Cars 2: Critic Reviews

The animation is superb, but the length and sledgehammer delivery takes Cars 2 down to second gear.

At least Cars 2 looks as expertly sleek and sturdy as audiences have come to expect from the standard-setting animation company, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Mater is dumb, excitable and puppy-dog loyal, his idiot-savant automotive expertise grounded in humble, blue-collar simplicity. I doubt anyone will protest much, but Pixar has now found its redneck Jar-Jar Binks. Such a proud moment.

Not much engine-power here.

Cars 2 demonstrates that not every hit movie merits a sequel.

As lovable as Mater is, let's face it: A little bit of Larry the Cable Guy goes a long way.

The original movie has been debugged and rethought. It's funnier and sharper.

Notwithstanding John Turturro's amusingly smug Italian F1 speedster and a few lighthearted jabs at Japanese TV and technology, Cars 2 generally remains stuck in neutral.

Lasseter and his team's pitch-perfect way with genre cliches revs up the espionage subplot.

The law of averages has finally caught up with the most remarkable studio in modern movie history, the dream factory that lived up to Buzz Lightyear's joyous cry of "To infinity and beyond." This frenzied sequel seldom gets beyond mediocrity.

We've come to expect perfection from Pixar, mostly because Pixar expects perfection from itself.

Larry the Cable Guy has helped make Mater one of Pixar's sweetest creations. He just happens to reside in the studio's least-magical franchise.

A light summer feast for the senses that will have the whole family vrooming, for sure.

At a time when some "grown-up" action films are relentlessly shallow and stupid, here is a movie with such complexity that even the cars sometimes have to pause and explain it to themselves.

Despite its technical and design finesse, this ranks as Pixar's weakest project to date, as well as the first from the animation powerhouse that can be described as craven.

Despite the bucktoothed charm of the truck named Mater and a plot that pays lip service to alternative fuels, the John Lasseter-directed animation does not turn the lemon into lemonade.

With "Cars 2," Pixar goes somewhere new: the ditch.

Not that Cars 2 is an actively bad animated film. It's just sort of an average animated film.

It's sometimes funny, often silly but never really transcendent, though the same could probably be said of the original, as well.

The rare sequel that improves on its predecessor, this lightning-paced caper-comedy shifts the franchise into high gear with international intrigue, spy-movie spoofery and more automotive puns than you can shake a stickshift at.

They said it couldn't be done. But Pixar proved the yaysayers wrong when it made its first bad movie, "Cars." Now it has worsted itself with the even more awful "Cars 2."

Yes, "Cars 2″ is better than "Cars."

The constantly shifting scenery and the over-reliance on Mater's idiocy combine to produce a fatigue not common to better Pixar efforts.

It's a worthwhile diversion... but let's hope that Lasseter and friends soon return to the emotional ambition that has made Pixar such a reliable brand to date.

Unlike most Pixar fare, this isn't a movie you can imagine many adults wanting to see without their children in tow.