Cars 2 (2011)

Most people think so. 84% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics scored it lower at 48%, but audiences disagreed.

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. Wikipedia ↗

Cars 2 is a 2011 American animated film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by John Lasseter, transforming the franchise from a small-town racing story into a globe-trotting spy adventure. Larry the Cable Guy's Mater the tow truck is elevated from comic relief to protagonist when he is mistakenly recruited as an intelligence operative by British spy Finn McMissile, voiced by Michael Caine, and his partner Holley Shiftwell, voiced by Emily Mortimer, while attending the inaugural World Grand Prix alongside Lightning McQueen. The spy plot involves a conspiracy by a group of lemon cars — vehicles made by manufacturers known for producing unreliable models — who plan to discredit the World Grand Prix's alternative fuel to maintain the world's dependence on petroleum.

Cars 2 was Pixar's most critically maligned film at the time of its release, with many reviewers feeling that the shift to a spy-comedy formula centered on the broadly comedic Mater was a fundamental miscalculation that sacrificed the original's emotional sincerity for slapstick action. John Lasseter's personal passion for automobiles and espionage films drove the creative direction, and the international settings — Tokyo, Paris, London, and the Italian Riviera — gave the animation team opportunities for visually spectacular environments. The film earned $559 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, commercially successful but the first indication that Pixar's critical invincibility had limits.