DVD review: “Cars 2″ Blu-ray + DVD
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
“Cars 2” Blu-ray + DVD
The animation whizzes at Pixar crowd “Cars 2” with too many colorful characters, exotic locales and madcap plotlines for the sequel to run smoothly.
But the gearheads, racing fans and little boys who made 2006’s “Cars” a huge hit and a merchandising champion will likely consider the follow-up a high-octane winner.
Well-known car buff John Lassetter, now the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, returns to the director’s seat for “Cars.” But his return trip to the world of anthropomorphic automobiles, based on Ben Queen’s stuck-in-overdrive screenplay, isn’t a simple story about an ambitious racer learning to slow down.
The sequel opens with a fun homage to James Bond, as British super spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) snoops around a deep-sea oil rig on a secret mission. The evil Professor Z (Thomas Kretschmann) is up to no good, but Finn is confronted by the villain’s pack of henchmen before he can figure out who is the bad professor’s latest employer.
In the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs, low-beam tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) is eagerly awaiting the return of his best pal, racer Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), who has been busy winning the Piston Cup. McQueen has been looking forward to a quiet summer at home but soon ends up accepting obnoxious Formula 1 car Francesco Bernoulli’s (John Turturro) insulting challenge to race in the inaugural World Grand Prix.
Sir Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard), a pricey SUV who has turned electric, is planning the race through Tokyo, Paris and the fictional Italian town of Porto Corsa to tout his new alternative fuel Allinol. But McQueen’s girlfriend Sally (Bonnie Hunt) views it as a chance for the Piston Cup champ to take his small-town BFF on the road with him.
Their friendship hits a huge pothole when Mater’s usual small-town rube routine embarrasses McQueen in front of his souped-up friends. While McQueen is trying to save face, Mater gets mixed up in the mission Finn and his rookie partner Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) have mounted to stop Professor Z and his army of lemon cars, who want to make Allinol crash and burn.
Pixar fans expecting the hefty themes and nuanced storytelling of “WALL-E,” “Up” or even the “Toy Story” films will consider “Cars 2” a car wreck, and the shifting of the story’s focus from McQueen to Mater will annoy those with a low tolerance for Larry the Cable Guy’s corn-pone humor.
But the little boys who beg for Lightning McQueen-theme shoes, T-shirts and toys will love taking another zippy ride with “Cars 2.”
Bonus features: Director’s commentary, the “Toy Story” short film “Hawaiian Vacation” and the “Cars” short “Air Mater.”
— BAM
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