A ‘Mater’ Of Perspective
Death. Taxes. Pixar movies.
Three things that are a given in life. And the Pixar streak of excellence continues.
Your reaction to Cars 2 will depend on how much you liked the first one. If you are a car nut and thought the first Cars was the cat’s tiger paws then this one will supercharge your response. For the rest of the us, Cars 2 is another fun Pixar romp that amps up the action and plays on a bigger, albeit shallower, story canvas.
I remember watching the first Cars and marveling at the beauty of the movie that Pixar was able to achieve with the continual technical progression available to them with their latest release. Cars 2 continues that image evolution. In Cars the majority of the story took place in Radiator Springs, an isolated little town, out in the middle of nowhere with a minimalistic landscape of rock. Cars 2 goes Amazing Race and has action taking place in several world locales of differing urban landscapes courtesy of a World Race. A race that is promoting a renewable energy source against which the crown for the world’s fastest car will be presented. Of the three locales the race circuit takes place on, the one in the Monaco like environment is just breath taking. Not just the circuit, but the surrounding city with its mix of marinas, curving roadways, and rolling hills of mansions, hotels, and gorgeous cityscapes are jaw droppingly beautiful to look at. Add in the 3D, which is totally unnecessary, but it does add appreciable depth to the amazing images. Thankfully Pixar handles the 3D in a realistic, restrained tone.
The big surprise is the focus of this movie. Or maybe not. Lightning McQueen(Owen Wilson) may be the titular star of the Car franchise but his best friend, the beat up and socially unaware tow truck, Mater(Larry the Cable Guy), is the more popular one. So Mater gets the main focus in this movie. The plot for Cars 2 recycles a surprising amount of the same themes of the first movie having to do with friendship, self awareness, and falling into the trap of judging someone by their external appearance alone. While Lightning McQueen butts er bumpers with F1 Racing Car Star, Francesco Bernoulli, voiced wonderfully by John Turturro, Mater is accidentally drawn into the world of international espionage teaming up with British agent – Finn McMissile, the smooth spy voiced by Michael Caine.
Infusing the spy story with a Clouseau like element where Mater is – so bad that he must be good motif – the usually solid storytelling of Pixar creaks a tad under the implausibilities necessary to make the story work. Few will care, but I note it, because Pixar has such a stellar, storytelling reputation. The spy elements, and Mater’s clumsiness, play well off one another and are used to generate a large part of the action and humor moments. The amount of spy gadgetry on display is staggering and the nods to the Bond films, along with another fun opportunity for composer Michael Giacchino to punch out some more Bond type music – Incredibles being his earlier opportunity to do so – make for many a rousing action set piece. Maybe, one or two, too many perhaps? It is also enjoyable to see the world in which Cars takes place fleshed out more as we are shown how a world; in which anthromorphized cars, planes, trains, and boats; is structured.
Not being a gearhead like Pixar genius, John Lasseter, the first Cars movie ranks near the bottom of my list of Pixar films. This one can be parked right along side it. The emotional connections to Pixar characters that exist in the other movies never happen in the Cars movies for me. If they do for you then obviously you will get way more mileage out of these films than I.
Another stellar technical achievement for Pixar but for the first time a Pixar film with a less engaging story than the original. Goes to prove, Pixar is human after all. But a good Pixar movie stills laps the competition many times over.
There is an animated short before the film, as is the Pixar tradition, and it is a winning, warm start up to the feature. I am foregoing details here but everyone will be happy for a quick visit with some old Pixar friends.
