoulli is just the generic main asshole jerk rival of Lightning McQueen who hogs dialogue.
    • Professor Z is the initial very weak villain of the film.
    • The residents of Radiator Springs as their stereotypical selves from the first film.
    • McQueen as the big-shot racer and Mater's buddy.
    • Mater is the goofy main character of the movie.
11. While not directly hateable characters, the problem with Finn and Holley is that they're both too oblivious to Mater, seeing how constantly tells them he's not a spy while proving that multiple times, and yet even after all that, they still believe he's a top spy.
12. The idea of living automobiles showing concern for the environment and going green is arguably ridiculous, to which it comes off as pandering. It is disappointing because this is a film produced by Pixar which, again, is traditionally known for its heartwarming stories.
    • This also has a hypocritical message. It says that being green is bad and we should abuse oil and fossil fuels and not create alternative energy/fuel sources that are good for the environment. Cars 2 shows living cars showing concern for the environment and becoming ecological, which leads Miles Axlerod to create an alternative and ecological fuel (Allinoll). In the end, Miles Axlerod is arrested, which makes the cars use gasoline again. Besides that, in the first and third films, automobiles still use gasoline, which shows that it has a very bad message against the environment and environmentally friendly alternative fuels.
      • However, in the end, Holley does reveal that Allinoll was actually gasoline from an oil reserve run by the lemons.
13. There is a lot of filler in this film, such as McQueen and co. exploring Japan after arriving there as well as a brief scene of Mater, Finn, and Holley traveling in Paris.
14. And finally, the film has a frustratingly stupid plot that relies on conveniences. Why does Axelrod needs to cover himself during the meeting other than to keep the plot from going and keep the identity of the leader of the Lemons' reveal mysterious? Another example is when Mater tells the spies that he isn't one multiple times but they still think he is the spy. Another example also is in the death of Rod Redline scene when Professor Z just says he discovered that Allinol has a weakness against electromagnetic pulse, even though at the end, he is basically the one who invented it. No one is there except Redline, whom you are gonna kill anyway. Why still try hiding the truth if no one else is gonna find out?
15. The mystery of the true Lemons leader feels like it exists only to give a "Mater is smart moment" when he revealed who Axelrod truly is and even then Mater still acts like an idiot even after he has Axelrod arrested in the next scene like it never happened. Also, Mater's reasoning doesn't make any sense. How did he manage to know Axelrod's engine is the same as the one from the picture? Sure, the same bolts in the engine as the ones in his time bomb. But how does any of that relate to Axelrod having the engine? And in the oil leak scene, most of the oil was flowing from Mater, so it is one very small, but very important detail that doesn't make it sensible as a justification.
16. The scene when Mater realizes everyone considers him an idiot tries way too hard to be emotional but just fails so bad to the point where it's laughable.
17. Some poorly written dialogue. The worst offender being the dialogue when Filmore reveals McQueen actually used his organic fuel, which desperately tries to be comical by being overly long but fails.
18. Plot hole: If Holley Shiftwell had wings on her, then why did she only use them at the last minute?
    • Besides that in the poster she has the wings on, but she uses them around the last 30 minutes of the film.
19. Similar to the case of films like Shrek the Third, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Cars 2 does not have a great or no impact on the franchise as a whole, since most of the events of that occur in Cars 2 can be omitted without any problem, and none of the events or contributions from the film are important for the franchise, despite of some references in Cars 3, like Jeff Govertte's cameo.
    • Speaking of the case of impact on the franchise, Cars 2 can be overlooked, and literally, nothing is lost, as most of its events are completely ignored in Cars 3. For example:
      • Holley Shiftwell is introduced in Cars 2 as Tow Mater's girlfriend, but in Cars 3, Holley Shiftwell doesn't only appear or is mentioned, but she does not even seem to exist. Also, in Cars 3 is implied that Miss Fritter is the suposedly the new romantic interest of Matter.
      • In Cars 3, Finn McMisille (from Cars 2) no longer seem to exist anymore and he is never mentioned
      • Francesco Bernoulli (from Cars 2) is supposedly the new friend of McQueen considering the events of Cars 2, but he does not appear in Cars 3, and he is never mentioned.
      • The Lemons and the adventure that Tow Matter had as a spy in Cars 2 are never mentioned in Cars 3.
      • Also, Cars 3 feels like a true sequel to Cars 1, and if you forget Cars 2 and see Cars 1 and Cars 3 as a duology, it's understandible.
      • Cars 1 and Cars 3 are race movies and the story of both this movies are about McQueen and his experinece as a racer in Piston Cup. But Cars 2 is a spy movie and the story is about Matter having adventures as a spy.
20. As in the case of the films A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Jason X, Ice Age: Collision Course, Planes: Fire & Rescue, Shrek the Third, Planes, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Last Airbender, Fantastic Four (2015), Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Seed of Chucky, Pacific Rim Uprising, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro, that affected their respective franchises, Cars 2 was the main responsible for bad reputation that the Cars saga has , since, before Cars 2, Cars (2006) was received by critics and public as a very good movie and was indicated for the Acadamy Awards for the Best Animated Feature Film 2007 (although Happy Feet won this year). So, to win money, Pixar made Cars 2 forgetting what the story of Cars 1 was about, just to make money. Also, they planed to make Cars 3 to 2016 and was going to be another Story disconnected from the first movie and was going to be about Sally’s backstory. Whatever, Cars 2 was poorly received by critics and public, who started to see Cars as a cashgrab franchise because of Cars 2, Planes and Planes: Fire & Rescue. So, Disney and Pixar decided to cancel Planes 3 and changed the story of Cars 3 to be about a veteran McQueen being trained by Cruz Ramirez to win Jackson Storm. So, Cars 3 was released in 2017 instead of 2016.
    • Speaking of the impact of Cars 2, this film marked the beggining of a Pixar era, as thanks to the premiere of Cars 2, Pixar started to make prequels and sequels for another films from the studio, like Monsters University (sequel of Monsters Inc.), Finding Dory (sequel of Finding Nemo), The Incredibles 2 (sequel of The Incredibles), Toy Story 4 (sequel of Toy Story 3) and of course… Cars 3. Deciding to saturate its studio with sequels to the point that people started to see Pixar not more as the innovate story-making studio from 1995 until 2010, but as a studio that only in turn after saturating sequels in its filmography , but people started see Pixar as a studio that could not stop to make sequels since 2011, thus generating more money in his cinematographic history, causing the public though that the original Pixar from 1995 until 2010 was dead. But, Pixar made new films like Insise Out, Coco, Onward, Soul and Luca and stopped to be a cash-grab studio, returning as the same innovate story-making studio from 1995 until 2010, and also, Pixar said that Toy Story 4 is the last sequel of the studio and that they returned to make original movies since Onward, even though a Buzz Lightyear spin-off is confirmed to 2022. The next original movie will be Turning Red and is going to be about a girl with the ability to transform into a red panda.
    • In addition to the above, Cars 2, gained a negative legacy in the history of animation, as it led many animators to place Cars 2 as an example of what should not be put in a sequel, being considered worse than Shrek the Third. In turn, this film sparked many studies by mistake creating animated films based on the ideas used in Cars, Cars 2 and Cars 3 as a sure success (The Little Cars franchise, The Autobots), and this, in turn, caused many viewers to defend and admire Cars 2, specially because of nostalgia and childhood.

Good Qualities

1. Once again, the animation is visually impressive and colorful, especially considering how this was animated by Pixar, with the detail being more than the one from the first film.
2. Some scenes are worth a laugh, notably when Mater mistakes wasabi for pistachio ice cream, followed by the scene with him in the bathroom, and the scene where Mater almost gives away Alexander Hugo's identity.
3. The concept of seeing cars go around the world is interesting, in terms of the film being part of the Cars franchise.
4. Impressive action and racing scenes, with the opening chase with Finn McMissile and the lemons standing out as one of the best moments in the film.
5. Amazing performances, with the new voice actors such as Michael Caine clearly doing a great job with the material they were given.
6. The lemons have a lot of depth to them and their motivations are interesting — much of the lemons have been rejected by the world, and in revenge, they, led by Miles Axelrod, set up the World Grand Prix and ignite the Allinol inside the cars using it, intending to manipulate the public into thinking alternative fuel is inherently flawed, hoping for them to turn to the lemons, who own the largest oil reserves in the world, for oil, believing they would get the respect they have desired for so long after years of rejection; their motivations, surprisingly, also makes use of its premise of a world being populated by sentient cars more than either the previous or following film, due to the lemons often being ridiculed due to their... dated-ness, as well as cars creating gasoline, which others use as fuel, as a way of gaining money.
7. Despite the hypocritical message, it teaches an important lesson on how major companies scam people into buying their products by advertising that it is good for them even though that is basically not the case.
8. The new characters, through some underdeveloped, are pretty awesome, such as Finn McMissile, Francesco, and Holley Shiftwell.
9. Amazing heavy metal soundtrack by Michael Giacchino; on the topic of music, Weezer's cover of "You Might Think" by The Cars is pretty lit, so are "Collision of Worlds" and "Polyrhythm".
10. Despite the plot being terribly written which relies on conveniences, it is weirdly unpredictable, which is something we really cannot say about its spin-off by figuring out the plot by ONE SIMPLE SENTENCE.
11. As clichéd as it is, the "be yourself" lesson is still something good to be taught for kids.
12. Despite being very underutilized and underdeveloped, most of the original characters like Lightning, Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, and Sarge are still somewhat decent.
13. At least, the racers aren't stereotypes of their counties and never pulled off.
14. Much like other Pixar movie, the cinematography is still stunning.

Reception

Critical response

While many Pixar movies received positive feedback, Cars 2 received mixed reviews from critics, audiences, and fans alike with praise for its voice acting and animation, but criticism for its G-rated, focus on Mater and found the plot confusing and is widely considered to be Pixar's weakest movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, Cars 2 has an approval rating of 40% based on 219 reviews, with an average rating of 5.48/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cars 2 is as visually appealing as any other Pixar production, but all that dazzle can't disguise the rusty storytelling under the hood.". It is the lowest-rated Pixar film on the site to date, and the only one to earn a "rotten" certification. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale, while IMDB rates it at 6.1/10.

A central current of the negative reviews was the theory that Cars 2 was forced out of Pixar by its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, out of greed to drive merchandise sales. Lasseter vehemently denied these claims, which he attributed to "people who don't know the facts, rushing to judge."

DeviantArt user JacobHessReviews gave this movie an rating of 4.5/10 (Bad to Meh), explaining that this just blends in with those other films for an average animated kids films, but major disappointment for a Pixar films, especially after WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3.

Box office

Cars 2, despite the mixed reception, continued the studio's streak of box office success, grossing $191.5 million in the USA and Canada, and $370.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $562.1 million. Worldwide on its opening weekend, it grossed $109 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title. Overall, Cars 2 became the seventh biggest Pixar film in the worldwide box office among the fourteen released.

Awards and nominations

Cars 2 was the first Pixar film not to be nominated for an Oscar, probably due to its mixed reception; similarly, it is also the first Pixar film not to be nominated for Best Animated Feature since its introduction in 2001. However, despite the mixed reviews, it was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Animated Feature and Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie, but lost to The Adventures of Tintin and Puss in Boots, respectively.

Trivia

• Some of the World Grand Prix racers do not speak in this film, but they do in Cars 2: The Video Game and Cars: Fast as Lightning.
• Cars 2 marks Pixar's 25th anniversary of silver.
• This is the first DVD release of a Pixar film to be enhanced with Disney's Fast Play.
• Lloyd Sherr replaced famous American actor and comedian George Carlin, who had passed away from heart failure in June 2008, as Filmore.
• The theatrical release had an alternate Pixar logo that reads, "Celebrating 25 Years". This has been removed from subsequent home video and Disney+ releases.
• Cars 2 is the first sequel to focus on the secondary character (in this case it being Mater) rather than the protagonist of the original film, followed by Monsters University (Mike Wazowski), Finding Dory (Dory), and Incredibles 2 (Elastigirl).
• This is the only film in the Cars franchise not to be scored by Randy Newman since it is instead scored by another recurring composer Michael Giacchino.
• There was also a character named Giulia, who was a double agent that might have later pulled a heel-face turn. She later got replaced by Holley Shiftwell. The unused name for Giulia would later be used for another Pixar movie for 10 years later, Luca.
• This was also Pixar's first non-Toy Story sequel.
• Multiple racing drivers voice car versions of themselves in international releases, including Formula 1 alumni Fernando Alonso and Vitaly Petrov.
• It was originally scheduled for a summer 2012 release, but Pixar moved the release up by a year. In 2009, Disney registered several domain names, hinting to audiences that the title and theme of the film would be in relation to a World Grand Prix.

References

Pixar Animation Studios

Movies: Toy Story - A Bug's Life - Toy Story 2 - Monsters, Inc. - Finding Nemo - The Incredibles - Cars - Ratatouille - WALL-E - Up - Toy Story 3 - Cars 2 - Brave - Monsters University - Inside Out - The Good Dinosaur - Finding Dory - Cars 3 - Coco - Incredibles 2 - Toy Story 4 - Onward - Soul - Luca Short movies: Theatrical short films: The Adventures of André and Wally B. - Luxo Jr. - Red's Dream - Tin Toy - Knick Knack - Geri's Game - For the Birds - Boundin' - One Man Band - Lifted - Presto - Partly Cloudy - Day & Night - La Luna - The Blue Umbrella - Lava - Sanjay's Super Team - Piper - Lou - Bao SparkShorts series: Purl - Smash and Grab - Kitbull - Float - Wind - Loop - Out - Burrow - Twenty Something - Nona Feature-related: Mike's New Car - Jack-Jack Attack - Mr. Incredible and Pals - Mater and the Ghostlight - Your Friend the Rat - BURN-E - Dug's Special Mission - George and A.J. - The Legend of Mor'du - Party Central - Riley's First Date? - Marine Life Interviews - Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool - Auntie Edna - Lamp Life - 22 vs. Earth - Ciao Alberto Television series: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (co-production) - Monsters at Work

External links

• Cars 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Cars 2 on Letterboxd
• Cars 2 on Metacritic
• Cars 2 on Rotten Tomatoes

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