It was bound to happen. No one can keep a winning streak like that going forever. A 25-year perfect game isn’t exactly shabby. In fact, it just might be unprecedented. There is no other creative entity in Hollywood with as unblemished and sterling a record as Pixar. This makes the stumble that is Cars 2 both instantly forgivable and doubly lamentable.

Exchanging the austere beauty of the American Southwest for the exotic glamour of Europe, racecar Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and his best friend, the hillbilly tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix, a race to determine the fastest car in the world. However, things go awry when Mater is mistaken for an American secret agent by British intelligence operatives Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer), and plunged into a perilous case of international espionage.

There is no criticizing Pixar’s artistry. Cars 2 is arguably the best-looking Pixar film to date. Only Finding Nemo comes close with its vibrant cornucopia of colors and textures. Cars 2 looks as if Pixar’s special effects wizards melted down a box of Crayola crayons and then covered it with a highly reflective varnish.

While Cars 2 plays as a delightful homage to Sean Connery-era James Bond films and wonderfully captures the feel and tone of the countries in which it is staged (Japan, Italy and England), it makes the egregious error of elevating the character of Mater to the lead and turning McQueen into something between a supporting character and a cameo. Larry the Cable Guy is great in small doses, but there’s a reason the films he’s headlined in the past are not exactly comic masterpieces. Many may regret that we are given only a cursory peek at the familiar setting and friends enjoyed in the first film. Others may take issue with the film’s (admittedly cartoon) violence, in which more than one character is killed.

It’s not that Cars 2 isn’t enjoyable. It is. But that’s about all it is. And frankly, that’s not enough. It might be, were this a Dreamworks production, but it’s not. This is Pixar and, like it or not, they are victims of their own runaway success. The fun factor is not so much beside the point as it is only one element of it. For the last three decades, Pixar films have always had something bigger to say. About the best Cars 2 can muster is: love your friends for who they are and don’t try to change them. A nice sentiment, to be sure, but hardly a philosophical tsunami. What’s more, this sequel seems to be at odds with the lessons of the first film, not simply forgetting its moral to slow down and drink in the wondrous simplicities of life, but running right over it without so much as a glance in the rearview mirror to make sure the victim is ok.

“There was nothing overtly wrong with the original Cars,” a friend recently said to me. “You’d be hard pressed to point to any specific flaw. It always just seemed…pleasantly derivative. As such, it was not fertile ground from which to grow a sequel.” He’s right. The film isn’t particularly clever or original (and the ending is much too convoluted for kids). It’s not that Cars 2 is bad—it’s just ordinary, and Pixar has never made ordinary.

© Copyright 2011 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.

Directed by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis
Starring: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Eddie Izzard, John Turturro, Brent Musburger, Joe Mantegna, Thomas Krestchmann, Peter Jacobson, Bonnie Hunt, Darrell Waltrip, Franco Nero, David Hobbs, Patrick Walker, Tony Shalhoub, Jeff Garlin, Michel Michelis, Jason Isaacs, Lloyd Sherr, Bruce Campbell, Jenifer Lewis, Vanessa Redgrave, Cheech Marin, Richard Kind, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger, Jeff Gordon, Paul Dooley, Edie McClurg
G
Running Time: 106 minutes