Cars 2

Cars 2 is a 2011 American computer-animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and it is the sequel to the 2006 film, Cars. In the film, race car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and tow truck Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) head to Japan and Europe to compete in the World Grand Prix, but Mater becomes sidetracked with international espionage. The film is directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Brad Lewis, written by Ben Queen, and produced by Denise Ream. Cars 2 is also the first film John Lasseter has directed since the release of the original Cars in 2006.

The film was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and was released in the United States on June 24, 2011 and will be released in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2011. The movie is presented in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D, as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats. The film was first announced in 2008, alongside Up, Newt, and Brave (previously known as The Bear and the Bow), and it is the 12th animated film from the studio.The film opened to mixed/average reviews from critics, and is thought to be Pixar's worst reviewed feature film to date.

Plot

The film begins with British spycar Finn McMissile sneaking into a suspicious Oil Platform and find that evil scientist Professor Zündapp is in command of the operations there, but he is discovered and is forced to escape without getting enough info about the Professor's schemes. Meanwhile after winning the Piston Cup for the fourth time, Racecar Lightning McQueen returns to Radiator Springs and rejoins his best friend tow truck Mater. While watching the announcement of the first World Grand Prix sponsored by former oil tycoon Miles Axlerod to promote his new renewable fuel, Allinol, Mater gets angry when F1 car Francesco Bernoulli starts boasting about how he is far faster than McQueen and he manages to contact the TV studio by phone to confront him. McQueen intervenes and accepts Bernoulli's challenge to race against him into the Grand Prix.

By suggestion of McQueen's girlfriend Sally Carrera, Mater travels with him to Tokyo, Japan to the first race of the Grand Prix, but McQueen is worried if Mater could manage to behave properly. His fears are confirmed when Mater creates a series of ruckus in the debut party. While going to the bathroom, Mater comes across two thugs confronting an American secret agent who slips a device containing classified info into his body without him noticing, and is approached by McMissile's assistent, Holley Shiftwell who mistakes him for the agent and they agree to meet during the race in the following day. The agent is then captured and brought to Professor Zündapp who reveals that cars fueled with Allinol explode when exposed to a high level of radiation. He makes a demonstration on the agent himself after figuring that Mater has the info and orders his men to capture him.

Voice cast

Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen

Larry the Cable Guy as Mater

Michael Caine as Finn McMissile

Emily Mortimer as Holley Shiftwell

Eddie Izzard as Miles Axlerod

Jason Isaacs as Siddeley

Thomas Kretschmann as Professor Zündapp

Joe Mantegna as Grem

Peter Jacobson as Acer

Tony Shalhoub as Luigi

Guido Quaroni as Guido

Paul Dooley as Sarge

John Ratzenberger as Mack

John Turturro as Francesco Bernoulli

Jeff Gordon as Jeff Gorvette

Lewis Hamilton as Lewis Hamilton

Darrell Waltrip as Darrell Cartrip

Brent Musburger as Brent Mustangburger

David Hobbs as David Hobbscap

Bruce Campbell as Rod "Torque" Redline

John Lasseter as John Lassetire

Franco Nero as Uncle Topolino

Vanessa Redgrave as Mama Topolino/The Queen

Michel Michelis as Tomber

Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera

Cheech Marin as Ramone

Jenifer Lewis as Flo

Michael Wallis as Sheriff

Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore

Sig Hansen as Crabby the Boat

Jeff Garlin as Otis

Katherine Helmond as Lizzie

In international versions of the film, the character Jeff Gorvette is replaced with race car drivers better known in the specific countries.

Mark Winterbottom as Frosty (Australian release)

Fernando Alonso as Fernando Alonso (Spanish release)

Vitaly Petrov as Vitaly Petrov (Russian release)

Jan Nilsson as Flash (Swedish release)

Memo Rojas (Latin American release)

Sebastian Vettel as Sebastian Schnell (German release)

Production

Development

Cars is the second Pixar film, after Toy Story, to have a sequel. John Lasseter, the director of the film, said that he was convinced of the sequel's story while traveling around the world promoting the first film. He said:

I kept looking out thinking, 'What would Mater do in this situation, you know?' I could imagine him driving around on the wrong side of the road in the UK, going around in big, giant traveling circles in Paris, on the autobahn in Germany, dealing with the motor scooters in Italy, trying to figure out road signs in Japan.

Cars 2 was originally scheduled for a summer 2012 release, but Pixar moved the release up by a year. No explanation for the shift in release dates has been publicly announced.

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.

On March 2011, Jake Mandeville-Anthony, a U.K. screenwriter, sued Disney and Pixar alleging copyright infringement and breach of implied contract. In his complaint he alleged that Cars and Cars 2 are based in part on work that he had submitted early in the 1990s and he sought an injunction to stop the release of Cars 2 and requested actual or statutory damages. On May 13, 2011 Disney responded to the lawsuit, denying "each and every one of Plaintiff's legal claims concerning the purported copyright infringement and substantial similarity of the parties' respective works.

Casting

In November 2010, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Peter Jacobson, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, and Thomas Kretschmann were confirmed as the voice talent featured in the film. From November 2010 until May 2011, Disney released information about the other voice talent, including Jenifer Lewis, Katherine Helmond, Michael Wallis, Darrell Waltrip, Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Bruce Campbell, Sig Hansen, Michel Michelis, Jeff Gordon, Lewis Hamilton, Brent Musburger, David Hobbs, John Turturro, and Eddie Izzard.

Much of the cast from the original Cars remained intact for the sequel, but three voice actors of the original film have died since its release. George Carlin (who voiced Fillmore) died on June 22, 2008 due to heart failure. Fillmore was cast in Cars 2, and was voiced by Lloyd Sherr. Paul Newman (who voiced Doc Hudson) died on September 26, 2008 due to cancer. After Newman's death, Lasseter said they would "see how the story goes with Doc Hudson, before it was eventually written out. In addition, Joe Ranft (who voiced Red) died on August 16, 2005, ten months before the release of Cars, due to an automobile accident. Red appears in the film.

Soundtrack

Cars 2

Soundtrack album by Michael Giacchino

Released June 14, 2011

Genre Score

Length 57:00

Label Walt Disney

Pixar film soundtrack chronology

Toy Story 3

(2010) Cars 2

(2011) Brave

(2012)

The Cars 2 soundtrack was released on both CD album and digital download June 14. It is the fourth Pixar film to be scored by Michael Giacchino after The Incredibles, Ratatouille and Up. It also marks the first time that Giacchino has worked with John Lasseter as a director since Lasseter had been executive producer for the three aforementioned films scored by the composer.

All songs written and composed by Michael Giacchino, except as noted.

No. Title Writer(s) Artist Length

1. "You Might Think" (Cover of The Cars) Ric Ocasek Weezer 3:07

2. "Collision Of Worlds" Paisley, Williams Brad Paisley and Robbie Williams 3:36

3. "Mon Cœur Fait Vroum (My Heart Goes Vroom)" Michael Giacchino Bénabar 2:49

4. "Nobody's Fool" Paisley Brad Paisley 4:17

5. "Polyrhythm" Yasutaka Nakata Perfume 4:09

6. "Turbo Transmission" 0:52

7. "It's Finn McMissile!" 5:54

8. "Mater The Waiter" 0:43

9. "Radiator Reunion" 1:39

10. "Cranking Up The Heat" 1:59

11. "Towkyo Takeout Score" 5:40

12. "Tarmac The Magnificent" 2:38

13. "Whose Engine Is This?" 1:22

14. "History's Biggest Loser Cars" 2:26

15. "Mater Of Disguise" 0:48

16. "Porto Corsa Score" 2:55

17. "The Lemon Pledge" 2:13

18. "Mater's Getaway" 0:59

19. "Mater Warns McQueen" 1:31

20. "Going To The Backup Plan" 2:25

21. "Mater's The Bomb" 3:16

22. "Blunder And Lightning" 2:17

23. "The Other Shoot" 1:03

24. "Axlerod Exposed" 2:21

25. "The Radiator Springs Gran Prix" 1:30

26. "The Turbomater" 0:50

Short film

Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story 3, confirmed that a short film featuring characters from the Toy Story film series would be included in the theatrical release of Cars 2. The short is titled Hawaiian Vacation and it features the characters of Barbie and Ken from Toy Story 3.

Reception

Critical response

Cars 2 has received generally mixed to negative reviews from film critics. As of June 2011, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 32% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 130 reviews, with an average score of 5.4/10. The consensus was: "Cars 2 is as visually appealing as any other Pixar production, but all that dazzle can't disguise the rusty storytelling under the hood. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 58% based on 29 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". It is the least critically acclaimed Pixar film. Considering the low reviews given to a Pixar production, critic Kyle Smith of the New York Post said, "They said it couldn't be done. But Pixar proved the yaysayers wrong when it made its first bad movie, Cars. Now it has worsted itself with the even more awful Cars 2.

Box office

Cars 2 was released in 4,115 theaters in the USA and Canada on June 24, 2011. This set a record-high for Pixar, surpassing the studios' previous widest release Toy Story 3 (4,028 theaters), and marked the widest release for a G-rated film.

Video game

A video game based on the movie was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Disney Interactive Studios for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and Nintendo DS on June 21, 2011. The Playstation 3 version of the game was reported to be compatible with stereoscopic 3D gameplay.