Cars 2 races overseas for spy adventure

“Oh, Miss Shiftwell!" exclaims an astonished Finn McMissile (voiced by Michael Caine), the vintage espionage car, as his fellow spy, the purple sports model Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer), folds back her wheels and morphs into a hybrid hovercraft and jet. It’s the same kind of “Whoa!" reaction this movie coaxed from me with its bold script and marvelous graphics. Yeah, the kids are going to love this one. Cars 2 takes us back to Radiator Springs where, in a superb bit of foreshadowing, we open with the well-meaning but crude hillbilly Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), Lightning McQueen’s (Owen Wilson) best friend, bringing back the town’s “lemon" car to the repair shop.

Soon enough, because of McQueen’s races we are whisked from the small Midwest town to the rest of the vehicular world: Tokyo, Paris, London, and the Mediterranean resorts off the Italian coast – which look a lot like the Monaco racing grounds. For me, the Japan scenes were exquisite. Pixar Animation and Walt Disney Studios pulled off the sleek gloss, exoticism and strange futurism of present-day Tokyo. I especially loved the geisha cars. The twist here, in an otherwise ordinary “friendship gets tested" story, consists of an international conspiracy: the obsolete models of the world are trying to extend the car populace’s dependency on fossil fuels by sabotaging the rise of Allinoil Bio-Fuel -- a budding, alternative “clean" energy developed by philanthropist Miles Axlerod (voiced by Eddie Izzard) which could very well make petroleum ancient history. How’s that for an ambitious plot?

“I wanted to take another road trip to new places around the world," explains director and Pixar head honcho John Lasseter in the production notes. “And I thought a way into that world could be another passion of mine: the spy movie genre." This is where spies Shiftwell and McMissile step in. Their mission is to track down the conspirators and put an end to their nefarious plan. Incidentally, the bosses of the world’s “obsolete" models are presented like the heads of mafia families. Mater gets drawn into this mess through a quirky twist of fate as he bumbles through the intricacy of a Japanese automated bathroom. He’s mistaken for an American spy and subsequently zipped to the caper of a lifetime, unwittingly enlisted in the fight against the obsoletes. At the root of the conspiracy is an emotionally resonant movement to “not be left behind." In a world that is relentlessly innovating and discarding the out-of-date, the antique and the “lemon," constant repairs and upkeep make life hard for an obsolete car. “They stopped making our parts and forgot us!" declares the unknown Obsolete Car Boss, sending a collective wave of sorrow and anger shuddering through the criminal assembly. And, as one little green guy said, anger easily leads to hate and suffering.

Cars 2 can be appreciated just for its surface tale, but it has layered nods aplenty for those familiar to spy movies like Mission Impossible and Austin Powers, eco-responsibility endeavors like The Age of Stupid and An Inconvenient Truth and as many racing movies as you can shake a stick shift at. There’s even some Disney self-referencing going on. In one of the Paris montages, there’s a shot of a fine dining restaurant named Gastow’s that of course alludes to the Ratatouille establishment Gusteau’s. You can argue that the comedy here is too minimally executed but for me, it works because of the level of character development and the excellent voice acting. Michael Caine’s Finn McMissile provides a perfect foil for the blundering Tow Mater. “It’s exciting to take Mater around the world and put him in situations that are totally unique to that country," says Lasseter. One of the scene stealers is McQueen’s new race rival: the snooty, Italian F1 race car Francesco Bernoulli who’s voiced to infuriating pitch perfection by John Turturro -- almost a mirror homage to Sacha Baron Cohen’s French racer in Talladega Nights. Seeing the movie in 3D and/or IMAX will elicit oohs and aaahs especially in the parts where, equipped with cutting edge weapons, camouflage and technology, the spy cars morph into all manner of multi-terrain vehicles.

Anybody with a love for the automotive or an interest in transportation should definitely see this movie. The Cars franchise, though one of the lesser known of Disney’s worlds, might just have kick-started some future racer or tuner designer careers through the wide-eyed kids in the audience. Who knows? If you do bring children to the cinema, get ready for them vrooming, zooming and “Ka Chow!"-ing throughout the house after they watch this movie. - YA, GMA News Cars 2 opens August 24 in major Metro Manila theaters. All photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.