Film review: Pixar's Cars 2

SORRY Pixar, but your assembly line is showing.

hit cars 2

SORRY Pixar, but your assembly line is showing.

As a long-time fan of Pixar Studios, it really pains me to say this: Cars 2 is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst thing the computer animation powerhouse has put its name to.

Pixar has set such high standards over the years, with modern-day classics such as Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Up and the Toy Story trilogy.

So to see Pixar run with the cartooning-by-numbers pack for Cars 2, rather than blaze a trail far ahead, comes as a rank disappointment.

Sure, the film looks great. But Pixar could set a movie in a garbage dump and still dazzle the eyeballs.

No, the thing about Cars 2 is that it all feels so desperately rushed. There's no real chance of connecting with the viewer when everything is whizzing by in a storytelling blur.

A wafer-thin plot sees champion racer Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) seeking some quality time back in his home garage at Radiator Springs after again winning the Piston Cup.

But his break is swiftly interrupted when alternative-fuel tycoon Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard) announces his sponsor-ship of a lucrative new event.

In a matter of days, Lightning is revving his engine all over the globe in a bid to win the inaugural World Grand Prix.

While the hero is in battle out on the track with his biggest rival, the snooty Italian speedster Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro), the principal focus of the movie shifts to Lightning's loyal offsider, Mater (Larry the Cable Guy).

Portrayed as a dumb hick prone to spouting corny jokes, this rust-bucket tow truck is way too annoying to carry the lion's share of Cars 2. Like Goofy in the Disney cartoons of old, Mater is a secondary character best taken in small doses.

Mater's unwitting involvement with international spies Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell (Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer) does allow Pixar to flex some of its famous visual muscle, shown off to impressive effect in 3-D.

In particular, the hyper-vibrant style in which Cars 2 has been lit should be taken note of by all in the 3-D business. Too often, the dimming effect of 3-D glasses covers the best-looking imagery in a blanket of faint murk.

Not so Cars 2. The colours used here pop off the screen.

But it just cannot be denied that too much of the movie putters along on autopilot. Especially when compared with the funny and lively new Toy Story short Hawaiian Vacation screening before it.

This is not to say Cars 2 is ever decidedly awful (though the sequence where Mater is seen rinsing his rear suspension in a Japanese toilet comes mighty close).

Rather, it is just deceptively average. More of an excuse to seduce shoppers (the original Cars has generated a whopping $10 billion in merchandise sales worldwide) than wow audiences.

VISIT disney.com/cars

Cars 2 (PG)
Directors: John Lasseter (Cars)
Starring: the voices of Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro.
Star rating: * * 1/2