Cars 2

Posted May 25, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

Lightning McQueen has become a succesful racing car but hasn’t forgotten his roots in small-town Americana. After yet another racing season, Lightning returns home to spend some time with his friend Mater and his girlfriend Miss Sally. Meanwhile, Sir Miles Axlerod who was thought to be lost in the jungle, has returned and invented a new biofuel that he wants to promote by launching a new world championship in which the best cars of all types will compete against each other.

Lightning has turned down the offer to compete so he could relax a bit, but when the Italian F1 car Francesco Bernoulli starts talking thrash at Lightning on national television, Mater calls in to defend his friend. As result, Lightning decides to take Bernoulli up on his challenge and the two friends head off for the new Championship. However, little after their arrival in Japan, Mater mistakenly gets seen as a US spy and gets mixed up in an international conspiracy…

Sound and Vision:
Pixar has always been known for their attention to detail and Cars 2 isn’t an exception to that. Every pixel is filled with information and the looks of the movie are just jaw-dropping. The locations look life-like, the textures are great, the blacks are truly inky, and there are no compression errors what so ever. Just look at every frame of the movie and you’ll be looking at a painting each time. Awesomeness guaranteed!

There are two English tracks supplied with this Blu-ray and while the 7.1 DTS-HD track is really great with good placement, plenty of attention to detail, great voice work and impeccable use of all channels all around, I did prefer the DTS-ES 5.1 track. This mostly because of its more aggressive nature. Still, both tracks are demo material.

Extras:
– Audio commentary
– Hawaiian Vacation
– Air Mater

No real HD extras, you just get the Blu-ray, the DVD and the three extras listed above. Hawaiian Vacation and Air Mater are two short movies that are fun to check out once but don’t add much.

Conclusion:
Cars 2 is technically a fantastic Blu-ray release that truly shows off the image and sound quality this medium can deliver. On the content side of things, this sequel is fun to watch but doesn’t quite match up with the original. The main focus has turned from Lightning McQueen and the racing towards Mater and a spy story, a change that keeps the franchise fresh but won’t appeal to everyone. Also the fact that Mater is mistaken to be a spy goes on for just too long to remain funny and if Mater isn’t a character you like, you’ll definitely not be interested in this movie.

Still, Cars 2 is a worthy successor even if it isn’t as memorable as the original.

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