REVIEW: Cars (2)

ZOOM OFF

When Cars was released five years ago, it was both novel and entertaining—a film that had no humans, just talking cars with wonderfully animated expressions and characteristics.  It also evoked nostalgia for the fading values of small town American life, and the importance of friendship,  which packed an emotional punch.

Not all films lend themselves to sequels, no matter how successful the original may have been.  John Lasseter-Brad Lewis’s Cars 2 has all the expertise of the Pixar animation squad, but there is a lot lacking too—mostly heart.

Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson), the sleek red racing star, returns and is lured to race against his Italian rival Francesco Bernoulli (John Torturro) in the inaugural World Grand Prix organised by Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard), meant to prove that his organic, renewable wonder fuel Allinol is better than petrol. McQueen takes his buddy Mater the, battered, buck-toothed Towtruck, (Larry The Cable Guy) and they walk (err, drive) into an espionage caper with British agents Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer).

Cars of a mind-boggling range of colours, styles, personalities and expressions, race over Tokyo, Paris, the Italian Riviera and London—the locations created with amazing detail. It’s a spy adventure  thriller with chases, missiles and adrenalin-pumping action, with cars instead of Bond and Bourne type humans.

Plot wise it has nothing in common with the original, in this one Mater is the star, the typical underdog moving to centrestage, when the simple small-towner is mistaken for an undercover agent and gets drawn into a conspiracy to sabotage the race. But bumbling Mater, by himself is not an appealing protagonist, which is part of the problem with this film.

There are the usual car puns (Carmani boutique in Italy) and clever touches (Geisha cars in Tokyo), but not enough story.  Cars 2 depends too much on action hanging on a convoluted script. It will appeal to its target audience of car-crazy boys, but an older age group, who will enjoy the action.  The actors, especially Michael Caine, do a great job, as can be expected. 

Cars 2 is the kind of watch and forget animation films that are coming at viewers in greater numbers.  After a point, even kids will get tired of them.