Cars 2

Finn McMissile (left), Mater (center), and Lightning McQueen (right) driving through Tokyo for the first time in a publicity shot (never actually featured in the film).

Cars is the second Pixar film, after Toy Story, to have a sequel as well as becoming a franchise.[20] 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.[21]

Cars 2 was originally scheduled for a summer 2012 release, but Pixar moved the release up by a year.[12]

In 2009, Disney registered several domain names, hinting to audiences that the title and theme of the film would be in relation to a World Grand Prix.[22]

In March 2011, Jake Mandeville-Anthony, a U.K. screenwriter, sued Disney and Pixar 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, Disney 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."[23] 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".[24]

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.[25] From November 2010 until May 2011, Disney 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.[26]

The film was preceded by a short film titled Hawaiian Vacation, directed by Gary Rydstrom and starring the characters of the Toy Story franchise.

The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment 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.[34]

The Movie Download release includes four bonus features: Cars Toons "Air Mater", the Toy Story Toon "Hawaiian Vacation", "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).[34]

Cars 2 sold a total of 1,983,374 DVD units during its opening week,[35] generating $31.24 million and claiming first place.[36] 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.[37] Blu-ray 3D contributed to this, accounting for 17% of total disc sales.[38] Cars 2 was released on 4K Blu-ray on September 10, 2019.[39]

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.[2] Worldwide on its opening weekend it grossed $109 million, marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated title.[40] Overall, Cars 2 became seventh biggest Pixar film in worldwide box office among the fourteen released.

Cars 2 made $25.7 million on its debut Friday (June 24, 2011), marking the second-largest opening day for a Pixar film, at the time, after Toy Story 3's $41.1 million. During this time, though, it was the third least-attended opening day for a Pixar film, only ahead of Up and Ratatouille.[41] It also scored the sixth largest opening day for an animated feature.[42] On its opening weekend as a whole, Cars 2 debuted at No.1 with $66.1 million,[31] marking the largest opening weekend for a 2011 animated feature, the seventh largest opening for Pixar,[43] the eighth largest among films released in June,[44] and the fourth largest for a G-rated film.[45] In its second weekend, however, the film dropped 60.3%, the largest second weekend drop ever for a Pixar film, and grossed $26.2 million.[46] At the end of its theatrical run, Cars 2 became the lowest-grossing Pixar film in North America since A Bug's Life.[47][48] As of 2018, it is Pixar's fourth lowest-grossing film in this region.[49] It was also the least attended Pixar film ever until 2015's The Good Dinosaur.[50][51]

Outside North America, it grossed $42.9 million during its first weekend from 3,129 theaters in 18 countries, topping the box office.[52] It performed especially well in Russia where it grossed $9.42 million,[53] marking the best opening weekend for a Disney or Pixar animated feature and surpassing the entire runs of Cars and Toy Story 3.[54] In Mexico, it made $8.24 million during its first weekend,[55] while in Brazil, it topped the box office with $5.19 million ($7.08 million with previews).[56] It also premeiered at No.1 with $5.16 million in Australia,[57] where it debuted simultaneously with Kung Fu Panda 2 and out-grossed it.[52] It is the highest-grossing film of 2011 in Lithuania ($477,117),[58] Argentina ($12 million).[59] It is the highest-grossing animated film of 2011 in Estonia ($442,707),[60] Finland ($3.2 million),[61] Norway ($5.8 million).[62]

On Rotten Tomatoes, Cars 2 has an approval rating of 39% based on 216 reviews, with an average rating of 5.48/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cars 2 is as visually appealing as any other Pixar production, but all that dazzle can't disguise the rusty storytelling under the hood."[63] It is the worst-reviewed Pixar film on the site, and the only one to earn a "rotten" certification.[64][65] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 57 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[66] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[67]

"The original Cars was not greeted with exceptional warmth," said The New York Times, "but the sequel generated Pixar's first truly negative response."[68] Critics generally criticized the G-rating, the focus on Mater and felt the film lacked warmth and charm, while also feeling the film was made as an exercise in target marketing.[69][70][71][72] Reviewing the film for The Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern wrote, “This frenzied sequel seldom gets beyond mediocrity."[73] Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman said, "Cars 2 is a movie so stuffed with "fun" that it went right off the rails. What on earth was the gifted director-mogul John Lasseter thinking – that he wanted kids to come out of this movie was [sic] more ADD?"[74] Although Leonard Maltin on IndieWire claimed that he had "such high regard for Pixar and its creative team led by John Lasseter" he said he found the plot "confusing" and felt that Mater's voice was annoying, saying that he'd "rather listen to chalk on a blackboard than spend nearly two hours with Tow Mater."[75] Considering the low reviews given to the Pixar production, critic Kyle Smith of the New York Post said, "They said it couldn't be done. But Pixar proved the yaysayers wrong when it made its first bad movie, Cars. Now it has worsted itself with the even more awful Cars 2."[76]

Conversely, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the movie 3½ stars out of four, and said that "the sequel is a tire-burning burst of action and fun with a beating heart under its hood." He also praised its "fluid script" and called it a "winner".[77] Roger Ebert was the most effusive of the more positive reviews, praising Lasseter's channeling of childhood playtime for the film's spirit and writing, “At a time when some ‘grown-up’ action films are relentlessly shallow and stupid, here is a movie with such complexity that even the cars sometimes have to pause and explain it to themselves.”[78] Justin Chang of Variety commented, “The rare sequel that not only improves on but retroactively justifies its predecessor.”[79] Ticket buyers also gave the film an A– in exit polls, on par with other Pixar titles.[68]

A central current of the negative reviews was the theory that Cars 2 was forced out of Pixar by its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, out of greed to drive merchandising sales.[73][80] Lasseter vehemently denied these claims, which he attributed to "people who don’t know the facts, rushing to judge."[68] Some theorized that the vitriol was less about the film but more about Pixar's broadened focus to sequels. The New York Times reported that although one negatively reviewed film would not be enough to scratch the studio, "the commentary did dent morale at the studio, which until then had enjoyed an unbroken and perhaps unprecedented run of critical acclaim."[68]

Cars 2 marks the first Pixar film not to be nominated for an Oscar.[81] It is also the first Pixar film not nominated for Best Animated Feature since its introduction in 2001.[82]

A stand-alone sequel, titled Cars 3, was released on June 16, 2017.[97] 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.[98]

An animated feature film spin-off called Planes, produced by DisneyToon Studios,[99] was released on August 9, 2013.[100] A sequel to Planes, titled Planes: Fire & Rescue, was later released the following year on July 18, 2014.[101]