So I don’t want to ruin it for you, but this movie is about cars. And get this: they talk! If you’re unfamiliar with the Cars franchise, this is Pixar’s sequel to the massively creative world comprised entirely of talking vehicles centered around a super fast race car named Lightning McQueen and his tow truck best friend Mater. While the last movie took us to their home of Radiator Falls, Cars 2 takes us all around the globe! The innovators behind this automotive world are incredibly clever converting everyday objects and ideas into vehicular alternatives but they weren’t as creative with the actual story. Visually, this is Pixar’s best work. If you think they can’t make computer generated animation even better, you’re wrong. However, if you think they can’t take the characters of Cars and make another strong story, you’re right.
Cars 2 starts off with an amazing car chase which brings you right into the spy world with new character Finn McMissile. The chase is as cool as the voice behind the car: Michael Caine. Back in Radiator Falls, our hero from the last movie, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), is returning from another victorious win and ready from some R&R with his best friend Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). Mater steals the show from the very beginning and that’s ok because this movie centers all around him this time. Basically our idiotic friend is mistaken for a world-class agent ala “Accidental Spy.” Lightning McQueen’s relaxing trip is cut short as he’s challenged to enter Allinol’s alternative fuel World Grand Prix by a familiar foe: Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro) aka Mr. San Francisco. The Grand Prix spans three countries and is the backdrop for my favorite part of the film.
From Tokyo, Japan to London, England and Porto Corsa, Italy...Cars 2 takes you around the world!
I love when movies take audiences around the world and expose them to different cultures. Cars 2 does this amazingly through their wonderful interpretations in the metaphorical car world. For instance, when McQueen’s team travels to Tokyo, Japan, you get to see the bright billboard lights, Geisha cars, Sumo cars and a ridiculously high-tech bathroom! They even have those weird vending machines that Japan is famous for where some cars can purchase new tires right on the street. In Paris, you see all of the street peddlers and insane traffic on the Champs Elysees around the Arc de Triomphe. You get to experience a small town celebration in Italy with Guido (Guido Quaroni) and Luigi (Tony Shalhoub)’s family. This is a great way for kids to see the world with new eyes…especially through Mater, a “very” American character as their tour guide.
The whole gang gearing up to board the plane...for cars.
The movie itself is very basic and uninspired. There are too many new characters and distractions taking away from an actual strong and impacting story that we’re used to seeing from Pixar. There’s not much heart in this one…it’s a blatant summer blockbuster filled with eye candy. You could hear many kids in the audience getting bored in the middle of the movie as it goes too deep into the whole spy theme. There were still plenty of funny and entertaining parts, but Pixar failed to bring you deep into the character emotions and the world that they painstakingly built. Even the moral of this one is laid out for us from beginning to end with no thought or interpretation needed: Be Yourself. I wish Pixar was themselves and put the story first above everything else. They did include a great concept of “Go and get more dents” which I really enjoyed and hope people empathize with.
Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) in Cars 2
Thankfully the movie picks up again near the end for a great climatic finish. It’s so good that kids are going to forget the rest of the movie that they just saw and leave the theater in glee. If you liked Mater in the first film, you’re going to love him in this one. The script is smart in the way that they make him so dumb. It’s hilarious watching Mater interact with all the different types of cultures and how he understands so little but still figures out so much. There’s a great push for alternative fuel and energy which I wish Pixar did more with as it could have been a continuation of their social commentary from Wall-E teaching our younger generations that we need to change but they washed over that theme with the hippie car. All in all (get it, Allinol?), Cars 2 is an amazing visual feat and fun watch for kids but doesn’t have the deep story or concepts backing it up to entertain the adults too. The beginning and end go fast but there were a few pit stops in the middle of the movie that throw up some caution flags. I wouldn’t say Cars 2 is a lemon, but it’s definitely not a pristine race car either.
Disney started their showcase with a first look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time starring Jake Gyllenhaal, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Mike Newell…all three were in attendance to talk about the movie. Prince of Persia is based on the popular video game of the same name. It follows the adventures of a prince who stumbles upon a mythical object which can affect time itself. He teams up with the princess of his rivals to stop a sandstorm which would end of the world. From what they showed and said, it’s definitely an action-packed summer blockbuster but Jerry kept highlighting the points that it would have lots of comedy and romance. Pretty much, it’s trying to have mass appeal and target the largest market possible. It was filmed in Morocco where it was said to be over a hundred degrees every day. Additionally, they sent teams around the world to take authentic pictures and bring back the images to build unique sets. But even with that backdrop, a lot of the movie will be computer generated. The footage they showed looked very common and bland. Granted, it’s still early and the scenes weren’t polished up yet. However, the time travel affects with the sand looked awesome as well as the scenes with snakes…they did some really cool things there. It’s reminiscent of the director, Mike Newell’s work in Harry Potter, very magical. You can expect a lot of free running/parkour type stuff from Jake who literally runs up walls.
Jerry Bruckheimer stayed in his seat as the panels changed because he was presenting his 2nd upcoming film with Disney, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel and is directed by Jon Turteltaub. Set in modern-day, a college student in New York City finds himself in a magical battle between good and evil. He is destined to become a great and powerful sorcerer trained by an old wizard by the name of Balthazar. On the plot, Jon Turteltaub commented on how fundamental this plot is to Disney and that it originated from a segment in Fantasia. He comically said that obviously they’re not doing a cartoon for two hours of a mop (even though the iconic sequence of the mop is in the film). To me, the footage looked amazing. This is going to be a homerun for Disney and regain them some lost fans while gaining them a lot of new ones from the younger generation who has no idea what Fantasia is and would definitely not sit through it today. You can tell it’s still geared towards kids, but it looks really funny and entertaining…kind of a Harry Potter like feel. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice looks at magic a different way than Harry Potter though. Turteltaub said he wanted to create a very realistic and modern weird feeling as if you were in this world with the characters on the screen and then the magic would enter all of our lives.
Finally, Disney’s last film showcased was a continuation of a little known franchise from Disney Pixar called Toy Story 3. The third film in this series follows the characters as they are abandoned in a day care while their owner, Andy, goes away to college. At first, to all of the toys except Woody, it looks like a paradise but kids love new toys…The director, Lee Unkrich, said that it took two days in a cabin to come up with the story but over two and half years of storyboarding and fine tuning. He felt the pressure of taking this huge franchise and creating a third feature length film every day of the process of making it but it doesn’t look like he failed…every time a new character was shown to the audience, there was a collective “awww.” There’s no doubt in my mind that this film will resonate with the new generation of kids and that the old fans will flock back to see the new instalment. When an audience member asked Jeff Garlin about improvising in the movie he said that when the script is good, he doesn’t like to improvise. He likes to improvise in order to help a movie out but with Wall-E and Toy Story 3, he felt that the scripts were great so that should give you an idea of how good this one is going to be.
WonderCon is one of the country’s best comics conventions featuring guests and events for comics, movies, video games, and other popular media. This year, WonderCon had presentations by such Hollywood studios as Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, and Lionsgate.
