Cars 2
Cars 2 is a 2011 American animated spy comedy film[3] produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to Cars (2006), the second film in the Cars franchise, and the 12th animated film from the studio. The film was directed by John Lasseter (in his final outing as director of a Pixar film to date), co-directed by Brad Lewis, produced by Denise Ream, and written by Ben Queen, Lasseter, Lewis, and Dan Fogelman. In the film's ensemble voice cast, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Bonnie Hunt, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles from the first film. George Carlin, who previously voiced Fillmore, died in 2008, and his role was passed to Lloyd Sherr. They are joined by newcomers Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Eddie Izzard, and Thomas Kretschmann. In the film, Lightning McQueen and Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix which promotes a new alternative fuel called Allinol, but Mater accidentally becomes involved in international espionage that could determine both his and Lightning's fate.
This article is about the film. For the video game, see Cars 2: The Video Game.Cars 2
- John Lasseter
- Brad Lewis
- Dan Fogelman
Denise Ream
- Jeremy Lasky
- Sharon Calahan
- June 18, 2011 (Hollywood)
- June 24, 2011 (United States)
106 minutes
United States
English
$200 million[1]
$559.8 million[2]
Cars 2 was first announced in April 2008 with a tentative 2012 release date, making Cars the second Pixar film to spawn a sequel after Toy Story (1995), as well as becoming a franchise. Lasseter was confirmed to be returning as director, while Lewis was designated as co-director in June 2010. The film's story was conceived by Lasseter while he was traveling around the world promoting the first film. Michael Giacchino composed the film's score, with artists such as Weezer, Robbie Williams, Brad Paisley and Bénabar contributing tracks for the film. This was the final Pixar film animated with their old software system, Marionette, before being officially replaced with Presto in 2012. With an estimated budget of $200 million, Cars 2 is one of the most expensive films ever made.
Cars 2 premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 18, 2011, and was released in the United States on June 24, in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, Cars 2 continued Pixar's streak of box office success, grossing over $559 million worldwide, becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2011 and the highest-grossing film of the Cars trilogy. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 69th Golden Globe Awards, but lost to The Adventures of Tintin. A sequel, Cars 3, was released on June 16, 2017.
Plot
British spy Finn McMissile infiltrates an oil rig owned by criminal lemon cars to rescue fellow spy Leland Turbo. He witnesses the lemons, seemingly led by weapons designer Professor Zündapp, loading an electromagnetic pulse generator, disguised as a TV camera, onto a shipping crate. After discovering Turbo's death, Finn's presence gets exposed to the lemons but he escapes by faking his death.
After winning his fourth Piston Cup, Lightning McQueen returns to Radiator Springs to spend his off-season with his friends. Italian formula race car Francesco Bernoulli challenges Lightning to participate in the World Grand Prix, an international three-race event created by former oil tycoon Sir Miles Axlerod, who intends to promote his new environmentally friendly fuel, Allinol. Lightning and his best friend Mater — along with Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, and Sarge — depart for Tokyo, where the first race takes place.
At a World Grand Prix promotional event, Mater makes a scene after eating wasabi and seemingly leaking on stage, embarrassing Lightning. While cleaning up, Mater interrupts a fight between American spy Rod "Torque" Redline and lemons Grem and Acer. Redline plants his tracking device on Mater, causing Finn (who was supposed to meet him to receive information about the oil rig plot) and his associate Holley Shiftwell to mistake Mater for the spy. Meanwhile, Redline is captured and killed by Zündapp, who reveals that Allinol ignites when hit with an EMP. He informs his superior, an unknown mastermind, that Redline passed on his information. Holley and Finn find and recruits Mater to stop Zündapp's plot.
During the race, three racers are ignited by the camera. Lightning places second in the race after Bernoulli, due to miscommunication with Mater, who was evading Zündapp's henchmen. Mater is abducted by Finn, and they escape from the lemons in his jet, Siddeley. After traveling to Paris to gather intel from Finn's old friend Tomber, they head to Porto Corsa, Italy, where the second race takes place. During the race, Mater infiltrates the lemons' meeting, just as the camera ignites some more racers, causing a multi-car pile-up, while Lightning wins. Due to controversy over Allinol's safety, Axlerod lifts its requirement for use in the final race in London. When Lightning decides to continue using it, the lemons plan to kill him in the race. This spooks Mater, and accidentally blows his cover, causing him, Finn, and Holley to be captured and tied up inside Big Bentley, where he admits to them that he is not the spy they think he is.
When the race starts, Lightning takes the lead before passing Big Ben, but the camera was inexplicably defective on him. The lemons tell Mater that they planted a time bomb in Lightning's pits as a backup plan, spurring him to escape. Finn and Holley later escape but realise that the bomb was fitted on Mater's air filter instead. As Mater flees down the track, Lightning pursues him to apologize for his outburst, while Finn apprehends Zündapp. The other lemons arrive and outnumber Finn, Holley, Mater, and Lightning, but they are rescued by the other Radiator Springs residents and Sarge's colleagues in the British Army.
Mater and Lightning go to Buckingham Palace, where Mater exposes Axlerod as the mastermind, proven when the latter uses his voice to deactivate the bomb. It is then revealed that the World Grand Prix was Axlerod’s cover-up to turn the world against alternative fuels, and he leaked in Tokyo, for which Mater was blamed. After Axlerod and the lemons are arrested by the London police, Mater receives a knighthood from the Queen, and he and Lightning reconcile.
Back in Radiator Springs, as Mater tells everyone about his experience, Fillmore reveals that Sarge has swapped Allinol with his organic fuel, explaining the camera's ineffectiveness on Lightning. A "Radiator Springs Grand Prix" is held, featuring the World Grand Prix contenders. Finn and Holley invite Mater to go on another mission, but he decides to stay in Radiator Springs. While his weapons get confiscated, he keeps the rockets and speeds off with Lightning, just as Siddeley speeds into the distance.
The majority of the cast from the original Cars returned for the sequel, but three voice actors of the original film had died since its release. Joe Ranft (who voiced Red) died in an automobile accident on August 16, 2005, ten months before Cars (which was dedicated to his memory) was released, and therefore Red played no vocal role in the film. George Carlin (who voiced Fillmore) died of heart failure on June 22, 2008, so Fillmore was voiced by Lloyd Sherr (who also voices Tony Trihull). Paul Newman (who voiced Doc Hudson) died of cancer on September 26, 2008. After Newman's death, Lasseter said they would "see how the story goes with Doc Hudson."[4] Doc was eventually dropped,[5] and implied to have died a few years before the events of Cars 2.
In international versions of the film, the character Jeff Gorvette is replaced with race car drivers better known in the specific countries in his dialogue scenes (however, he still appears as a competitor).[8]
In Brazil, Gorvette is replaced by Carla Veloso in his dialogue scenes (Carla appears in all other versions of the film, but with no lines); Carla is voiced by Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte. Sportspeople still appear, with Lewis Hamilton becoming Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi, while Brent Mustangburger and David Hobbscap were done by sports announcers José Trajano and Luciano do Valle.[12]
Production
Development
Cars is the second Pixar film, after Toy Story, to have a sequel as well as becoming a franchise.[13] John Lasseter, the director of the film, stated that he conceived the sequel's story while traveling around the world promoting the first film. He said:
Cars 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Reception
Box office
Cars 2 grossed $191.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $370.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $562.1 million.[2] Worldwide on its opening weekend it grossed $109 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title.[42] Overall, Cars 2 became the seventh-biggest Pixar film in worldwide box office among the fourteen released, and was the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2011.[43]
Cars 2 made $25.7 million on its debut Friday (June 24, 2011), marking the second-largest opening day for a Pixar film, at the time, after Toy Story 3's $41.1 million. During this time, though, it was the third least-attended opening day for a Pixar film, only ahead of Up and Ratatouille.[44] It also scored the sixth largest opening day for an animated feature.[45] On its opening weekend as a whole, Cars 2 debuted at No.1 ahead of Green Lantern and Bad Teacher with $66.1 million,[31] marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated feature, the seventh largest opening for Pixar,[46] the eighth largest among films released in June,[47] and the fourth largest for a G-rated film.[48] In its second weekend, however, the film was overtaken by Transformers: Dark of the Moon, dropping 60.3% and grossing $26.2 million.[49]
Outside North America, it grossed $42.9 million during its first weekend from 3,129 theaters in 18 countries, topping the box office.[50] It performed especially well in Russia where it grossed $9.42 million,[51] marking the best opening weekend for a Disney or Pixar animated feature and surpassing the entire runs of Cars and Toy Story 3.[52] In Mexico, it made $8.24 million during its first weekend,[53] while in Brazil, it topped the box office with $5.19 million ($7.08 million with previews).[54] It also premiered at No.1 with $5.16 million in Australia,[55] where it debuted simultaneously with Kung Fu Panda 2 and out-grossed it.[50] It is the highest-grossing film of 2011 in Lithuania ($477,117),[56] Argentina ($12 million).[57] It is the highest-grossing animated film of 2011 in Estonia ($442,707),[58] Finland ($3.2 million),[59] Norway ($5.8 million).[60]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 40% of 220 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.50/10. The website's consensus reads: "Cars 2 is as visually appealing as any other Pixar production, but all that dazzle can't disguise the rusty storytelling under the hood."[61] It is the lowest-rated Pixar film on the site to date and the only one to earn a "rotten" certification.[62][63] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[64] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[65]
"The original Cars was not greeted with exceptional warmth," said The New York Times, "but the sequel generated Pixar's first truly negative response."[66]
Critics generally criticized the focus on Mater and felt the film lacked warmth and charm, while also feeling the film was made as an exercise in target marketing and was too violent to be given a G rating.[67][68][69][70] Reviewing the film for The Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern wrote, "This frenzied sequel seldom gets beyond mediocrity."[71] Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman said, "Cars 2 is a movie so stuffed with "fun" that it went right off the rails. What on earth was the gifted director-mogul John Lasseter thinking – that he wanted kids to come out of this movie was [sic] more ADD?"[72] Although Leonard Maltin on IndieWire claimed that he had "such high regard for Pixar and its creative team led by John Lasseter" he said he found the plot "confusing" and felt that Mater's voice was annoying, saying that he'd "rather listen to chalk on a blackboard than spend nearly two hours with Tow Mater."[73]
Conversely, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 3½ stars out of four, and said that "the sequel is a tire-burning burst of action and fun with a beating heart under its hood." He also praised its "fluid script" and called it a "winner".[74] Roger Ebert was the most effusive of the more positive reviews, praising Lasseter's channeling of childhood playtime for the film's spirit and writing, "At a time when some 'grown-up' action films are relentlessly shallow and stupid, here is a movie with such complexity that even the cars sometimes have to pause and explain it to themselves."[75] Justin Chang of Variety commented, "The rare sequel that not only improves on but retroactively justifies its predecessor."[76] Ticket buyers also gave the film an A− in exit polls, on par with other Pixar titles.[66]
A central vein of many negative reviews was the theory that the Walt Disney Company forced Cars 2 into production at Pixar out of greed in order to drive merchandising sales.[71][77] Lasseter vehemently denied these claims, which he attributed to "people who don't know the facts, rushing to judge."[66] Some theorized that the vitriol was less about the film but more about Pixar's broadened focus to sequels. The New York Times reported that although one negatively reviewed film would not be enough to scratch the studio, "the commentary did dent morale at the studio, which until then had enjoyed an unbroken and perhaps unprecedented run of critical acclaim."[66]
Accolades
Cars 2 marks the first Pixar film not to be nominated for an Oscar.[78] It is also the first Pixar film not nominated for Best Animated Feature since its introduction in 2001.[79]