Cars 2 (Dreamworks version)

Cars 2 is a 2011 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation And distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is a sequel to 2006's Cars and the second film in the Cars franchise. In the film, race car Lightning McQueen and tow truck Mater head to Japan and Europe to compete in the World Grand Prix, but Mater accidentally becomes sidetracked with international espionage. In the film's ensemble voice cast, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Bonnie Hunt, and John Ratzenberger reprise their roles from the first film. Paul Newman, who voiced Doc Hudson in the previous film, died in September 2008, so his character was written out of the film, while George Carlin, who previously voiced Fillmore, died during the same year, so his role was passed to Lloyd Sherr. The returning cast is joined by Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Eddie Izzard, and Thomas Kretschmann, who voice the new characters introduced in this film. It was directed by John Lasseter, written by Ben Queen, and produced by Denise Ream.

Cars 2 was released in the United States on June 24, 2011. The film was presented in Reald 3D and IMAX 3D, as well as traditional two-dimensional and IMAX formats. The film was first announced in 2008, alongside Monsters vs Aliens And Madagascar 3, and it is the 23rd animated film from the studio. Despite the fact that the film received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics, it grossed $562 million worldwide. A sequel, Cars 3, was released on June 16, 2017.

Plot
British spy Finn McMissile infiltrates an oil rig owned by a group of lemon cars to rescue a fellow spy. He witnesses the lemons, seemingly led by Professor Zündapp, load an electromagnetic pulse emitter, disguised as a camera onto a shipping crate. After finding out the agent he came to rescue is dead, he flees and fakes his death.

Lightning McQueen is now a four-time Piston Cup champion after the recent death of his mentor Doc Hudson, and returns to Radiator Springs. However, Italian formula race car, Francesco Bernoulli, challenges McQueen to race in the newly created World Grand Prix, led by its creator Sir Miles Axlerod, who intends to promote his new environmentally friendly fuel, Allinol. McQueen and his best friend Mater — along with Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, and Sarge — depart for Tokyo for the first race of the Grand Prix.

At a World Grand Prix promotional event, Mater makes a scene after leaking oil and eating a bowl of Wasabi, angering McQueen. While cleaning up, Mater interrupts a fight between American spy Rod "Torque" Redline (whom McMissile and his new partner Holley Shiftwell attempt to meet) and lemons Grem and Acer. Redline passes his information to Mater. Meanwhile, Redline is captured and killed by Professor Zündapp, who reveals that Allinol combusts when hit with an EMP pulse. Zündapp informs his superior, an unknown mastermind, that Redline passed on his information. Holley mistakes Mater to be Redline and recruits him to help foil Zündapp's plot.

At the first race, three cars are ignited by the camera. McQueen places second in the race after Bernoulli, due to Mater accidentally giving him bad racing advice while evading Zündapp's henchmen with help from Holley and Finn. McQueen snaps at Mater, who is abducted by Finn while attempting to return to Radiator Springs. After traveling to Paris to collect more information from Finn's old friend Tomber, they travel to Porto Corsa, Italy, where the next race is being held. During the race, Mater infiltrates the criminals' meeting, just as the camera is used on a few more cars, causing a multi-car pileup, while McQueen finishes first. Due to increased fears over Allinol's safety, Axlerod lifts the requirement to use it for the final race. However, when McQueen decides to continue using it, the criminals plan to kill McQueen in the next race in London. This spooks Mater, causing him to blow his cover and allowing him, Finn, and Holley to be captured.

Mater, Finn, and Holley are taken to and tied up inside Big Bentley, where he admits to them that he is not the spy they think he is. Mater learns that the camera did not function on McQueen, but the criminals tell him they planted a bomb in his pits as a backup plan, spurring him to break free and escape. Finn and Holley escape soon after but realize that the bomb is on Mater's air filter. Mater had already arrived at the pits when they tell him this, so he flees down the racecourse while McQueen chases after him to apologize for his earlier outburst. Finn apprehends Professor Zündapp while he attempts to escape. The other lemons arrive and outnumber Finn, Holley, Mater, and McQueen, but they are soon rescued by the arrival of the other Radiator Springs residents. Mater and McQueen go to Buckingham Palace, where Mater reveals Axlerod as the mastermind behind the plot by forcing him to disable Mater's bomb. It is revealed Axlerod had major investments in crude oil, which would have surged in value once the failure of Allinol disgraced the idea of environmentally friendly fuel. After Axlerod is arrested, Mater receives an honorary knighthood from the Queen. In the end, McQueen forgives Mater and allows him to come to all of his races if he chooses.

Back in Radiator Springs, Fillmore reveals that Sarge changed McQueen's fuel from Allinol to his organic biofuel, explaining why the camera did not work on him. A "Radiator Springs Grand Prix" is held featuring all the World Grand Prix contenders. Mater declines an invitation from Finn and Holley to go on another mission, choosing to stay in Radiator Springs. However, he is allowed to keep his special rockets and uses them to catch up to McQueen in the race. The film ends with McQueen speeding off with Mater behind him just as Finn and Holley's jet flies off into the distance.

Voice cast
Main article: List of Cars characters

Much of the cast from the original Cars remained intact for the sequel, but three voice actors of the original film have died since its release. Joe Ranft (who voiced Red) died in an automobile accident on August 16, 2005, ten months before Cars was released. The first film was dedicated in memoriam to him. Red appears in this film, but he does not speak or vocalize. George Carlin (who voiced Fillmore) died of heart failure on June 22, 2008; Fillmore also shows up in Cars 2, and he was voiced by Lloyd Sherr (who also voices Tony Trihull). Paul Newman (who voiced Doc Hudson) died of cancer on September 26, 2008. After Newman's death, Lasseter said they would "see how the story goes with Doc Hudson." Doc was eventually written out, with a few references to the character as having died before the events of the film.


 * Larry the Cable Guy as Mater, a Southern-accented tow truck from Radiator Springs.
 * Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen, a Piston Cup racecar.
 * Michael Caine as Finn McMissile, a British spy car.
 * Emily Mortimer as Holley Shiftwell, a beautiful young British desk agent, new to field work.
 * John Turturro as Francesco Bernoulli, McQueen's main racing rival from Italy.
 * Eddie Izzard as Sir Miles Axlerod, a British electric car who created Allinol.
 * Thomas Kretschmann as Professor Zündapp, the doctor from Germany, Axlerod's assistant.
 * Joe Mantegna and Peter Jacobson as Grem and Acer: Professor Zündapp's henchmen.
 * Bruce Campbell as Rod "Torque" Redline, an American spy car.
 * Tony Shalhoub as Luigi
 * Darrell Waltrip as Darrell Cartrip
 * Guido Quaroni as Guido
 * Brent Musburger as Brent Mustangburger
 * Colin Cowherd as Colin Cowling
 * Jason Isaacs as Siddeley/Leland Turbo
 * David Hobbs as David Hobbscap. Jacques Villeneuve voices the character in French releases.
 * Stanley Townsend as Vladimir Trunkov/Ivan/Victor Hugo
 * Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore/Tony Trihull
 * Paul Dooley as Sarge
 * Michel Michelis as Tomber
 * Sig Hansen as Crabby the Boat
 * Franco Nero as Uncle Topolino
 * Vanessa Redgrave as Mama Topolino/The Queen. Sophia Loren provides the Italian dub of Topolino.
 * Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera
 * Cheech Marin as Ramone
 * Jenifer Lewis as Flo
 * Michael Wallis as Sheriff
 * Katherine Helmond as Lizzie
 * John Ratzenberger as Mack
 * Jeff Garlin as Otis
 * Patrick Walker as Mel Dorado
 * Lewis Hamilton as Lewis Hamilton
 * Velibor Topic as Alexander Hugo
 * Greg Ellis as Nigel Gearsley
 * John Mainier as J. Curby Gremlin
 * Brad Lewis as Tubbs Pacer
 * Richard Kind as Van
 * Edie McClurg as Minny
 * Teresa Gallagher as Mater's Computer
 * Jeff Gordon as Jeff Gorvette
 * John Lasseter as John Lassetire

In international versions of the film, the character Jeff Gorvette is replaced with race car drivers better known in the specific countries in his dialogue scenes (however, he still appears as a competitor).


 * Mark Winterbottom as Frosty (Australian release)
 * Fernando Alonso as Fernando Alonso (Spanish release)
 * Vitaly Petrov as Vitaly Petrov (Russian release)
 * Jan Nilsson as Flash (Swedish release)
 * Memo Rojas (Latin American release)
 * Sebastian Vettel as Sebastian Schnell (German release)

In Brazil, Gorvette is replaced by Carla Veloso in his dialogue scenes (Carla appears in all other versions of the film, but with no lines); Carla is voiced by Brazilian singer Claudia Leitte. Sportspeople still appear, with Lewis Hamilton becoming Formula One champion Emerson Fittipaldi, while Brent Mustangburger and David Hobbscap were done by sports announcers José Trajano and Luciano do Valle.

Development
Cars is the fifth Dreamworks film, after ''The Prince of Egypt, Shrek, Madagascar, and Kung Fu Panda, to have a sequel as well as becoming a franchise. John Lasseter, the director of the film, said that he was convinced of 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. Cars 2 was originally scheduled for a summer 2012 release, but Dreamworks moved the release up by a year. In 2009, Dreamworks registered several domain names, hinting to audiences that the title and theme of the film would be in relation to a World Grand Prix. In March 2011, Jake Mandeville-Anthony, a U.K. screenwriter, sued Dreamworks and Paramount, alleging copyright infringement and breach of implied contract. In his complaint he alleged that Cars and Cars 2 are based in part on work that he had submitted early in the 1990s and he sought an injunction to stop the release of Cars 2 and requested actual or statutory damages. On May 13, 2011, Paramount responded to the lawsuit, denying "each and every one of Plaintiff's legal claims concerning the purported copyright infringement and substantial similarity of the parties' respective works." On July 27, 2011, the lawsuit was dismissed by a district court judge who, in her ruling, wrote that the "Defendants have sufficiently shown that the Parties' respective works are not substantially similar in their protectable elements as a matter of law".''

Casting
In November 2010, Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Peter Jacobson, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, and Thomas Kretschmann were confirmed as the voice talent featured in the film. From November 2010 until May 2011, Dreamworks released information about the other voice talent, including Jenifer Lewis, Katherine Helmond, Michael Wallis, Darrell Waltrip, Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave, Bruce Campbell, Sig Hansen, Michel Michelis, Jeff Gordon, Lewis Hamilton, Brent Musburger, David Hobbs, John Turturro, and Eddie Izzard.

Soundtrack
The Cars 2 soundtrack was released on both CD album and digital download June 14. It is the first Dreamworks Film to be scored by Michael Giacchino. Cars 2 was the first and only film directed by John Lasseter not to be scored by Randy Newman, who scored the first and third films of the Cars franchise.

All music is composed by Michael Giacchino, except as noted.

Release
During the Summer of 2008, John Lasseter announced that Cars 2 would be pushed forward and released in the summer of 2011, one year earlier than its original 2012 release date. The US release date was later confirmed to be June 24, 2011, with a UK release date set for July 22, 2011. The world premiere of the film took place at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on June 18, 2011. Cars 2 was released in 4,115 theaters in the USA and Canada setting a record-high for a G-rated film.

Short film
Main article: Megamind: The Button of Doom

The film was preceded by a short film titled Megamind: The Button Of Doom, directed by Simon J. Smith, and starring the characters of Megamind.

Home media
The film was released by on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and digital download on November 1, 2011. This release was produced in four different physical packages: a 1-disc DVD, a 2-disc combo pack (DVD and Blu-ray), a 5-disc combo pack (DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and Digital Copy), and an 11-disc three movie collector's set, which features Cars, Cars 2, and Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales. The film was also released as a Movie Download edition in both standard and high definition. The Movie Download release includes four bonus features: Cars Toons "Air Mater",Megamind The Button of Doom, World Tour Interactive Feature", and "Bringing Cars 2 to the World". The 1-disc DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack releases include the shorts "Air Mater" and "Hawaiian Vacation", plus the Director John Lasseter Commentary. The 5-disc combo pack includes all of the same bonus features as the 1-disc DVD and 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack versions, in addition to "World Tour Interactive Feature" and "Sneak Peek: The Nuts and Bolts of Cars Land." The 11-disc three movie collection comes packaged with Cars (DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Copy), Cars 2 (DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, nand Digital Copy), and Mater's Tall Tales (DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital Copy).

Cars 2 sold a total of 1,983,374 DVD units during its opening week, generating $31.24 million and claiming first place. It also finished on the top spot on the Blu-ray chart during its first week, selling 1.76 million units and generating $44.57 million. Its Blu-ray share of home media was 47%, indicating an unexpectedly major shift of sales from DVD to Blu-ray. Blu-ray 3D contributed to this, accounting for 17% of total disc sales.

Box office
Cars 2 grossed $191.5 million in the USA and Canada, and $370.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $562.1 million.Worldwide on its opening weekend it grossed $109 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title. Overall, Cars 2 became seventh biggest Dreamworks film in worldwide box office among the 23 released.

Video games
Main article: Cars 2 (video game)

A video game based on the film was developed by Avalanche Software and published by THQ for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and Nintendo DS on June 21, 2011. The PlayStation 3 version of the game was reported to be compatible with stereoscopic 3D gameplay. A Nintendo 3DS version was released on November 1, 2011, and a PSP version was released on November 8, 2011.

An app based on the film was released on iTunes for a dollar on June 23, 2011. The Lite version was released for free that same day. The object of the game was to complete each race, unlock new levels, and get a high score. As of June 28, 2011, the app had hit No. 1 on the App Store. The game was retired on August 29, 2014. A V.Smile version was also released.

Sequel
Main article: Cars 3

A stand-alone sequel, titled Cars 3, was released on June 16, 2017. Directed by Brian Fee, the film focuses on Lightning McQueen, now a veteran racer, who after being overshadowed by a new wave of rookies, gets help from a young race car, Cruz Ramirez, to instruct him for the increasingly high-tech world and defeat new rival Jackson Storm.

Spin-offs
An animated feature film spin-off called Planes, produced by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment was released on August 9, 2013. A sequel to Planes, titled Planes: Fire & Rescue, was later released the following year on July 18, 2014.