Cars 2, Audience 0

It is with great sadness that I write that heretofore the least film in the Pixar universe, Cars, has now been supplanted by a new and decidedly more marginal film “Cars 2.”  From Blue Sky or Dreamworks Animation studio’s Cars 2 would have seemed OK, but from John Lasseter and Pixar it becomes a major disappointment.  The film is to long with a spy plot that is too complicated for most kids, and it was certainly a questionable decision to make Tow Mater the main character. 

In the middle of the film my six year old spend 5 minutes searching for a piece of candy she thought she had dropped on the floor, and while she is a very experienced movie watcher I am quite sure she had no idea what was the hell was going on.  As soon as the end credits started running she looked at me and said, “Can we go now?” – not a good sign.  Of course the movie looks great, with stunning racing visuals but it is strangely heartless.  It is almost devoid of the tremendous feeling and soulfulness that Pixar seems to be able to conjure up with ease.  It was also lacking their laser like focus on story and character.  You have nothing in Cars 2 that even approaches the poignant depth of the furnace scene near the end of “Toy Story 3”, or the elegant space ballet between Wall-E and Eve in “Wall-E”, or that amazing voice over from Peter O’Toole that serves as the story climax in “Ratatouille.”  Moreover Cars 2 is built around the friendship between Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater but it never rings as true as the one between Sully and Mike in “Monsters Inc.”

While most of us assume that Lasseter is the mastermind at Pixar one wonders if he should have brought in some of the other geniuses at Pixar for help with Cars 2 such as Andrew Stanton or Brad Bird.  In any case Cars 2 is not bad; it is gorgeous and entertaining enough but just don’t expect the sheer greatness and emotional depth we have come to expect from Pixar Studios.