For as illustrious and ground-breaking as
Pixar’s legacy has been, the Cars franchise will likely always serve as the
black sheep of the company paddock. Brought into existence by Pixar head honcho
John Lasseter, Cars operates far more as a toy-centric marketing vehicle (heh)
than as strict narrative. The first film is just okay; plenty annoying and
rather plainly written compared to its contemporaries, but it’s at least
serviceable for kids.
The sequel, however, is a bit more complicated. I say
that because it is both leagues better and leagues worse than the original.
Better, in that its Michael Caine-starring spy plot is visually inventive and
quite engaging; worse, because it took the most annoying supporting character
from the original (Tow “I will never forgive these people for this shit” Mater)
and made him the lead, boosting the Southern hick annoyance levels tremendously
in the process. Still, for as inconsistent as it is, I still like it just a
little bit more overall.
So, a little over a decade since the original careened
into cinemas, we have a threequel to deal with. Normally, I’d be rather worried
about where this is going but, as I’ll get into, this film is in pretty safe
hands.
