Cars 2

The animation company Pixar has a great track record. From Toy Story to Finding Nemo and Ratatouille to Above, Pixar's films have always delighted millions of viewers with their charming stories and lovable characters. Cars from 2006 was also a success, but it can hardly be said that the adventures of talking cars would be Pixar's most popular or successful film. So the fact that a sequel to Cars, of all things, is now hitting theaters is a bit of a surprise. But in the good hands of John Lasseter (Toy Story) and Brad Lewis (Ratatouille) a great cinema fun has been created, which goes completely new ways than part 1.

In Cars 2, racing car Lightning McQueen together with his best friend, the tow truck Mater, goes on an adventurous journey around the globe to participate in the great World Grand Prix. Created by legendary oil billionaire Miles Axelrod to promote his new bio-fuel, the race aims to prove once and for all that Lightning McQueen is the best racing car in the world - even if his Italian rival Francesco Bernoulli doesn't think so. While Lightning struggles to maintain his reputation, the endearingly naive Mater is drawn into a dangerous espionage affair by a silly coincidence that could decide the fate of all cars.

From the very start, the wonderful opening sequence, accompanied by Michael Giacchino's fantastic score, makes it clear that Cars 2 has become an endearing homage to the old James Bond films and other great spy thrillers. True, fans of the first installment will also get their money's worth. But overall, the focus is less on Lightning McQueen than on Mater and the two agent cars Finn McMissile, voiced in the German version by Daniel Craig's James Bond voice Dietmar Wunder, and Holly Shiftwell (Martina Hill). And that is peppered with numerous allusions to well-known representatives of the spy thriller and with countless original ideas that make this film quite a pleasure.

Whether it's well-known buildings such as Buckingham Palace that have been given a certain car design through minor alterations, which on closer inspection is simply ingenious, whether it's the idea of having Hook chase very special pigeons around the square in Paris, or cute geisha cars, the film is just bursting with original, funny and charming ideas. The plot itself degenerates into a minor matter, but that's not a bad thing. Because even if the eco-conscious spy plot is quite nice, it's a bit convoluted and half-baked in some places, but due to the many laughs, this is only noticeable if you think about it more intensely afterwards.

Cars 2 is one of the rare cases where the sequel is clearly better than the first part. While this agent movie homage isn't one of the studio's best works either, the heroes of the animated fun are definitely not ripe for the scrap heap. Therefore, for anyone who liked Part 1 and likes animated films in general, Cars 2 is absolutely worth seeing - whether in 2D, or in pretty-to-look-at but not pleasure-enhancing 3D!

As with all Pixar films, Cars 2 once again features a pretty prequel. This time there's a brief reunion with the heroes from Toy Story 3, who take a very special trip to Hawaii. A very pretty little film that you should definitely get to the cinema on time for!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp