What Do The Critics Say?

"Having viewed Cars 2, I can only count my blessings I missed its predecessor. Even with its highly adroit usage of 3D, this animated exercise in busyness has an incomprehensible James Bond-ian storyline that should baffle young ones as much as it grates on their elders. Charmless and out of gas." Brandon Judell CULTURE CATCH "Lasseter should have left this sputtering galumph on the table and pumped the gas into Toy Story 4. Alongside such Pixar hits as "Monsters, Inc", "Toy Story", and "The Incredibles", "Cars 2" comes off like a Yugo in a lot full of Porsches. Paul Newman and George Carlin added class to the first one, but with those two gone, the sequel chugs along on fumes." Tom Meek BOSTON PHOENIX "Cars 2 runs out of gas. It's on fumes and some of them pretty noxious. There may be enough color and motion to initially interest children, but the plot will lose them, and boredom may follow. If Pixar had made a short film with Mater to be shown before the feature, it probably would have worked, but as star of a feature film he's something of a wreck." Tony Macklin TONY MACKLIN "The original Cars was never my favorite Pixar cartoon, but it was still enjoyable. This sequel is even worse. It's the first Pixar film that seems as if it was made for the money; not only in ticket sales, but all the merchandising that goes with it. It looks like a Pixar film, but it sure doesn't feel like one." Scott Nash THREE MOVIE BUFFS

"Exceptionally colorful and bright animation mingles with a multi-layered storyline that bogs down around the lowbrow humor of Larry the Cable Guy. The detailed animated renderings of exotic locations are positively beautiful. However, the film's over-emphasis on the doofus tow truck character Mater lets the air out of its comic tires. Owen Wilson's would-be protagonist just gets lost in the shuffle." Cole Smithey COLE SMITHEY "Feels like a rival animation studio trying to copy the Pixar formula: and failing. The whole film, in fact, is mostly laugh free. A stunning achievement from any modern animated film, let alone a Pixar offering. "Cars 2" is something we’d never expect from Pixar. A sequel created for commercial reasons." Christian Toto WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH "The sentiment around Cars 2 being echoed by most movie critics is that Pixar's winning streak appears to be broken, and for the most part that's true. All streaks come to an end, though, and that Cars 2 is not great Pixar, but a passably entertaining Pixar, comes as no shock to me at all: it had to happen sooner or later. And, truthfully, one could see this coming." Jeffrey Chen REELTALK REVIEWS "Instead of a unified storyline, “Cars 2” has a story which is split into two parts. One part is racing, with Lightning McQueen. The other part is a spy story with Tow Mater, the Radiator Springs tow truck. It is a good film, but lacks the emotional punch of "Up" or the exquisite ending of "Toy Story 3". Maybe this one is bad enough that some other studio will finally be allowed to win some of the top awards this year by the powers that be. Now that would be a surprise." Robert Roten LARAMIE MOVIE SCOPE

The Inside Story After completing "Cars", two time Oscar winner John Lasseter knew he wanted to tell another story with these characters that both he and audiences had come to love . And the ideas for "Cars 2" were taking shape long before production on the film began. "During "Cars", we were developing a sequence in which Lightning McQueen was going to take Sally, the Porsche, on a first date. And it was going to be at a drive-in movie, because that’s very car-oriented. Then we thought, 'What movie is playing?' I love spy movies and I thought it would be so much fun to see what a spy movie would be in the car world. We came up with this character named Finn McMissile who was going to be starring in this little movie-within-a-movie. I am a huge fan of spy movies. I grew up on the TV show "The Man from U .N .C .L .E ." and my five sons and I love watching the spy movies together. We must have seen the 'Bourne' series hundreds of times. And so even though the sequence changed and Lightning and Sally went cruising on their first date instead, I never forgot the idea of Finn McMissile and the spy movie." His immediate thought was "There’s a lot of potential there." Then in 2006, while on a global publicity tour promoting the international release of "Cars", Lasseter realized that these culturally diverse foreign countries would be the perfect setting for the "Cars" characters to become embroiled in a spy story. "It’s exciting to take Mater around the world and put him in situations that are totally unique to that country. This is where the spark of the second part of the story came from as I was traveling . I had all these characters in my head, and I found myself constantly laughing, imagining what Mater would do in these different situations . How would he handle driving on the wrong side of the road in London? What would it be like to have Mater lost in the maze of streets in Tokyo, with no English street signs? And how would he function in Italy, where the traffic signals are just a mere suggestion of what you might want to do?" Apart from the chance to take the characters all over the world, and explore the world of international racing and espionage, the thing that appealed most to Lasseter (who executive produced "Toy Story 3") was the heart and humor inherent in the characters and the story. "The humor in "Cars 2" comes from the personality of the characters and seeing them in interesting, fish out of water situations. But at its emotional core, the movie is about Lightning McQueen and Mater’s friendship, which gets tested in a very different and interesting way. It's about how the strength of a friendship can be tested." "Working with John is always inspirational," says co-director and two time EMMY award winner Brad Lewis. "He’s got such a vivid imagination, and you can just tell there are these huge worlds that live in his brain In the case of "Cars 2", the characters are so special to John. We have a great history together and a great friendship. It was a joy and a fantastic learning experience to work side by side with him on this film." Producer Denise Ream (associate producer on "Up") says it was a dream come true to work with Lasseter and not just for her. "Since John finished directing "Cars", Pixar has grown significantly, so a lot of artists here hadn’t had the opportunity to work with him in that capacity before. That’s been really wonderful. As a director, he is very specific, he knows what he wants. He has passion. It’s fun working with someone that has such passion for the medium. And let’s face it, he’s an amazing storyteller. He had this movie in his mind, and it’s been fun to help bring that vision to the screen. Because he’s been fun to work with, it’s just made it enjoyable for everyone." International espionage. Global racing. Friendship. Each theme was to play a role in "Cars 2", and co-director Brad Lewis, screenwriter Ben Queen and the Pixar story team, led by Nathan Stanton ("Finding Nemo"), were charged with finding just the right mix for the story. The film’s screenplay is by Queen, based on a story by Lasseter, Lewis and screenwriter Dan Fogelman ("Bolt" & "Tangled"). "This is not a parody of a spy movie," says Lasseter. "This is a spy movie, but with cars as characters. It’s a different genre that gives us an opportunity to play with so many gadgets. The little boy in me came out in this movie more than any other movie. Let’s have fun with this world. Let’s have fun with these gadgets." "When you see that opening sequence with Finn McMissile, it’s played totally straight and serious, with real jeopardy in the scene. And then the very next scene is in Radiator Springs, and it plays as comedy. What works beautifully is that the juxtaposition of those two things immediately sets up the tone of the movie. It’s a spy thriller, but with emotion and comedic undertones. For the rest of the movie, we thrust you into this mile a minute story and genre," Queen explained. For Queen, who had coincidentally written and produced a television series for Fox called "Drive" about an illegal cross-country road race with characters that were externalized by their cars, "Cars 2" was his first writing assignment for animation. "The first "Cars" movie solidified the friendship between Mater and Lightning, which was something that audiences really related to. What we wanted to do was take that out of Radiator Springs and put it into an environment where they were both fish out of water. It’s a real test of the strength of this relationship." "We came to the conclusion that their friendship is really the crux of the movie," says story supervisor Nathan Stanton. "We figured it’s about four or five years after the first movie, so Lightning and Mater’s bond is firmly established. Here you have this very well-known, famous racecar, whose best friend is sheltered and naive to the world outside of his small town. While they’re best friends in the safety net of Radiator Springs, that friendship hasn’t truly been tested yet." "We bit off a huge story, and the fantastic thing is that everyone at Pixar poured their heart and soul into making it," Lewis (who executive produced "Broken Arrow") says. "And I think the result is one of the most beautiful films that’s ever been made." Filmmakers were so intrigued by the international racing scene, they decided to introduce their favorite racecar to this new world. "Lightning McQueen is invited to compete in the World Grand Prix to race against the fastest cars in the world in three fantastic locations: Japan, Italy and the U.K. Of course, Mater, who has never left Radiator Springs, is completely out of place in these distinctive cultures, which leads to hilarious comedic moments," Lasseter notes. A global adventure like “Cars 2”comes with its share of challenges . According to producer Denise Ream, as a sequel, the film had a bit of a head start, because many of the core characters and the world they live in were established in "Cars". According to Lewis, "You have to reinvent worlds. You have to 'car-ify' every background building, prop and character to bring them into the "Cars" world." The sequel "also has more crowd shots, more special effect, more characters," says Ream. "It’s huge. We were fortunate to have a seasoned production designer in Harley Jessup supervising a very talented art department whose design work on this film exceeded our expectations." As you would expect, the artists and storytellers at Pixar were up to the task. The folks at Pixar take their love of cars seriously and have even appointed a "Cars" franchise guardian to make sure they get all the details right. Jay Ward ("Ratatouille"), who managed the character modeling and articulation team on the original "Cars", is now the primary resource at Pixar for all things "Cars" (including all "Cars" questions related to the building of "Cars Land" at Disney’s California Adventure Theme Park, plus the making of the die-cast toys). Like Lasseter, Ward’s appreciation for cars came from his dad, who worked as a dealership mechanic and later as a wholesaler and vintage-car collector. Jay Shuster (sketch artist "WALL·E" & "Toy Story 3"), who worked in the art department on the first "Cars" as the character and environment designer and served as the character art director on "Cars 2", is another self-professed 'gearhead'. He grew up in Detroit, where his dad was a car designer for fourty three years at General Motors. "For each character, after we’ve gone through and nailed the design, we develop a three-view orthographic drawing that describes all the surfaces. After John approves it, we jump to modeling as quickly as we can." "One of the jobs that we were tasked with early on in the film was doing the research to make sure we got the real cars that were authentic to each country for background and supporting characters," Ward ("Monsters, Inc.") revealed. "When you go to Japan, you don’t see an American Toyota Camry because they don’t drive them over there . They drive the Toyota Majestic. These are the kinds of details we really wanted to pay attention to." They also had a great time designing the Formula-style racing cars, despite the challenges they faced as Shuster explained. "Francesco was the hardest design to complete because of his exposed suspension. The kind of engineering we had to do for him was intense, but I love Francesco. Formula cars have long snouts, so we had to really inflate his form to get the real estate we needed. The kind of physical expression we were able to get from Francesco’s movement took a lot of work but really looked great in the end. He was able to achieve these really extreme poses." Another favorite with the Pixar car enthusiasts and experts were the spy cars. "Finn McMissile is the coolest car in the film because he does a ton of things," Ward notes. Holley Shiftwell owes her good looks to the team at Pixar who created her design in-house. "Holley developed really quickly," Shuster recalls. "I came in on a Sunday afternoon and was doodling and sketching based on what John said he’d like Holley to look like. She’s new-school. I referenced the modern supercar from all the makes of the world." The film features a montage of Paris includes a kissing car couple on a romantic bridge reminiscent of the Pont des Arts: a location frequented by Lasseter and his wife Nancy whenever they visit the City of Love. Lasseter even ensured that the "girl car" was designed in his wife’s favorite color, lavender. "This film is a journey around the world, and all the places that we take the audience are invented out of thin air," supervising technical director Apurva Shah ("Antz" & "Shrek") explained. "Every country has a different set of background characters with a cast of hundreds of cars. Just making sure we had a pipeline that could support that kind of volume and maintain the highest quality for the output was one of our biggest challenges." Altogether, the "Cars 2" art and character teams would oversee the creation of one hundred and fourty five unique car characters and an additional seven hundred and eighty one variants. Creating nine hundred and twenty six characters for a single film is clearly a Pixar record. What's It All About?

Star racecar Lightning McQueen and the incomparable tow truck Mater take their friendship to exciting new places in "Cars 2" when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix with McQueen determine to prove he's the world’s fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Mater finds himself torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret mission orchestrated by master British super spy Finn McMissile and stunning spy in training, Holley Shiftwell. Mater’s action-packed journey leads him on an explosive and thrilling chase through the streets of Japan, Europe and to the street circuit in London for the final showdown, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world.

The Verdict "When it comes to their impressive body of work, I make no bones about the fact that I have been a big supporter of Pixar Animation Studios. With films such as "Monsters, Inc.", "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Cars", "WALL·E", "Up" and "Toy Story 3", I guess that, like many of you, I've become a little bit spoilt over the ensuing years. And, with that in mind, it pains me to reveal that in light of such great success (especially with "Toy Story 3" & "Up"), Pixar's latest contribution to the animated genre, "Cars 2" falls a little short of the high benchmark they have worked so hard to establish. Put more simply: after a brilliant start, "Cars 2" runs out of gas with the finishing line in sight. Sure the race settings and the action is colorful. Yes there's the intrigue of who is sabotaging the race series while the 'Bondish' storyline with Finn McMissile works reasonably well. And it's true there is an environmental aspect woven into the storyline. But by films end I wasn't impressed. I felt a little cheated. There's no spark. No emotional tug that makes you want to rush out and tell all your friends that this sequel is an absolute winner and shouldn't be missed. I have no doubts that "Cars 2" will take a bundle of money at the box-office, despite the fact that like many a sequel, it's a tad disappointing. 3 1/2 STARS." Who's Voice Is That?

Larry the Cable Guy Owen Wilson Michael Caine Emily Mortimer Eddie Izzard John Turturro Brent Musburger Joe Mantegna Thomas Kretschmann Peter Jacobson Bonnie Hunt Darrell Waltrip Franco Nero David Hobbs Patrick Walker Tony Shalhoub Jeff Garlin Michel Michelis Jason Isaacs Lloyd Sherr Bruce Campbell Teresa Gallagher Stanley Townsend Vanessa Redgrave

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Mater Lightning McQueen Finn McMissile Holley Shiftwell Sir Miles Axlerod Francesco Bernoulli Brent Mustangburger Grem Professor Z Acer Sally Darrell Cartrip Uncle Topolino David Hobbscap Mel Dorado Luigi Otis Tomber Siddeley & Leland Turbo Fillmore & Combat Ship Rod 'Torque' Redline Mater's Computer Victor Hugo/Vladimir Trunkov/Ivan the Tow Truck The Queen/Mama Topolino

The Production Team Directed by John Lasseter Co-director Brad Lewis Screenplay Ben Queen Story by John Lasseter/Brad Lewis/Dan Fogelman Produced by Denise Ream Original Music by Michael Giacchino Art Direction by Jay Shuster Run Time 113 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - Disney/Pixar - All Rights Reserved ©1999-2011 - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.