Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2011

Lightning McQueen (voice by Owen Wilson) takes a back seat to his hick tow truck pal Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) in this frenetic, kid-oriented sequel that takes the pair to Japan, Italy and England (ka-ching!) for the “World Grand Prix.” McQueen’s main rival is the arrogant Italian F1 racer Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro, all stops pulled). In fact, it seems that Lightning is mainly kept around this time to help deliver the film’s central message about friendship over self-promotion, etc., etc. Then there’s this twisty cloak-and-dagger subplot involving British spies Finn McMissile (Michael Caine nicely voicing a vintage Aston Martin) and Holly Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) that’s going to lose a lot of kids and not a few adults. This is a fine film for a family play-date, but it feels a bit forced and lacks the charm and the emotional punch of the original. I have, somewhat characteristically, concentrated here on the disappointments. It’s Pixar’s least impressive film to date (dare I say “ordinary”?), but the bar over there is pretty high, and even a sub-par Pixar flick is still worth seeing solely for the superb visuals and the astounding attention to detail.