Cars 2 (soundtrack)

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"There’s flavors of all that in there for sure, but for me the most important thing is that we stick with what’s important for the characters at that moment. While there’s going to be flavors of where they are, it’s mostly going to be about them. The music is always hopefully what’s going on inside their head as opposed to what’s going on in the world outside of them. With music, you always want to be inside the character. You want to stick with them. When you get with the environment instead, it stops being about the characters and it stops being interesting."

— Michael Giacchino [4]

The score had international flavors as most of it does center around Finn McMissile (Michael Caine), and the music echoes of Radiator Springs and other elements from the first film he did not want to lose. He admitted that there is a thematic element to the film that does develop as the film progresses. [6] Especially to match McMissile's character, a successful spy in the 1960s in London, and he thought of the kind of music he listened for the film, which was surf music that became the centrepiece of the film as well as his identity. [4] On the racing sequences, it had more showcasing racing and no guitar used in the film, if being used it is a combination of the "racing and something else is going on story-wise. So it all depends on what's happening with the story, how much or how little you use of that element." [5]

He said that the score is really that surf thing, at its core and had elements such as "fun, action, emotion and friendship" which he liked, saying "You know with these movies, especially at Pixar, the core of the film is usually something very emotional and something that feels really real that you can relate to, it's not like done in a false way. You know a lot of films will treat emotion falsely and you can sense that very quickly, but these films have a way of pulling you in and making you care about these characters because they're treating them like real people, not like a cartoon or something to make fun of, they actually treat them as if they're real people, and I think that's great." [5] As the film featured several cars, he did not want the music to be too overt with the film as it becomes more about the music than it does about the film, as he felt that he want the music to follow the characters. [6]

The Newsboys song “City to City” was featured in the film albeit not credited in the soundtrack.

Track listing

All music is composed by Michael Giacchino, except where noted

Cars 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Cars 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).jpg
Soundtrack album by
Michael Giacchino
ReleasedJune 14, 2011
Recorded2010–2011
Studio
Genre Soundtrack
Length63:24
Label Walt Disney
Producer
Pixar film soundtrack chronology
Toy Story 3
(2010)		Cars 2
(2011)		 Brave
(2012)
Cars 2 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Artist(s)Length
1."You Might Think" (Cover of The Cars) Ric Ocasek Weezer 3:07
2."Collision of Worlds"
  • Williams
  • Paisley
3:36
3."Mon Cœur Fait Vroum (My Heart Goes Vroom)"
 Bénabar 2:49
4."Nobody's Fool"PaisleyPaisley4:17
5."Polyrhythm" Yasutaka Nakata Perfume 4:09
6."Turbo Transmission"  0:52
7."It's Finn McMissile!"  5:54
8."Mater the Waiter"  0:43
9."Radiator Reunion"  1:40
10."Cranking Up the Heat"  1:59
11."Towkyo Takeout"  5:40
12."Tarmac the Magnificent"  3:27
13."Whose Engine Is This?"  1:22
14."History's Biggest Loser Cars"  2:26
15."Mater of Disguise"  0:48
16."Porto Corsa"  2:55
17."The Lemon Pledge"  2:13
18."Mater's Getaway"  0:59
19."Mater Warns McQueen"  1:31
20."Going to the Backup Plan"  2:24
21."Mater's the Bomb"  3:17
22."Blunder and Lightning"  2:17
23."The Other Shoot"  1:03
24."Axlerod Exposed"  2:22
25."The Radiator Springs Grand Prix"  1:30
26."The Turbomater"  0:50
Total length:63:24

Reception

James Southall of Movie Wave wrote "Nothing here is without merit – it’s by a composer of serious talent and a knack of delivering what a film needs – but as an album, there’s just something about it which means the whole seems rather less than the sum of its parts.  It’s reasonably entertaining, but I doubt anyone would consider it amongst the composer’s finer efforts and it is left trailing in the dust of Newman’s far superior music for the first instalment, which was never given the kind of release it deserved." [7] Filmtracks.com wrote "the songs are fine and the score is merely average, Giacchino's music broader in scope and obviously longer in length than Newman's but lacking in any distinctive highlights or convincing emotional connection. It's simply parody music from start to finish, and it's tough to really become engaged with it when other composers have done it before and arguably done it better." [8]

Bill Graham of Collider wrote "the score by Michael Giacchino lacks a focused, recognizable theme". [9] James Christopher Monger of AllMusic wrote "The film’s soundtrack reflects these changes, swapping out previous maestro Randy Newman with the extremely capable Michael Giacchino, and front-loading the collection with five very different pop songs." [10] Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Michael Giacchino’s score has the effect of a super-charger on the film, as if it needed one". [11]

Chart performance

Chart (2011)Peak

position

Mexican Albums (AMPROFON) [12] 25
US Billboard 200 [13] 150
US Soundtrack Albums ( Billboard ) [14] 7

Credits

Credits adapted from CD liner notes. [15]

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References

  1. ↑ Weintraub, Steve (June 22, 2011). "Michael Giacchino Interview CARS 2, STAR TREK, SPEED RACER". Collider. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  2. ↑ Orange, B. Alan (May 11, 2011). "Cars 2 Soundtrack Gets Weezer, Brad Paisley, and Robbie Williams". MovieWeb. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  3. ↑ Jenkins, Adrienne. "Giacchino to score Cars 2". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Lesnick, Silas (June 21, 2011). "Exclusive: Michael Giacchino Talks Cars 2". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Chitwood, Adam (May 1, 2011). "Composer Michael Giacchino Interview CARS 2". Collider. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  6. 1 2 Gallagher, Brian (April 19, 2011). "Michael Giacchino Talks Cars 2 [Exclusive]". MovieWeb. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Cars 2 soundtrack review | Michael Giacchino | movie-wave.net". June 27, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Filmtracks: Cars 2 (Michael Giacchino)". www.filmtracks.com. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  9. ↑ Graham, Bill (June 24, 2011). "CARS 2 Review". Collider. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  10. ↑ Michael Giacchino - Cars 2 [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] Album Reviews, Songs & More | AllMusic , retrieved April 23, 2023
  11. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (June 19, 2011). "Cars 2: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Mexicancharts.com – Soundtrack – Cars 2". Hung Medien. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Soundtracks: Week of July 9, 2011". Billboard . July 9, 2011. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Soundtracks: Week of July 9, 2011". Billboard . July 9, 2011. Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
  15. ↑ Cars 2 [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] - Michael Giacchino | Credits | AllMusic , retrieved April 23, 2023
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