Star race car Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix race. But the road to the championship becomes rocky as Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.
Cinematography
Tokyo neon and Italian coast = gorgeous travel brochure
Practical Effects
Spy gadgets actually slap for a kids movie
Director
John Lasseter
Larry the Cable Guy
Mater (voice)
Owen Wilson
Lightning McQueen (voice)
Michael Caine
Finn McMissile (voice)
Emily Mortimer
Holley Shiftwell (voice)
Eddie Izzard
Sir Miles Axlerod (voice)
John Turturro
Francesco Bernoulli (voice)
Brent Musburger
Brent Mustangburger (voice)
Joe Mantegna
Grem (voice)
Thomas Kretschmann
Professor Z (voice)
Peter Jacobson
Acer (voice)
Bonnie Hunt
Sally (voice)
Darrell Waltrip
Darrell Cartrip (voice)
Franco Nero
Uncle Topolino (voice)
David Hobbs
David Hobbscap (voice)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is Pixar's first 'bad' movie by critical consensus and nearly killed the franchise until Cars 3 course-corrected. The studio itself barely acknowledges its existence in retrospectives.
John Lasseter directed this while running all of Disney Animation AND Pixar, and later admitted the spy plot came from his own Bond obsession rather than organic story development. The original plan was a Lightning McQueen road trip movie.
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