It actually pains me a bit to say such a thing, since it’s coming from Pixar, a studio that has had nothing less than near perfection with almost every film. The only film that got the most flack was the first “Cars”, with “A Bug’s Life” close behind it. Still, even with the complaints about “Cars”, people still felt it was a good movie. But “Cars 2″ has officially become even worse-reviewed than “Cars”, which was originally the worst-reviewed Pixar film at 74%. The current Rotten Tomatoes rating for “Cars 2″: 34%. And possibly lower, by the time this post is published.
CinemaBlend wrote earlier that by the time “Cars 2″ officially hit the theaters today, it had the potential to not only be the worst-reviewed Pixar film, but the worst-reviewed 3D-animated film of all time. Before yesterday, Dreamworks’ “Shark Tale” was the lowest-rated film at 35%. As you can see above, “Cars 2″ is even below that.
What can we make from all this, though? Well, for one thing, I don’t think we have to run for the hills just yet; Pixar was bound to have their bubble burst eventually. Everyone produces a dud sometimes. One would assume that Pixar should have had the foresight to see another “Cars” sequel was not going to do so well seeing how mixed the public is on the first “Cars”, but still, you live and learn.
Now that he has won the Piston Cup four times and has all of his pals, it feels like there's no story for Lightning this time around. Lightning is involved in races that take him to Japan, Italy and England, competing against a haughty Formula 1 racer (voiced by John Turturro in full-of-himself mode), but "Cars 2" is really a spy movie.
It's also a Larry the Cable Guy movie.
Mater - Larry's rusty, rattle-trap tow truck with hillbilly teeth - was the breakout car star of the first film, and director John Lasseter knew his fish-out-of-water protagonist in the foreign locales would be the git-r-done guy. It's a wise decision.
The plot revolves around a scheme hatched by notorious "lemon" cars (think Gremlins and Pacers, as the writers here did) who are sitting on the world's largest untapped oil reserve and want to destroy an alternative-energy plan. Mater's mistaken identity comedy begins when two British agents (Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer) believe Mater is their U.S. agent contact.
They also believe his cover story is excellent (he acts like a fool, so other cars don't know when he's fooling them). Of course, Mater is just Mater, loyal and simple ("Wasabi? Same old, same old. What's up with you?"), the kind of fellow whose feelings can be hurt when people try to change him for the smarter.
"Cars 2" is still cute, but the action and the toilet humor Pixar normally avoids cuts the charm factor.
The greatest liability is that the story is more dense than the original. The result is too many children at the screening I attended either losing interest or needing to have points explained to them. That will happen when 4-year-olds meet the metric system, alternative fuels and international intrigue.
Pixar's gift of originality is best seen in their making of movies with predictable outcomes but which surprise you repeatedly in reaching those conclusions. "Cars 2" offers few surprises, making this less of a ride to remember.
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