In a 'trash your last movie' era, why I'm glad that Pixar is defending Cars 2...

As a result of director Andrew Stanton and the various producers of John Carter are making the junket rounds this week, there has been opportunity to discuss what many pundits and critics feel was a rare Pixar whiff in Cars 2.  Producer Lindsey Collins, while speaking to Movieline's Jen Yamato, discussed both the film's critical reception and the fact that it was the first Pixar film not to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature since the inception of that category in 2001.  Without simply laying out the quotes (hence the link), she correctly states that there were a number of really solid animated films this year, that she believes that Cars 2 suffered from a kind of anti-Pixar backlash, and that director John Lasseter still loves the film.  I don't know if the film suffered from an anti-Pixar backlash (although expectations were that the film would be mediocre prior to press screenings), and I am personally not a fan of Cars 2.  But I personally am darn-happy to see the Pixar gang defending it against the critical onslaught.

I find it to be narratively mundane, focusing on a somewhat obnoxious supporting character and basically ditching the small-town nostalgia elements that made the first Cars somewhat endearing (the first act is terrible, but once Lightning McQueen gets stranded it vastly improves) for the sake of a generic action narrative.  But the film is visually striking, with a few interesting (and surprisingly violent) action sequences and, while the end result doesn't work, I can't entirely condemn Pixar for telling a wholly different story from the first Cars.  Point being, it is quite refreshing in this day-and-age to see filmmakers actually defending their less-than-acclaimed projects.  The status quo of late has seen stars, filmmakers, even studios trashing their prior pictures, usually in a bid to convince us that  "This time it will be different!".

Disney basically based its entire marketing campaign for Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides around the idea that the sequels were terrible and that no one wanted to see any characters other than Jack Sparrow this time around.  Michael Bay and Shia LeBeouf spent much of the last two years apologizing for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, although Megan Fox's somewhat similar statements ended up getting her fired from the franchise.  And just this December, while doing rounds for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Daniel Craig took time out of his schedule to bash Quantum of Solace (a film that is vastyly underrated in the 007 cannon) while generically reassuring fans that Skyfall will be much, much better. 

This isn't a new concept, as Sandra Bullock went on record trashing/apologizing for Speed 2: Cruise Control a few years after its 1997 release.  And this is different from the rare case where a filmmaker or star bashes his or her own project prior to release (as Bill Cosby famously did with Leonard Part 6 in 1986).  This new form of 'trash the prior entry to pump up the next entry' has become almost a given over the last few years.  And this summer will surely see such retroactive criticism of all three of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films (even the critically-lauded second entry, although I prefer the initial installment), as well as Stephen Summers's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra from many of the same people who swore that the films were both fantastic and well-worth your money at the time of their respective releases.  And one must only wait until the junket tours for next month's Wrath of the Titans to hear star Sam Worthington and producers waxing poetically about how they knew full-well that Clash of the Titans was a narrative disaster and how they got it (and the infamously lousy post-conversion 3D) right this time.

I'm not saying that Clash of the Titans wasn't pretty lousy, or that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen wasn't abominable, but there is something deeply cynical about a studio basically admitting that they sold you an inferior bill of goods the last time around, but *this time* they are making a winner.  It insults those who paid to see those films in a theater and further insults those who actually like the prior entries in question.  I have long defended the relative artistic merits of all three Gore Verbinski Pirates of the Caribbean films.  How nice of Disney to basically tell me that I'm wrong to do so while selling what turns out to be a painfully inferior cash-in.  

Worse yet, most of these post-mortum mea culpas offer no real details into what allegedly went wrong, merely offering generic 'the script needed work' or 'we didn't mean to make a sequel' proclamations that shed no real light into the nitty-gritty of making a bad film that was intended to be a good one.  Does anyone think we'll get an honest account of the infamous behind-the-scenes turmoil that went on during Iron Man 2 or X-Men Origins: Wolverine when summer 2013 sees the release of Iron Man 3 and The Wolverine?  Nope, but the producers and cast will be sure to apologize and swear that "this time it'll be different!'. 

I personally find it downright refreshing that John Lassetter is unwilling to throw his latest film, obviously one that was a personal project for him, under the bus merely to be seen as in agreement with the critical status quo.  Just as I find it refreshing watching George Lucas defending the various changes he has made to the original Star Wars trilogy and the quality of the prequel trilogies, even when I don't agree with every defense he offers (I never found Han Solo to be immoral for shooting first), I am happy to see Pixar standing up for the product they made.  John Lasseter made the Cars 2 that he wanted to make.  That I didn't care much for the end product doesn't mean he is obligated to dislike it as well.  He still champions the movie, and I have to give him credit for bucking the trend.

Scott Mendelson