Cars 2 is a sobering reminder that even the very best can sometimes falter. The only Pixar film that can be described as actively bad, what makes it such a depressing feature is that, for all its commercial viability, it appears to have come from a genuinely creative though process. Oh, the obvious motivation for Disney's bookmakers is merchandising (the series shifts more toys than any other Pixar brand), but for director John Lasseter the reasoning comes from the heart. In interviews it's incredibly clear that the whole Cars universe is incredibly personal to him, born out of a holiday he took with his family, and that he holds a strong affinity to the characters. The problem is, nobody else over the age of six really does. Mater, the redneck tow truck voiced by Larry The Cable Guy, is bumped up to lead in a spy spoof plot that only exists as a reason to take the characters on a world tour. Everything about the film is built on an ADHD approach of saying "Wouldn't it be cool if..." before running onto the next half-baked ideas. It's the laziest screenplay the studio's offered up by a long way, made all the worse by a final act that follows absolutely no semblance of logic - the bad guys plan to blow up Lightening McQueen, but if it fails they have a bomb inside Mater, that will go off if they get close to each other (but is also on a timer just in case), despite Mater being trapped inside Big Bently about to be killed. That hardly makes sense even writing it down.
