Review: 'Cars 2' Zooms In With A Full Tank!

VROOM! VROOM! VRRRROOOOOOOMMMM! Speeding in at an uncontrollable velocity following 2006’s hit, Cars 2 steers in from a different direction with the same side-swiping attitude, yet, in an interesting manner covering some of our big blue marble, while innocently tapping into one of our contemporary debates.

Star racecar ‘Lighting McQueen’ (Owen Wilson) and his best friend, the goof-ball tow truck ‘Mater’ (Larry the Cable Guy), jump-start a new adventure to exotic places stretching across our world! The duo are joined by a hometown pit crew from Radiator Springs when they head overseas to support ‘Lightning’ as he competes in the first-ever World Grand Prix, a race created to determine the world’s fastest car. But the road to the finish line is cluttered with lots of potholes, detours and bombshells when ‘Mater’ is mistakenly lumped in an intriguing escapade of his own: INTERNATIONAL ESPIONAGE!

‘Mater’ finds himself in a bind between assisting ‘Lightning McQueen’ in the high-profile race and “towing” the line in a top-secret mission planned by master Brit spy ‘Finn McMissile’ (Michael Caine) and the intriguing rookie spy ‘Holley Shiftwell’ (Emily Mortimer). ‘Mater’s’ action-packed expedition leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan, France, Italy and England, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. The fast-paced fun includes a pretty humorous cast of new cars—including boats, trains and airplanes! Topping it off with menacing villains, cartoonish corrupt-like political moves and international, cultural tones…Cars 2 zooms with a full tank!

Standout stars in this piece are Michael Caine and as much as I don’t like him, Larry the Cable Guy! Both characters are written with so much prestige that one can find common ground when indulging themselves with both ‘Mater’ and ‘Finn.’ Displaying the exact opposite when presenting their levels of intelligence, there are moments in the film which link them wonderfully, and solidifies them as the film’s backbones!

Beautifully edited, paced, written and directed, my only "Eye-Brow” raising moment was when I was able to read between the lines and realize how the core of the movie’s story lies within the debate of alternative fuels, as well as crooked and/or big business! Keeping it innocently cute and visually delicious, hidden messages pertaining to potlical and capitalist outcry among countries is something that may be way too much for children to relate to, but on the contrary, intelligently enough for adults to grasp---that is of course if they have half a brain!

Peripheral characters like ‘Francesco Bernoulli’ (John Turturro) add a bit of cultural mystic and enjoyment, as it was also awesome to see how directors sand writers paid their respects to Paul Newman by adding a scene which was quite heart-warming which entailed a conversation between ‘Lightning’ and ‘Mater’ reminiscing about ‘Doc Hudson,’ played by Newman in the first movie.

Having been followed by a cool short starring the always delightful cast of Toy Story, Cars 2 is a cute film for all ages and quite frankly…PIXAR’s next winner!

GRADE: B / GENRE: Kids/Family, Animation and Sequel

RATED: G / RUN TIME: 1 Hr. 53 Min.

STARRING: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Michael Caine

DIRECTOR(S): John Lasseter, Brad Lewis