Cars 2 (2011) Larry the Cable Guy, Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard Movie Review

Cars 2 (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Cars 2 (2011)

Mater the Spy

Having only just returned home from the racing circuit Lightning McQueen finds himself challenged to race by an Italian F1 car and so he and his team head across the waves for a series of races. But it is whilst competing in the first race that McQueen's best friend Mater gets unwittingly caught up in a case of international espionage involving an evil genius' plans to bring an end to new clean fuel and clean engines. But initially unaware that he has become involved Mater's accident prone ways leads to McQueen losing a race and falling out.

Movie trivia: "Cars 2" was the first Pixar film which didn't get nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film since 2001 when the category was introduced. I know why this was; "Cars 2" whilst a solid modern animation and certainly entertaining it lacked that something else which made you care, which made you forget you are watching an animation.

But as I said "Cars 2" is still an entertaining movie and that starts with Michael Caine voicing Finn McMissile, the spy car. Between's Caine's recognizable voices and a few James Bond gadgets as well as Emily Mortimer voicing his assistant Holley Shiftwell it is amusing. It is still amusing when Mater gets caught up in this whole case of international espionage which again has parts which of course draw on Bond. But for me the creativity which filled the first movie and all those little back ground details are not here which unlike with "Cars" this isn't an animation which makes you feel like you need to watch it again to see what you have missed the first time.

What this all boils down to is that "Cars 2" is certainly not a bad animated sequel and even as a grown up it had something to keep me entertained even though I was not the target audience. But for me it lacked that something extra which makes you forget you are watching an animation.


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