The End of an Era: Cars 2 becomes Pixar’s first bad movie.
Article Written by Don Radhay
I usually don’t write movie articles but I felt this was a topic that had to be discussed. Tonight people all around the world will take witness to what will officially be “The worst Pixar movie ever.”
Am I exaggerating? It couldn’t be that bad right, I mean when has Pixar ever destroyed a film. Well the tragedy struck me when I first surfed over to Rotten tomatoes to find a compiled score of 38%.
Pixar has the greatest track record of films in the history of Hollywood. And Friday June 24th will mark the first time they’ve had to endure the worst reviews its ever had for Cars 2. It’s not just Rotten tomatoes either, nearly all the pundits of the movie world have given a negative reception to this sequel. Sure, the reviews could be a result of peoples high expectations of the high ranking studio. We’ve all come to expect near perfection in their story driven features, so the rating factor for them is much more strict than other studios. Perhaps if Cars 2 was released under another studio it may have received a better review.
To make matters worst, it’s not just a bad Pixar film, its considered one of the worst Computer Animated films of all time! According to Rotten Tomatoes, Dreamworks worst film was Shark Tale at 36%. Blue Sky’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was at 45% and finally Sony Pictures Animation’s Open Season at 36%. It gets better, Cars 2’s rating is dropping as more negative reviews are coming in and is on its way to be considered Worst than all of them. When would anyone have imagined Pixar making a film as bad as Shark Tale?. Who do we blame for this? Disney Lasseter, or Larry the Cable Guy?
As we all know, John Lasseter has always had a interest in cars, which was the main inspiration for the first Cars movie. Over the past 2 years we’ve seen Pixar expand into Vancouver to develop short films, as well as plans to develop classical animation and live action film. Maybe he bit off more than he could chew in stepping in to direct this one.
Interestingly enough, According to the reviews for all of Pixars other films, the first Cars is considered the worst of the 12 films, so why make a sequel to the worst Pixar franchise? It might have something to do with the pressure from Disney.
According to the statistics Cars has the second most successful product and toy line right behind Toy Story. Disney really had been arguing back and forth for a very long time with Lasseter about sequels (because we all know how financially successful Disney sequels are right?) And sooner or later the business side of things find more interest for financial gain than artistry. A Pixar film will never be a box office fail, and Cars 2 is no exception, with that the release of Cars 2 opens up the distribution for the second wave of Pixar’s second best Product Line. Disney is far from finished, because there are plans for development of a Monster, Inc. sequel as well.
Don’t get me wrong though. I do not believe it’s simply a matter of pressure from big brother Disney, because they have no creative control over the development of these films and Pixar has their own award winning formula for developing these features. However I also don’t believe that Pixar didn’t care how the film came out or that they have given up on story driven features. I think they just dropped the ball on this one.
On a positive note, no one has yet to top Pixar in their 16 year streak of highly successful films. It is an era in film making and innovation that many won’t soon forget.
Toy Story (1995) - 100%
A Bug’s Life (1998) - 91%
Toy Story 2 (1999) - 100%
Monsters, Inc. (2001) - 95%
Finding Nemo (2003) - 98%
The Incredibles (2004) - 97%
Cars (2006) - 74%
Ratatouille (2007) - 96%
WALL - E (2008) - 96%
Up (2009) - 98%
Toy Story 3 (2010) - 99%
Cars 2 (2011) - 38% and dropping.
