1988 was quite a year for animation. Out in Japan, Grave of the Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, and Akira were released in theaters and were all superbly animated films that in scales from good to masterful, delivered storylines and themes unheard of at the time. Over in America, we were treated to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which gave audiences a hybrid of live-action film and animation that to this day, is unmatched in how sublime it is, which is also helped by its other strong qualities (more on that later).

STORY

It's 1947 in Los Angeles, and cartoons (known as “Toons” in this movie) aren't mere pictures on celluloid, but rather like real actors. Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is an alcoholic private detective in LA, and after being paid by cartoonist R.K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) to take pictures of Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye) playing patty cake with Jessica Rabbit (voiced by Kathleen Turner), causing Jessica's husband, Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) to lose his mind. Eddie soon gets tangled in a murder mystery after Marvin Acme was murdered, and must uncover the truth as to who really killed Acme.

CHARACTERS

For the most part, the characters in this movie are done really well. As an adult, I really appreciate the fact that Eddie is a troubled man struggling with booze because given the tragedy he had in the past (I won't spoil it for you), gives him a layer of realism. Also, Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) is one of the creepiest villains from movies in my childhood, as he maintains a consistently menacing persona and does really cold-blooded things that can put Doom in the same league as the best horror icons. Roger and Jessica Rabbit are great at providing solid humor, along with Doom's gang of cartoon weasels. However, I wish characters like the bartender Dolores (Joanna Cassidy) had more time to develop.

HUMOR

The humor in this movie is really solid. The humor is a perfect homage to the masterful slapstick and exaggerated bodily distortion of the classic Tex Avery and Looney Tunes cartoons. One of the funniest things in this movie was when Eddie goes to the nightclub the night Acme gets killed, and the opening act is Daffy and Donald Duck in a piano battle. Seeing these two iconic cartoon ducks engage in slapstick antics against each other was hilarious (especially when Donald fired a cannon at Daffy). Another was when Eddie faces his fears about driving into Toontown, he dumps his glass flask of whiskey and using a cartoon gun that Yosemite Sam gave him some years back, fires a cartoon bullet that's a caricature of an American Indian, and the bullet uses a giant tomahawk to smash the flask. Another is when Dolores catches Eddie in his office with Jessica with his pants down (literally), and she says to him “Are you dabbling in water colors, Eddie?” There's plenty of other funny parts in this movie, but I think you get the picture.

APPEARANCE

The cinematography for this movie is marvelous. The set designs perfectly capture that 1940's noir feeling, and the designs of the cartoons perfectly fit the setting it takes place in. The animation of the characters is totally fluid, and is even more impressive considering that the “interactions” with the cartoons and real people was seamless. With this being made before the age of CGI, it's even more impressive to see all this and see the cartoon characters believably carry around real props like guns. I think along with John Carpenter's The Thing, Who Framed Roger Rabbit has some of the most remarkable special effects and visuals ever done in cinema.

On a sidenote, the interior of the Acme gag factory looks a bit like something out of Tim Burton's imagination.

SOUNDTRACK

Alan Silvestri's score for this movie is near perfect. Like the visuals, the music fits the setting of this movie like a glove, and one of my favorite pieces of music is near the end, when Eddie has a showdown with Judge Doom and his weasel minions, since it's so heart-pumping and memorable. The original song “Why Don't You Do Right” is pretty catchy and is a great fit for the style of the movie.

MATURE CONTENT

Even though this is a PG movie, there's some scenes that kids might not get or could scare them. Some of the adult innuendo provided by Jessica Rabbit and even the weasels at times will probably fly over some kids' heads. However, there's a really creepy scene near the beginning where Judge Doom demonstrates his brand of justice by grabbing a squeaking cartoon shoe and slowly kills it in a barrel full of a chemical cocktail made specifically to “kill” cartoons called “the dip.” This scene scared me a lot when I was a little kid and even as an adult, still get creeped out by this scene. Similarly, there's some parts near the end during Eddie's showdown with Doom that were creepy, but I won't mention these because I don't want to spoil anything big in relation to the movie's story.

On another sidenote, it's funny to think that there's plenty of bad anime titles like Elfen Lied and Gantz that abuse bloody gore and dismemberment scenes ad nauseam to seem “creepy” yet the dark scenes in WFRR actually feel intimidating without using bloodshed.

FINAL WORD

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is certainly a classic, and a really good homage to 1940's noir and of the Golden Age of Cartoons. If you love the aforementioned things, you owe it to yourself to reserve a movie night for this live-action/cartoon hybrid gem.

In my opinion DreamWorks has always played second fiddle to Pixar in the computer generated feature film genre.  Their rivalry has existed for nearly as long as there has been a computer generated feature film genre! Pixar had Toy Story, DreamWorks had Small Soldiers. Pixar had A Bug’s Life, DreamWorks Antz. Pixar Monsters Inc., DreamWorks Monsters Vs. Aliens.  Pixar with Cars and DreamWorks with Trucks.  No wait, I made that last one up.  But you get the idea. 

It seems to me like DreamWorks’ best efforts are the ones that don’t have a direct Pixar counterpart: The Shrek saga and How to Train Your Dragon to mention a few.  I am of the stance that 2008’s Kung-Fu Panda perfectly represents this phenomenon of high-quality DreamWorks originality.

What we had there was a bit of tribute to the Kung-Fu classics with a lot of unexpected character charm to cement the intense action sequences and lovely visuals.  When I heard a sequel was in the works, I naturally feared for the worst.  Generally speaking sequels in the CG film arena are hit or miss (with emphasis on miss).  Ever see Space Chimps 2, Hoodwinked 2 or Open Season 2 (or even scarier, Open Season 3)?  Sure you have your Shreks & Toy Stories but more often than not it seems to me that animation studios have a hard time recapturing the magic of the originals; especially when the original contains the ever-illusive element of heart.

That said Kung-Fu Panda 2, riding on the success of the first one, was given a budget increase to the tune of 20-mil ($150,000,000 versus 130,000,000), brought back all of the key members of the original cast (with a few new ones) and even retained the vast majority of the production & animator crew.  To summarize, DreamWorks made darn sure not to risk losing said heart of the first film.  Did they succeed? For the most part absolutely.  Viewers looking for something more grandiose may be disappointed but the good news here is that Kung-Fu Panda 2 succeeds at feeling more like a continuation of the first film than it does a genuine sequel.  And considering the first film ended in such a manner where a sequel wasn’t necessary, this is a very good thing indeed.

Jack Black reprises his role as the titular overweight martial-arts trainee panda and his entire Furious Five retinue return uninterrupted (Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross)). Series staples Dustin Hoffman as Po’s master Shifu and James Hong as Po’s noodle-peddling dad return as well. The villain is new this time; a sociopath peacock named Shen, and played to perfection by Gary Oldman.  Other noteworthy additions include casting real-life karate aficionado Jean-Claude Van Damme to play Master Croc.

The story takes us back to the visually lush Valley of Peace and finds a newfound camaraderie between Po and his Furious Five cohorts.  At just about the same time Po suddenly realizes that he bears (no pun intended, for now) no physical resemblance to his dad, the villainous Shen surfaces with a weapon of mass destruction and plans to conquer all of China.

In terms of scope, the bar has been raised slightly but it’s clear that the focus here was to expand upon the character back-stories and their interaction with one another over expanding geographically strictly for the sake of spending some of that additional 20-mil.

The plot thickens slightly once Po realizes Shen’s ambitions and the fact that he doesn’t remember his birth parents aren’t completely unrelated occurrences.  Unfortunately though, canceling out the slightly deeper plot structure of the sequel is the fact that Po’s clumsy, lighthearted enthusiasm seems somehow misplaced now that he has been revealed a psychologically scarred Kung Fu disciple.

Pacing is decent, if a bit longer feeling than the first, though all in all the 90-minute runtime does go by fairly quickly since no time need be wasted setting up backgrounds for our heroes.  Hans Zimmer nails the musical score with his trademarked near-subliminally perfect melodies and heart thumping action accompaniments.

In all Kung-Fu Panda joins a pretty slim gathering of titles that actually manage to do the concept of a sequel justice.  While it could be argued that DreamWorks played it safe by failing to stray from the path established in the first one, at least they knew not to fix what wasn’t broken.  The old phrase, “it’s not as original as the original” certainly applies as well but here’s hoping the formula continues to stay fresh as DreamWorks has stated they hope to milk this into a 6-movie franchise.  Will fans tire of Po’s antics through four more films? There’s a swamp-dwelling big green ogre who thinks not.

When you think of the heavy hitters in the animated feature film realm, it’s certainly understandable if the first things that come to mind are Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks.  However Nickelodeon has been hovering around the scene for a while now, hoping to earn a nice piece of the CG animated movie pie.

Rango is by far their most serious attempt and while the film’s deserved PG-13 rating may succeed at distancing it from its key demographic (a concept all studios would be wise to emulate from industry-leader Pixar).

The story follows the comical, transformative journey of Rango (Depp), a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis.  After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in?  When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, a lawless outpost populated by the desert’s wiliest whimsical creatures, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds that he’s been preparing for this role his whole life.  Welcomed as the last hope the whole town has been awaiting, the newly appointed Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role as if it life depended on it.  In fact, it does!  In a blaze of action-packed situations and encounters with outrageous characters, Rango starts to become the hero he’s always pretended to be.

If you didn’t already know, this piece represents Gore Verbinski’s first film since concluding his Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy in 2007 and represented an ideal opportunity for him to continue working with the oddly charismatic Johnny Depp.

Like the Pirates trilogy, Verbinski proves strangely proficient at developing properties that seem almost kid-friendly but continually flirt with adult-only ideals and references.  In fact those viewers expecting a wild-west themed variation of a typical Disney/ Pixar feature will be in for a bit of rude awakening.  Rather than craft an action-driven kids movie peppered with adult humor and pop culture references, Rango is boldly unrepentant for the various tones and complexities it explores.

Industrial Light and Magic does a spectacular job with the look of the film, with drab landscapes and gritty character textures and while the John Logan script is funny at times, appreciation of this film depends heavily on the viewer’s feeling towards old spaghetti westerns.

The pacing is deliberately drawn out and littered with crusty townsfolk, children will likely find the prose a bit too dull to hold their interest even before the objectionable language and references have a chance to upset them.  In fact, a strong argument could be made that this is very nearly like watching a genuine old western film with personified animals transplanted over black and white live action sequences.  Further contributing to the sensation is an extended version release on the DVD & Blu-Ray that comes in at just under two-hours.

I personally enjoyed the idea of a desert down finding so much value in water that it has literally become currency and there’s no denying that, while a bit hideous, there is some serious brilliance in the character design models.

Of course despite the film’s rambling philosophies and lackluster supporting characters, Rango has its moments thanks in no small part to solid vocal deliveries from Depp, Ned Beatty, and Wedding Crashers’ Isla Fisher.

There are some slapstick moments to keep the kiddies in their seats even if the western puns and clichés will be lost upon them.  Adults may get a kick out of a few of the exchanges although truthfully, they can be a bit over the top, eliciting some “ewwws” even out of teens at times.

In conclusion some of the finest computer generated visuals to date (there is a segment depicting a human that is nearly photo-realistic), Rango lacks the type of cleverness that makes many of Pixar and DreamWorks’ pieces so timeless.  Adults who appreciate modern animation (especially those with a fondness for western classics) will find much to enjoy here but contrary to the Nickelodeon backing, kids aren’t the target audience for this one.

Allow me, for the sake of justifying my complaints about this piece from the onset, to say that I am a subscriber to the theory that the DCAU crew is responsible for the absolute best incarnations of the DC comic characters of all time.  Whenever I begin to burn out on the whole animated comic hero industry, a trip to my Batman the Animated Series collection or through a few Justice League Unlimited episodes are all it takes to remind me of everything that is right about the concept of turning static comic panels into animated life.

That said, I’ve noticed many of the crew responsible for the aforementioned properties (Bruce Timm, Alan Burnett, the late Dwayne McDuffie and company) have since shifted gears from weekly serial production to animated feature film work exclusively.  While a few of these features have been pretty darn impressive (I enjoyed Batman: Under the Red Hood, Superman/ Batman Public Enemies and Justice League Crisis on Two Earths to mention a few) but All Star Superman is one of the oddest animated films I’ve encountered, DCAU or otherwise, in quite some time.

All-Star Superman, on which this picture is based, is a twelve-issue comic book series featuring Superman that ran from November 2005 to October 2008. The series was written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Frank Quitely, digitally inked by Jamie Grant and published by DC Comics.

The film incarnation is actually the tenth in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line released by Warner Premiere and the first in the line that is rated PG (as opposed to the usual PG-13 rating).

The plot goes like this: Dr. Leo Quintum and his P.R.O.J.E.C.T. Team are exploring the Sun when they are sabotaged by a booby-trapped, genetically enhanced Lex Luthor clone. Superman saves the doomed crew, but it turns out that in the process has been overdosed with radiation that, while responsible for increasing his power initially, is actually slowly killing him. Luthor, having orchestrated the death of Superman while under the employment of General Sam Lane, is arrested thanks to Clark Kent's article and sentenced to death.

Playing off the unique angle of the arch nemeses responsible for the inevitable death of the other, there is a lot of potential in this plot structure.  Sadly, I felt as though the delivery of these ideals never manages to live up to the possibilities.

For starters, this 76-minute film suffers from the undeniable feeling of trying to fit entirely too many key moments from the 12-issue book run into a little over an hour’s worth of narrative.  As expected, this mash of plot threads often comes off as completely disconnected from one another.  Characters appear frequently, do something completely contrived, then vanish for the duration of the film.  Detours like Superman’s encounter with Samson and Atlas and even the Kryptonian scientists will leave even the most diehard fans of the franchise scratching their heads in “what in the world was that?” theatrics.

These threads work out in the books on which this film is based simply because they are given due time to develop.  Perhaps had they been integrated here more subtly earlier on and allowed to play out in the background to the seriousness of the larger issues at hand, they may have worked out here as well.  Instead they come off as unnecessary plot devices.

However, in all fairness there are a few qualities here that prevent this one from sinking like a cinder block.  Among these are the opportunity to witness Frank Quitely’s bright crisp art work come to animated life and a modern take on the Lois Lane character.

In all though the end result here is quite a muddled mess.  The story itself is interesting and arguably tragic enough to warrant looking into the mini-series but the film will most certainly under-whelm both fans of the books and of past DCAU efforts alike.

Talk about high expectations going in, ever since the release of Superman/ Batman Public Enemies, I have been terribly excited about this piece.  Going through absolute withdrawal of the animated Justice League series, about the closest I can get to fulfilling that void comes in the form of these DCAU feature films starring some of the League’s most influential members.

And in theory this one should have delivered there! After all, it features Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl (heck even Superman’s dog Krypto makes a cameo) and pits them against the hordes of darkness on Apokolips.  However, in execution, I found the finished product to be a bit too ambitious for its own good but more on that in a moment, first let’s take a look at the facts.

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is a 2010 direct-to-video animated film based on the Superman/Batman comic storyline "The Supergirl from Krypton" and serves as an unofficial sequel to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.

The story basically opens by making reference of the timeframe through blurbs on Gotham City radio suggesting it is within the weeks after the events that led to Lex Luthor's arrest, the impeachment of his presidency, and Batman's success in saving the world from the impact of an approaching meteor.

A spacecraft crash-lands in Gotham City Harbor apparently containing a naked young girl without knowledge of English or Earth or really much of anything. Without giving much away, the girl in question is of course the future Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) and while Superman welcomes his fellow Kryptonian refugee with open arms and works to teach her English and Earthen culture, Batman remains suspicious.

By the time the film is over, the viewer will have visited Gotham City, Metropolis, Themyscira, Apokolips, and Smallville.  Considering its 78-minute runtime, there’s a lot of ground to cover here!

I mentioned earlier that my biggest criticism of the film is that it may be a bit too ambitious for its own good and that statement certainly deserves elaboration.  While the look of the film is spot on (with a unique, angled look to the character models), the vocal cast impeccable (opting to use the talent of the Justice League actors; in fact this was the noted as the first project Kevin Conroy and Susan Eisenberg (Batman and Wonder Woman) have worked on together since the end of the Justice League series) but the plot is a bit scattered and the pacing inconsistent.

I guess this is to be expected given the incredible number of characters and locations involved to be crammed within a film that runs only a bit over an hour in length.  Call it wishful thinking if you must, but this whole thread would have been far better served had it been introduced as a multi-episode thread in the Justice League animated series.  Maybe I’m still not over my adoration of that show, but I can’t help but feel like a lot of these DCAU feature films coming from Warner Brothers of late would have made for awesome season-long threads for JL not unlike the Project Cadmus angle.

Back to reality though, the fight segments contained here are pretty impressive, and do a nice job capturing the inhuman power of the combatants involved.  The inconsistent pacing and rushed ending can probably be overlooked by action-junkies on account of these awesome battles.  The rest of us who have come to expect absolute perfection from Bruce Timm and company will likely come away from this film feeling as though the potential outweighs the finished product.

I have to admit that while I’ve loved almost everything that Bruce Timm and company have done with the DC Universe in animation throughout the years, I have always felt that with a few exceptions, Marvel has never been successful at making the transition of the depth and richness of their books into animated form.  I toured their entire MLG (Marvel & Lion’s Gate) library and came away feeling like while the animation was nice and the vocal talent pretty deep, the whole experience just felt shallow and dull.  However, being never one to give up on a solid idea, when I saw the preview for Planet Hulk on one of the DVDs, I decided I would have to give that one a go before writing off the whole MLG experience and truthfully, I’m really glad I did.

Based on Greg Pak’s fantastic Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk book, the film tells of Hulk’s destructive nature to the planet finally reaching a point of unacceptability and The New Avengers: Illuminati’s reluctant decision to jettison Hulk into space.  The original plan was to have his spacecraft crash onto a peaceful lush planet of greenery and livestock for which the Hulk could live out his remaining years alone but the plan is derailed when an enraged Hulk starts thrashing around in the capsule and causes it to crash land on an alien world somewhere between earth and his original destination.

Subdued by a restraining chip and sold into slavery, Hulk quickly finds himself in the role of Russell Crowe’s character from the movie “Gladiator”.  It turns out that the world he crashed upon (Sakaar) finds itself locked in a political dictatorship that has the people putting hope in the arrival of a savior to restore freedom to the land.

Without giving up any spoilers, the Hulk’s incredible feats of strength in the coliseum aren’t unnoticed by the populous and before long rumor begins to spread that perhaps his arrival was foretold in prophecy.  In an act of utter irony, Hulk’s destructive nature is suddenly viewed as the catalyst for lasting peace.

The action begins in this one nearly immediately; wasting very little time with setup.  Hulk’s crash sequence is complete by the opening credits and the alien world is presented with some pretty cool life forms and concepts.  Especially note worthy is that due to Sakaar’s proximity to a wormhole, species of countless races crash land on the planet’s surface and, because they are unable to leave, become the property of the Empire (in other words slavery is alive and well on Sakaar and involves far more than just the indigenous species).

The Hulk we’re given here is surprisingly intelligent as well with his sheer uncontrollable rage offered as a sort of brooding determination.  We actually get some character evolution as well, with Hulk’s gradual change from a sulking, primitive monster in the beginning to a beast with a sense of pride and honor by the end.  Bruce Banner makes not a single appearance here and while that may seem suspect to some die-hard Hulk fans, truthfully the slant toward a more intelligent Hulk blended with the fact that the alien world would have killed Banner instantly, makes this fact not only justifiable but plausible in the mythos as well.

Pacing is pretty quick (as is expected when stuffing some 400 pages of material into 72-minutes of film) and the action heavy gladiator sequences are offset with some nice splashes of back-story & character development.

With an ending that certainly hints to a “what-if” vibe, the whole story can technically be viewed as a sort of offshoot to the time-honored Hulk material but this is certainly not a bad thing.  Quite honestly Hulk’s out of control nature here on earth lends beautifully to this exact scenario and it’s really interesting to witness the green man pitted against enemies truly deserving of the beating he is capable of administrating.

In all, even if you’ve gone through the other MLG pieces and came away disappointed, Planet Hulk is certainly worth giving a go.  I’m truly hoping this piece has elevated the bar for all future Marvel animated features to follow.

Ah Green Lantern (or “GL” to those familiar with the Justice League’s incarnation of the beloved superhero); has there ever been so solid a character with so sketchy a mainstream persona?  Rhetorical question, sure, but I dare go as far as to say this animated feature film may in fact be the definitive entry into the rich universe of the titular character and the Lantern Corps to which he belongs.  Such a praiseful declaration may not seem like a big deal until you realize that Green Lantern himself, in this case the Hal Jordan version, serves merely as a narrative hub that strings together a multitude of story threads concerning many of the lesser known members of the Corps here.

For those seeking origin story, there is certainly no shortage of sources to turn to that have been released in recent years.  Among the notables, the DC Universe animated feature titled Green Lantern First Flight, the 2011 live-action film starring Ryan Reynolds, the DC Universe animated feature Justice League: The New Frontier, it’s even given a severely simplified once-over in an episode of the early 1980s Hanna-Barbara show Superfriends.  As such, this film is free of the burden of rehashing the fateful events leading to test-pilot Hal Jordan’s inheriting the ring from a mortally wounded Abin Sur, and with that freedom came a pretty clever concept.

I had heard rumor going in that Emerald Knights consists of a collection of tales but what I didn’t expect was for the tales to have been weaved a single motion picture; literally held together by an action-driven plot.  In this case five-tales are spawned from that central story of Hal Jordan’s recounting of Lantern Corps legend to new recruit Arisia.

Among the stories visited The First Lantern (a telling of the origin of the Lantern Corps), Kilowag (the history of the Corps’ lovable drill sergeant’s own time in boot camp), Laira (a princess’ homecoming after having become a Green Lantern), Mogo Doesn’t Socialize (a tale that proves once and for all that the Lantern Corps does not discriminate) and finally Abin Sur (prior to Hal Jordan entering the picture, Abin Sir receives a crypic prediction from an alien terrorist).

Of course all of these short tales are held together by the Emerald Knights angle; whereby the Corps members unite to face the threat of the antimatter creature Krona, who is poised to arrive through the Oan sun.

Looking back on the project, it’s interesting to note that with the most relatable character (Jordan/ GL) serving as merely a narrator, the science fiction heavy brilliance of the Lantern Corps mythos comes into very clear focus.  In fact, a very strong argument could be made that Emerald Knights comes off like a small-scale animated variation of the Star Wars saga; complete with intergalactic conflict, massive space battles, a dose of politics and a strong thread of fantasy woven amidst the technological slant.

Another unexpected bonus (not to mention deeper tie to my Star Wars comparison) is the fleshing out of the rather complex character of Sinestro here.  While his fall from glory is chronicled within the aforementioned Green Lantern First Flight feature, the depth of his empathy and true tragedy of the character’s descent into darkness is far better realized here.  All of this is perhaps even more impressive once you realize that not unlike Batman: Gotham Knight, Warner Brothers makes use of the technique of breaking up up the individual stories among various production teams.  While going as far as to the call the transitions between the segments “seamless” may be stretching it a bit, it is truthful to say that the format works successfully here and absolute decimates everything about the substandard presentation that is Gotham Knight.

Of course the only disadvantage to be found in all of this is that some story threads simply resonate better with a given viewer than others and because the 84-minute runtime has to be divided among six separate stories, there’s only a taste of each account to savor.  It could stand to reason that each tale contained within is certainly strong enough to warrant an animated feature release in and of themselves (if only a market existed for such obscure characters).

In all Green Lantern Emerald Knights is a highly enjoyable experience throughout and will certainly appeal to fans of the source material for its attention to detail and non-fans alike (as the stories are self-explanatory and loaded with action).  Many reviewers feel the need to pit this release against the generally-considered inferior Green Lantern First Flight animated feature but it really stands to mention that without GL’s own story presented here, the two projects don’t compete against so much as compliment one another.  The fact of the matter is that Hal Jordan or Alan Scott, or Guy Gardner, John Stewart, or Jade, or Kyle Rayner’s earthen ties to all that is the Green Lantern mythos are surprisingly narrow-scoped.  Such a massive and interesting universe just begs for deeper examination and that is precisely what Green Lantern Emerald Knights delivers.

When one thinks about Pixar, the term failure is typically no part of the equation and indeed what the powerhouse pixel-pushing studio might consider a disappointment would have its hordes of imitators doing cartwheels in the streets.  Keeping that in mind, Cars 2 could very well be the first Pixar film to put such theories to the test.

Generally speaking the first Cars never fully overcame criticisms that individuals outside of car culture (a group that naturally includes the children for whom the film targeted) were oblivious to much of the film’s charm.  In that line of thinking, the sequel further isolates itself from mainstream animation audiences by continuing the tradition of references only a mechanic could fully appreciate but this time combining them with the international spy/ thriller genre.

This fact is no coincidence as the script was written by Ben Queen (the creator of Fox TV's "Drive") from an outline dreamed up by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis.  The scope of this one is immediately much larger; ditching the backwater-feel of Radiator Springs for International flavor and manages to poke fun of a whole lot of cultural stereotypes in the process.

The plot actually breaks down into two parallel story-threads, a spy drama and auto racing action.  The spy portion, believe it or not, centers on Tow Mater (again played flawlessly by Larry the Cable Guy) and involves the simple-minded tow truck’s clueless meandering leading to all sorts of secret agent misunderstandings.  In the mean time our hero Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) agrees to partake in a grueling championship, The World Grand Prix, in effort to silence boisterous Italian Formula One car Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro).

Like all Pixar efforts, there is some brilliance scattered throughout but it’s highly unlikely the intended audience is going to pick up on much of it.  For starters some of the spy angles reference spy films from the 1960s (spoofed to death by the likes of Mike Myers and the Austin Powers Franchise).  Adults old enough to recognize such bits will likely get a chuckle but expect these nuances to go largely unnoticed by the kids.  Additionally, some of the better dialog exchanges once again involve internal combustion engine references that, although accurate and quite clever to boot, will likely be lost upon the hordes of soccer moms forced to watch to placate the children.

Interestingly, the character roles have reversed this time around with Mater getting the lion’s share of the screen-time and McQueen serving as supporting cast.  For fans of Mater (a group that includes your author), this is a good thing.  However, proponents of the rusty truck may find themselves cringing at the overexposure and oftentimes annoying behavior.  McQueen actually becomes a bit more difficult to like as a result of this setup as he’s really presented as more someone who endures Mater’s presence rather than enjoys his friendship.

A few new characters are entered into the fold (aside from the aforementioned Italian F-1 car) including Finn McMissile; a British agent voiced by Michael Caine, Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer​) as Mater’s love interest and a new villain by the name of Professor Zündapp (Thomas Kretschmann​).

While Disney is typically cautious not to integrate political views into their pieces, there is a bit of fossil fuel reliance danger/ Big Oil propaganda to be found here.  Of course it could be argued that these are simply current global issues and hence integrated as a sign of the times.

The visuals are charming as ever with massive explosions, water effects, rich textures and so on.  Sounds are spectacular, on down to accurate engine roars amidst a pack of wide-open competition automobiles.  Pixar’s attention to detail is as impressive as ever and as expected, Michael Giacchino’s score is executed so perfectly as to be subliminal.

In all Cars 2 will likely manage to hold the attention of its intended audience as kids will clamor at the intense onscreen action and the sheer satisfaction of seeing their favorite personified automobiles in action again.  Fans of the first film will likely find more to appreciate including a global setting and anything but a rehash of the same plotline but it’s safe to say those moviegoers who were never quite enamored with the first film’s niche-laced charms should probably avoid looking to the sequel to change their opinion.