Film Review | Cars (2006)

Despite the lukewarm reception I gave more recent Pixar offering Cars 2, I've actually been looking forward to revisiting the original film for some time. Cars is a film that has in the past pulled me in two different directions: on one hand, it boasts one of the most impressive voice casts of any Pixar film, with cinematic heavyweights rubbing shoulders (or should that be bumpers?) with contemporary Hollywood talents; on the other, it's a film which aesthetically feels the most "kiddie" of all the studio's works, perhaps surprisingly even more so than Toy Story. It's a bipartite structure which frustratingly sat no easier with me on a fresh viewing.

Cars focuses on Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), a talented rookie racing car determined to win a lucrative sponsorship deal with fuel company Dinoco in order to elevate himself to superstardom. En route to California to compete in the final of the Piston Cup, McQueen becomes stranded in the sleepy town of Radiator Springs where he gets to know a variety of characters, including the simple-minded Mater (Larry The Cable Guy) and gruff Doc Hudson (Paul Newman).

From an artistic perspective, Cars is inferior to the studio's earlier works, never matching the beautiful scenery of Finding Nemo or striking visuals of The Incredibles. The vehicular characters lack a great deal of the warmth and heart of many of Pixar's other creations, giving the Cars universe a layer of artificiality that takes too hefty a portion of the film's near two hour running time to penetrate.

The voice cast is indeed impressive, but is utilised to varying degrees of success. Wilson's vocal chords suit Lightning McQueen just as perfectly as Hanks and Allen fit Woody and Buzz, but his performance is only perfunctory and never memorable. Newman is unsurprisingly the casting highlight as Doc Hudson; it's just a shame that the character's story arc feels both underdeveloped and somewhat clichéd. Elsewhere, Bonnie Hunt's Sally is forgettable, the talents of the likes of George Carlin and Michael Keaton are almost entirely wasted, and Larry The Cable Guy's Mater wins the prize for most irritating Pixar character ever created, grating as he does in every scene.

It's a shame that Cars is such an underwhelming experience, as nestled around two thirds into the film's running time is a segment which reveals a glimpse of the true Pixar spirit of film-making when Radiator Springs' past as a bustling stopover on Route 66 is brought to life through a charming and emotional montage. This is surely the film director John Lasseter initially set out to make: an epitaph to the pure and simple pleasures of smalltown USA, and a love story to the ever-eroding cultural heritage of a country too quick to bulldoze and tarmac over both its history and geography. It's a sequence which gives Cars a much-needed boost, far more effective than the high-octane race sequences (never nearly as exciting as you would expect them to be) that bookend the film. Somewhere along the line, Lasseter allowed the heart of his story to become overcrowded with unsophisticated artifice. Maybe that's Cars' biggest failing. Or maybe talking automobiles inhabiting their own version of our world was never more than just an okay idea in the first place.

6/10

Film Review | Cars 2 (2011)

When praising Pixar, you're spoilt for choice as to where to start. For me, one of the key things Pixar get right time after time is their ability to create characters of depth and humanity, whether those characters are people, animals, toys, monsters, or even robots. Hand in hand with this go the worlds these characters inhabit. They feel real - the characters believe in them unreservedly, and therefore so do we - and they are always pleasurable destinations to which the audience can escape. The one exception to these truths is Cars, Pixar's 2006 effort depicting a world populated by anthropomorphic automobiles. The universe presented in Cars never quite rang true or appealed in the same way as, for example, Andy's toys or the employees of Monsters Incorporated. For Cars to become only the second film in Pixar's canon to spawn a sequel in some ways therefore seems an unlikely choice; by the same token, it could allow Pixar the opportunity to flesh out the characters and ideas introduced in the first film, bringing them closer in quality to what audiences have come to expect from the studio.

Cars 2 continues the story of racing car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) who now lives in Radiator Springs with best friend Mater (Larry The Cable Guy), girlfriend Sally (Bonnie Hunt) and the other friends he made during the first film. After some goading from Formula 1 racing car Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), McQueen enters the World Grand Prix, a series of three races taking place in Japan, Italy and England. Meanwhile, secret agent Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) is working to foil a secret plot involving a new type of biofuel, in which Mater soon finds himself accidentally tangled up.

Reviewing any Pixar film is always what I classify as a "Godfather Part III" review. In the same way that the third part of Coppola's trilogy may pale in comparison to the first two but is actually pretty good in its own right, Cars 2 must be judged against both the studio's previous output as well as the wider spectrum of other films in its genre.

Taking the former point of view, Cars 2 falls very short of the benchmark Pixar have set themselves. Compare this to their most recent output and it simply doesn't stand up in any way. The script is uninspired and heavy-handed in delivering its moral messages. There are almost no traces of Pixar's trademark subtle humour that appeals to both adults and children, and the cultural references just feel tired - be prepared to see wacky Japanese advertising and Mater driving on the wrong side of the road in England. Yawn.

Any opportunity to develop the characters from the less-than-stellar first outing is squandered. Most of the returning cast are reduced to one-dimensional cameos, and big name new additions such as Caine and Eddie Izzard fail to inject any real energy into proceedings. The animation is fine, but often feels no more than functional. The CGI is at its best during the espionage-based set pieces, but things are woefully lacking elsewhere during the race sequences which feel pedestrian and really quite flat.

That said, Pixar at their worst is still quite good in comparison to a lot of the dross currently filling the children and family market. The animation may not be Pixar's best, but it's still relatively vibrant and detailed, in particular the panoramic shots of London and Italy. The story is simplistic, and the grand prix and spy mission strands never quite mesh comfortably, but the film remains fun and keeps the pace up. It's also clear that director John Lasseter is a fan of classic spy flicks, with many pleasing nods to everything from the Bond Films to Austin Powers.

But there are still one or two slip ups that can't be forgiven. Turturro's turn as the antagonistic F1 racer Bernoulli is potentially the film's most solid and entertaining performance. But, having been set up during the first two acts of the film as a credible rival to McQueen, the character is forgotten entirely during the climax; a half-hearted return during the closing scenes feels suspiciously as if Lasseter suddenly realised he'd left one of the film's key characters hanging in mid air.

Cars 2 therefore ends up as by far Pixar's weakest production to date, but still a couple of notches above the average contemporary family fare. All things considered, it's fun and will undoubtedly succeed in entertaining the younger members of the audience. Anyone looking for the humour, heart, charm, expert storytelling or breathtaking visuals of Wall-E, Up or Toy Story 3 will be sorely disappointed. It's hard to recommend Cars 2 when there are numerous five star classics in Pixar's back catalogue, as well as offerings from several other animation studios that are also superior to it. Cars 2 is by no means awful, just seriously disappointing.

5/10