Movie Review: Cars 2

I love Pixar movies. I think "Wall-E" is one of the best animated movies of all time. In a column I wrote in early December last year, I named "Toy Story 3" the best film of the year. I also heaped praise on "Up" when it came out in 2009. So compared to those topnotch films, "Cars 2" falls well short of what viewers have come to expect from Pixar. Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is back as a main character, competing in a worldwide Grand Prix that sends him to Japan, Italy and England.

In a curious - and ultimately wrong - decision, Pixar storytellers bumped the silly tow truck character Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) into a lead role position. Mater was wisely used in the 2006 original film as sporadic comic relief. Here, his role is as large, if not larger, than Lightning McQueen's story, and that ultimately led to this film being so uneven.

While McQueen is competing in the Grand Prix races, Mater gets mixed up in espionage, after an undercover U.S. agent slips him a disc of valuable information. This could have worked out as a fun "James Bond" or "Mission: Impossible" story. However, the silliness of Mater's storyline feels instead made it like Steve Carrell's "Get Smart" or Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" or the cartoon "Inspector Gadget," as Mater continuously, and unintentionally, succeeds at being a spy. Mater's character becomes so silly and absurd, it will make the most patient of parents watching this film with their children roll their eyes. Children will enjoy the silliness much more than adults, which is so unusual for a Pixar film.

Also a major plot point is that all the ‘lemon cars' from over the years of bad automotive mistakes are out to get revenge on all the high-performance cars in the world. I thought some of this was poorly explained and too confusing, and I'm sure much of it went over the heads of the children in the audience.

The highlight of the film, as expected, is the wonderful Pixar graphics. Japan, Italy, Paris and England are spectacular and vivid. The race sequences through the streets of these historic locales are fun and energized.

Some people might complain that the film has too much of a political message, about the need to use green fuels, but I didn't have a problem with the similar themes in "Wall-E," so I have no qualms about the underlying messages here.

"Cars 2" earned $68 million domestically and a total of $110 million worldwide in its debut weekend, and even with mediocre-at-best reviews, it is likely going to gross $500 million worldwide. Critics at Rottentomatoes.com gave it a dismal 33 percent approval rating. Viewers liked the film a lot more than critics nationwide, with 50 percent giving it an ‘A' grade, while another 18 percent gave it a ‘B' grade, at Boxofficemojo.com. However, a full 19 percent gave it an ‘F' grade, a sign that many adults were disappointed. If I could summarize this films problem in one sentence it would be ‘Too much Mater, not enough McQueen.' I think parents will agree.