CARS 2
4 out of 5 stars

“do not try the free pistachio ice cream! it done turn!” – mater

i never saw the original cars movie, but i thought i’d give cars 2 a chance because i love how pixar can give life to anything...toys, a rat who likes to cook, monsters, even cars! ;)

lightning mcqueen (voiced by owen wilson) and his BFF tow mater (voiced by larry the cable guy) are baaaaack, and the race is on in japan, italy and england! an electric car billionaire named sir axelrod is hosting the world grand prix, and an italian race car named francesco talks the talk egging on lightning to participate in the WGP. so, lightning and mater travel to tokyo, japan, where they watch sumo car wrestling, experience the streets of tokyo, and mater even gets a taste of “pistachio ice cream.” :P but when mater makes a total fool of himself at the WGP reception, he runs into a secret agent working with finn mcmissile (voiced by michael caine) and holly shiftwell (voiced by emily mortimer), part of british intelligence trying to infiltrate and gather intelligence on known villain prof. Z and his mystery accomplice, whose trying to sabotage the race. mater gets involved in international espionage, and pretty soon...he’s turned into super agent mater! :P

now, if you’re gonna critique a pixar movie, you gotta compare it to ALL the other pixar movies they’ve ever created. this one falls a little short because they are cars afterall, but still cute with a good message i.e. friends always stick together and be happy with who you are, etc. (typical disney message...we get it) my fave part though was when mater is trying to escape from the villain’s HQs, and he’s accidentally voice-activating his new “features”. HILARIOUS... i thought the voice of larry the cable guy was PERFECT for mater, and the same goes for the british intelligence agent cars. it’s nice to see personalities in each car, but i think it could have been wittier. too geared towards kids and they dumbed it down too much... like mater, i don’t think pixar/disney should underestimate the intelligence of kids these days. ;)