The full-length trailer for Pixar’s Cars 2 has arrived and it doesn’t make sense, though that doesn’t matter much. It opens ominously on some beautifully animated water and oil rigs (“out here, is where the ocean burnsâ€), where Finn McMissile, a Michael Caine–voiced silver Jag, is “looking for a car.†Meanwhile, in a much more carefree register, Lightening (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) are on a happy mission to “see the world†and enter a race, while getting mistaken, by Caine, for “master spies.†What all this means for the actual plot — and how the comedy, the sports, the mistaken identity, and James Bond elements come together — is hard to discern. The dialogue, which consists of not-that-funny jokes, doesn’t add much clarity. And yet, despite all the incoherence, it looks fun: technicolor, fast, and goofy. (Plus, we’d happily listen to Michael Caine voice anything, even a boring, immobile rock.) And it’s Pixar, so even with a chaotic trailer, you know you’re in good hands. Though there is always the possibility this promo is a bait and switch and Cars 2 is really an intense tearjerker about where automobiles go to die. (Though that would be fine, too.)
