By: debbie lynn elias
Let’s just cut to the case. CARS 2 is the Best Picture of the year! It races across the finish line fenders and bumpers above the crowd. John Lasseter and his team have elevated filmmaking to new levels of excellence. From story to production design to meticulous factual research to music to animation to voicing to innovative and creative action adventure, CARS 2 revs its engines with all cylinders firing while retaining and celebrating one of the hallmarks of a Pixar-Disney film – heart.
CARS 2 avoids the pitfalls that often plague sequels; that rehashing of the same story, relying on and repeating the same aspects of the original film that “worked”, staying safe and never venturing into new territory. While retaining the original beloved characters and the premise of a world made of cars, Lasseter and team venture into new territory by shifting gears and focusing not on celebrated hero, Lightning McQueen, but his best friend Tow Mater, and than take the adventures far from the comfort of the confined atmosphere of Radiator Springs out into the world, starting with Tokyo and onto Europe, complete with not only new cars, but a world filled with boats, planes, trains, Caterpillar equipment and the like. The world is a mecca of various mechanized forms of transport and equipment. CARS 2 is so well tuned that it is truly a stand alone film.
After a long tour of the world himself, Lightning has come home to Radiator Springs to rest, relax and reconnect with his friends and no one could be more excited about his return than his best friend Mater. But no sooner does Lightning return than Mater notices differences. Lightning doesn’t want to spend all of his time with Mater but instead wants to wine and dine his best gal Sally, whom he has yet to finally take on a first date. Undeterred by this slighting, Mater does his best to insinuate himself into Lightning’s activities, particularly when the trash talking Italian Formula One racer Francesco Bernoulli challenges Lightning to the World Grand Prix being sponsored by industrialist Miles Axelrod as a way of introducing the world to his new alternative fuel. Initially wanting no part of the race, things quickly change when Mater’s undying loyalty to Lightning gets the ball rolling and his spark plugs fired up. It’s not long before Lightning and his pit crew – including Mater – are winging their way to the Orient for the first leg of the race.
Meanwhile, across the Pond, other activities have been going on – other spy activities. British super spy McMissile, Finn McMissile, together with his technical assistant, Holly Shiftwell, have been investigating super secret activities involving the evil Professor Z whom they have learned is out to sabotage the Grand Prix! With a super-charged high octane opening chase, McMissile and Shiftwell soon find their trail leading them to the World Grand Prix and Tokyo where they are led to none other than Mater, whom they believe to be their super secret American agent contact.
An unwitting addition to McMissile’s spy team, Mater soon finds himself embroiled in global intrigue and adventure while not so quietly disrupting Lightning’s chances for victory and in the process, ruining their friendship. Moving from Tokyo to the fictional town of Porto Corsa, Italy (think Portafino and Monaco combined), a fly over in Paris and on to London and an audience with the Queen no less, action and adventure are non-stop as fish out of water Mater makes his way in the world.
Will Lightning win the race? Can Mater help save the world? What is Professor Z’s evil plot and who is behind him? What the heck are all those “lemons” doing amassing at the race locations? And above all, can Lightning and Mater remain friends?
Returning as Lightning McQueen is Owen Wilson who gives Lightning his patented charm and exuberance. Larry the Cable Guy also returns as everyone’s favorite tow truck Mater. Now front and center, as Mater, Larry gives us a complete pallette of emotion and excitement that enhances the solid character arc written for Mater. Vocal chameleon John Turturro easily voices Lightning’s rival Francesco Bernoulli. And even Vanessa Redgrave gets into the act as the Queen of England. Bonnie Hunt reprises the sweetness and practicality of Sally and even Brent Musburger joins in, voicing racing commentator Brent Mustangburger. Musberger is hysterical!
But the big voice casting coup comes with two outstanding new additions to CARS 2 – the characters of Finn McMissle and Holly Shiftwell. With almost equal screen time with Mater, Pixar called on Caine, Sir Michael Caine, for the James Bond-like McMissile, and fellow Brit, Emily Mortimer for McMissile’s right “tire”, Shiftwell. And I have to say, I can’t even imagine one of the greatest Bond’s of all time, Sean Connery, bringing to CARS 2 and McMissile what Caine brings. Excited over being a character called Finn Mc Missile thinks “that’s an incredible name. It’s lovely. It makes me sound as though I’m dangerous or sounds dangerous. I’m a 1966 Aston Martin, pale blue, which I think, is very,very cool. I’ve always played cool spies and so this is absolutely marvelous. I love my car. I thought I was the most brilliant car you’ve ever seen. Also, I do stuff that no other car can do.” Of course Caine’s real reason for wanting to be Finn McMissile is beyond being a cool spy car. “I’ve got 3 grandchildren…I wanted them to see me. They know my voice. [Pixar] gave me a car with my voice, a little model car. My grandchildren play with it and they know it’s me.”
For Emily Mortimer, joining CARS 2 was like a dream come true and particularly since she got to reteam with her “Harry Brown” costar, Sir Michael Caine. “I had shot Harry Brown before this, so I would’ve felt slightly gypped…if I was in a film with Michael Caine and didn’t get to actually be in a scene with him. But I had already had that experience of sitting on a set looking into Michael Caine’s eyes, thinking, ‘Holy ***k. This is so rad.’ … He’s just perfect casting in that role [Finn McMissile], and he’s making me think what a brilliant James Bond he would’ve been, actually. That was the amazing thing about being on a set with him and doing an actual scene with him, was that voice…it’s just so resonant and evocative of all those iconic movies that he’s done, and you just can’t believe you’re hearing it. And it’s just so easy in your head to put that into that character in the recording booth while you’re saying your lines. It’s just so easy to conjure up that voice somehow in your head.”
Also impressive for Mortimer was “the level of detail and precision about how they go into the research that they do for these; it’s staggering. [The animators] are more familiar with you than probably your husband is. They’ve seen every frame of celluloid that you have ever been in. And [my animator] was reeling off scenes from films I’d forgotten I’d been in.”
Written by Ben Queen based on a story by Lasseter, Brad Lewis and Pixar newcomer Dan Fogelman, the story is not just one note. It’s humorous and clever in its design, structure and characterization. The story is cohesive, fast paced, intelligent and fun with characters and storylines fully realized and constructed in such a fashion so as to appeal to children and adults. There are environmental issues addressed, the spy movie conceptualization which is the foundation of the adventure, friendship and global travel. According to Lasseter, the story has three main components. “The Formula One race was the one inspiration. It inspires the type of racing that’s in this one. In travelling around and doing the press after CARS…I thought I’d really like to take the characters around the world. That was number two. Number three, the spy story comes from my passion for spy movies ever since I was a little kid. I was born in 1957 and I was a perfect age during the 60’s when ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ was on tv.” Opining further, “looking at this international racing and travelling around the world is a natural thing for spy movies. It’s all kind of fit together. But I didn’t want to do a parody of a spy movie.”
“When I started the film I wanted to have a very opposite feeling of [CARS]. The original had that nice, slow, Route 66, the journey in life is the reward kind of feel. This is very fast paced and it was on purpose to have that kind of energy to it.” Also important to Lasseter is his love of spy movies where “the bad guy is really good” – another element incorporated into CARS 2. Going back to the history of the automotive industry, “we came up with the idea of the bad guy and the minions to be the lemon cars of the world.”
As for the environmental aspect of CARS 2, Lasseter looked no further than Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim and “An Inconvenient Truth.” “There has been a dialogue out there of big oil, fossil fuels versus alternative fuels. I thought this could be kind of interesting. It made sense. It’s just trying to make the bad guys logical.”
But above all, “Every Pixar movie has the heart to it and that’s something I would ever make a movie without. It’s so important to us. The heart of the film is what the main character learns and the emotional journey that he or she goes on. That’s when we elevated Mater to a co-protagonist. It’s more between the two main characters and their friendship. What grew out of this was that spy movies and this type of racing, they are all wrapped in this really glitzy glamorous world. McQueen can fit in these worlds fine but Mater stand out like a fish out of water. Mater is Mater wherever he goes. This really works in an interesting reverse way.”
Starting off with a “very big spy sequence” that sets up the main plot and two sub-plots, the opening is the opposite of what you would expect. The first thing that Lasseter wanted to show was a boat in the open sea. Fresh and inventive, there’s not one thing from CARS on screen. You are transported into a brand new world and then Finn McMissile explodes on screen in very cool fashion.
Described by Lasseter as “vast”, “epic” and the “biggest Pixar movie ever made”, “CARS 2 was really fun for us, we’re such car geeks.” When it came to picking locations for the World Grand Prix, “We picked those countries [Japan, Italy, England and France] because they have strong automotive heritage. We went through each of countries and picked what we think are the definitive cars from the automotive histories and then went to the car companies and got clearance to be able to put those in the movie as characters. Very specific cars that are only found in particular countries so we could populate the streets with those kind of cars. With that level of detail that we really went to town on with this movie. I tried to get all the car companies represented. I wanted it to be a world of cars.”
As Production Designer, the incomparable Harley Jessup faced many new challenges with CARS 2, not the least of which was “somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 different models [of cars]” which then extended to out to 900+ different cars thanks to the ability to do minor modifications with paint and trim once specific models were designed. Important to CARS 2 is the blend of “real cars as well as intermix with cars that we made up” as “it simply makes the world feel more believable.” For Lasseter, “It’s just kinda cool to do that. And we want to get the details right.” Adding to the global elements are meticulously detailed “sets” and “backgrounds” specific to each country and city, going so far as to make sure that individual signage in different languages is correct in terms of meaning and writing. And then toss in the spy gadgetry – none of which is more fun and cool looking than that outfitted on McMissile AND MATER! Mater with a Gatling gun and retro rockets! WOW!
Animation is, of course, beyond reproach. Each car and country are color and design specific, making them individualized, identifiable and stylized with beautiful lines and colors. And the scenic backgrounds of each country – stunningly realized with impeccable detail and authenticity. I must say though, from a design and animation standpoint, I have two personal favorites, lone of which I know will score big with my nephews, as well as most kids out there – the Tokyo car bathroom and the tiara on the Queen of England, both of which are authentic designs and beyond reproach.
Calling on the sound department, important to Lasseter was “really getting the sound of Lightning McQueen which is this throaty deep kind of V8 American sound. Whereas then you get that really high revving, high pitched Formula One sound in there. But again, going back to the authenticity and trying to do everything right. If there is a particular car that we want to put in the movie, we will find a real working car of that and record the sound from that car. Then we know the cars we’ve made up are similar to this kind of car and roughly this kind of year, and we’ll record that car. The sounds are very specific. The sounds are very different, especially in the racing scenes.”
Beyond the technical elements of CARS 2, Michael Caine has nothing but the highest compliments for John Lasseter. Describing him as “a fabulous director” who’s “very good with actors because the relationship when you do this kind of film with a director is far more intimate than it is with a director on a normal movie. [Lasseter] is probably the best at this thing.” It’s this type of care and heart that translates over to the film itself.
Many CARS fans may be asking what becomes of Doc Hudson, voiced by the late Paul Newman. Not to worry. A man “very special” to Lasseter, Newman was “so proud of that character. He loved being that character” and there was no way Doc wouldn’t be included in the film. So Lasseter inserts a sequence that “is kind of my personal homage to Paul Newman. It sort of explains what happened [to Doc]” without dwelling upon it. It flows with the story and as it did to me, bring a tear to your eye and a lump in your throat.
And for that little bit of extra lubricant, a magical, energetic score by my fave, Michael Giacchino.
Start your engines! You’re in for the adventure of your life with CARS 2.
Lightning McQueen – Owen Wilson
Tow Mater – Larry the Cable Guy
Finn McMissile – Sir Michael Caine
Holly Shiftwell – Emily Mortimer
Miles Axelrod – Eddie Izzard
Directed by John Lasseter.
Written by Ben McQueen based on a story by Lasseter, Brad Lewis and Dan Fogelman.
