I had a very unusual experience seeing this movie in theaters.
I watched it, I had a great time, I laughed, cheered, was thrilled, and the moment the credits started to roll the people in the row behind me IMMEDIATELY started spouting off how much they HATED it. I was flabbergasted. I was sorely tempted to turn around and ask them if we even just saw the same movie? How could anyone hate something that's so much FUN?!
But after thinking about it, I could see actually why they didn't get into it. Cars 2 is the first Pixar movie where you really have to 'get the joke' of the premise, or the whole thing falls apart like a house of cards. What this movie is, is the best James Bond movie of the last 15 years (not counting Casino Royale which transcends Bond movies to be just a great spy movie), with a bit of The Accidental Spy thrown in.
I LOVE Bond movies. The crazy opening sequences, the insane gadgets, the quippy lines. And Cars 2 hit pitch perfect parodies of every Bond standard. But you could never say of any Bond movie that it's got a deep emotional core, that's not how they're made. They're made to be balls to the wall fun and thrills, and that's what this movie is. Which of course makes it the polar opposite of the original Cars. It could hardly be more different.
If you get the joke, that this is a James Bond movie with cars, it's a riot. Loads of fun. It's not deep, it's not going to tug at your heart strings, it will not make your mother cry three or four times (as virtually ever Pixar movie ever made prior has done to my mother, I take her to Pixar movies with a bucket). It's just riotous fun. And I'm amazed that people are punishing Pixar for making a movie that's just pure fun. Granted Pixar is famous for it's deep emotional stories, and I suppose people expect that sort of thing every time. Even if you make a fun and entertaining movie, if you don't do what people expect, they bite your head off for it.
I went in with few expectations cause the early reviews bashed it to pieces, and I was frankly not that big a fan of the original movie. In the first Cars McQueen spends an enormous amount of the movie whining, and I found him generally unlikeable until fully halfway through the movie. It was a good movie, with a lot of heart and a message, but not one I would describe as a lot of FUN. Mater especially, a little of him went a long way in the first movie, and I was really worried about him being the star of this movie, because if a little of him annoyed me in the first movie, this one has 10 times more of him.
And yet, he actually annoyed me LESS this time around, cause he had something to do instead of just hanging around being Mater. They struck a perfect balance in his 'mater-ness' where the Accidental Spy nature of his story is charming instead of just annoying. And even more to my amazement, Mater's unique perspective DOES actually help solve the mystery. He's not just a bumbling idiot gumming up the works, he does actually help.
I was also constantly amused at the imagination that went into Cars-ifying the world. Even little touches like the swanky party in Towkyo (not a typo! ha!), the elevators are giant pistons that come out of the floor. I didn't expect it at all but once I saw it was it was so perfect.
To sum up, I have to say, I enjoyed this movie MORE than the original Cars. Yet at the same time I'll fully agree that the original is a technically superior film in writing and character, but Cars 2 is way more fun. If you go into this with the right attitude, that you're seeing a James Bond movie with Cars, that it's meant to be pure fun and embrace it on that level, there's a lot to love.
The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is it IS shallow. I won't say it's a perfect film on every level cause it's not. But it doesn't deserve the hate it's getting, it's just a fun movie, and there's nothing wrong with that. If it doesn't quite transcend to the levels of brilliance of The Incredibles or Wall:E, that doesn't make it BAD, it suffers only in comparison to other Pixar work, compared to anything else, it rocks. :) Cars 2
I too was looking forward to watching this movie with my kids. The 1st movie was well written and had a good story line about what happens when you become selfish. The 2nd movies was nothing like the 1st one. The story line was about the evil oil industry and trying to kill cars. I am not adverse to violence, because I grew up with Bugs Bunny and the Warner Brother cartoons. I let me children watch these shows, but the violence is appropriate to what the characters are doing. The Cars 2 movie was covering adult material trying to make young children understand the message. Gas burning cars are bad, and push green energy. They tried to do the same thing in WALL-E with covering adult material. Please keep the social engineering to politics and leave our children alone. It will be a long time before I see a movie in a theater with my children. I will stick to reviewing DVD movies at home before letting them watch the movie. It is a darn shame the movie industry doesn't see the original Cars movie as a template to produce great movies for families to watch together at the theater.
I'm the mother of a four-year-old boy who has seen "Cars" roughly 2.7 billion times in the past two years he's been watching movies. It was, and is, his favorite film, and even I don't mind hearing it on the endless loop it seems to be on in our minivan DVD player. My son was DYING to see "Cars 2," in the theater, "with the glasses," and we went this past weekend. (He even knew the opening date from the ubiquitous TV ads and preview trailers on various DVDs and has been talking about this for MONTHS.)
To sum up his review: he wanted to leave halfway through to, "go home and play Legos." This was his second-ever in-theater movie; first, "Tangled," when he was only three, he loved and had no problem sitting through, even with the 3D glasses on.
The "Toy Story: Hawaiian Vacation" short at the beginning was brilliant. Really shows they could do a "Toy Story 4," which I guess Tom Hanks recently hinted at, but please spare us a "Cars 3."
This was a shoot-'em-up spy movie which MAY have worked with another conceit but had nothing to do with the established Cars universe, so why do a second film? The races were secondary (almost pointless), the entire message of friendship and slow-down-and-enjoy-life from the first film was COMPLETELY thrown out the window, and a little of Tow Mater goes a LONG way. Unless you're a rabid Larry the Cable Guy fan, this is an easy wait for the DVD. And if you're child-free, this is a Pixar film you're gonna want to pass on.
I agree with the critics: This is Pixar's first failure. (That Oscar streak has definitely come to an end.) Not the worst kids' movie I've ever seen, but I expected far better from Disney and, especially, Pixar. The plot was pointless and silly (and I grew up a rampant James Bond fan), the dialogue lacked the clever repartee of previous Pixar pictures (what usually keeps the adults watching) and it just wasn't very fun at all. Expertly animated, of course, with plenty of "cool" chases and spy gadgets ... But that's not nearly enough to carry a movie.'
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