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thumb|300px|The Cars 2 theatrical trailer.

"Going where no car has gone before."
—Tagline

Cars 2 is Pixar's 12th feature film. It is the sequel to Cars. The film was released on June 24, 2011.

Plot

Lightning McQueen and Mater take their friendship to exciting new places when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours, and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage. Torn between assisting Lightning in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret spy mission, Mater's action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. Adding to the fast-paced fun is a colorful new all-car cast that includes secret agents, menacing villains, and international racing competitors.

Voice cast

Three voice actors of the original Cars film have also died since the first film had been released. Joe Ranft, who voiced Red and Jerry Recycled Batteries, died in a car accident in 2005 during production of the first film. Even though Red appears in the movie, no confirmation has been made who the new replacement for Red will be or how big of a part he'll have.

George Carlin, who voiced Fillmore, died of heart failure in June 2008. Lloyd Sherr will provide the voice of Fillmore in the film.[2]

Paul Newman, who voiced Doc Hudson, died in September 2008 after losing an ongoing cancer battle. Lasseter was at first adamant that Newman would return, even though he had announced his retirement from acting. After Newman's death, Lasseter said that they would see how the story goes with Doc Hudson.[8] According to Shawn Krause, a supervising animator on the film, Doc won't be voiced by another actor in the movie, and morover is deceased.[9][10]

In some stranger versions of Cars 2, Jeff Gorvette is replaced in one scene by a different character, voiced by a regionally better known racer than Jeff Gordon: [11]

Notables voices in stranger versions are Sophia Loren, who voices Mama Topolino in 21 non-English countries, and also Jacques Villeneuve who voices David Hobbscap in the French versions.[17][18]

Production

Cars 2 was originally scheduled for a 2012 release, but Pixar moved the release up a year.[8]

John Lasseter conceived the sequel's story while traveling around the world promoting the first film. He said, "I kept looking out thinking, 'What would Mater do in this situation,' you know? I could imagine him driving around on the wrong side of the road in the UK, going around in big, giant traveling circles in Paris, on the autobahn in Germany, dealing with the motor scooters in Italy, trying to figure out road signs in Japan."[19]

The spy theme of Cars 2 emerged from a scene developped for Cars, which would have seen Lightning and Sally go to the drive-in movie theater, where they would have seen a spy film. Although the scene didn't make it to the final film, John Lasseter loved so much the idea of spy cars that he kept it in is mind and it became a main element in Cars 2.[20]

In 2009, Disney registered several domain names in relation to the title "World Grand Prix".[21] However, so far only the title "Cars 2" has been released.

It will be released in Disney Digital 3-D, IMAX 3D, RealD 3D and 2-D.

Marketing

The teaser trailer for Cars 2 appeared on the Blu-ray and DVD editions of Toy Story 3 when it was released on November 2, 2010.

The full length trailer for Cars 2 was released on Pixar's official YouTube account on November 15, 2010 and later appeared in front of the animated Disney film Tangled.

From early 2011 to the opening of Cars 2, Disney/Pixar massively published stills, video clips and concept art from the movie. Characters of the film where also regularly revealed, and for most of them a turntable video was provided.

Life-sized remote-controlled models of Lightning McQueen, Mater and Finn McMissile were created for Cars 2 as part of the “Agents on a Mission” tour, presented by State Farm, to promote the film. The cars were exposed in several North American cities, including Detroit, Toronto, Phoenix, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Washington, DC, and Miami, among others.

Disney has also began a viral marketing campaign with the Twitter account @ChromeLeaks. The first video released, Cars N' Deals of Emeryville Sale-A-Bration!, contains a number of Pixar-related references, plus a hidden message that will bring you to a video with new Cars 2 footage.

Lawsuit

Screenwriter Jake Mandeville-Anthony filed a lawsuit against Disney and Pixar, saying Cars and Cars 2 infringe on his copyright material, and have similarities to characters and a story he developed in 1993. Mandeville-Anthony claims he sent his story to a number of studios, including Pixar, and met with Jim Morris, then at Lucasfilm. He is asking for an injunction to stop the release of Cars 2[22]. The next hearing is scheduled for June 6, 2011.

Reception

Early reviews of the film from the from the Cars 2 premiere on June 18 have been mixed. Rotten Tomatoes reports that 59% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 17 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. However, Justin Chang from Variety called it "the rare sequel that improves on its predecessor, this lightning-paced caper-comedy shifts the franchise into high gear with international intrigue, spy-movie spoofery and more automotive puns than you can shake a stickshift at."

Attached short film

Hawaiian Vacation, the first episode of the Toy Story Toons series that is starring Barbie and Ken from Toy Story 3, will be attached to Cars 2.

Gallery

Posters

Screenshots

Character images

Concept art

See also

References

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