Not as bad as you'd think and looks lovely ðŸ˜Š

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2017)

I loved the original cars movie. It is one of those movies I can stick on and watch nonstop without it ever getting old. So when cars 2 was released I was excited for more Lightning McQueen and friends.
Cars 2 starts differently than its predecessor. It's like a spy movie instead, with fast paced spy cars and villains (like from a cheesy bond film) We see Cars fighting and doing stunts for a bit, and we are introduced to the lead spy Finn Mcmissile. It eventually cuts to Radiator Springs and we can tell that Mater is going to feature heavily in this movie. Now Mater is not everyone's cup of tea. I know I don't like him all that much but kids do. Anyway, Lightning comes home from winning his 4th piston cup and he and Mater play around for a bit before Lightning goes on a date with his girlfriend.
We learn there's to be a world racing tour on and Mater inadvertently gets Lightning in it with a heap of international racers ( the Italian guy, Francesco, is a hoot!) though only one was a lady, but that's Pixar's choice and so their fault for not having more variety with their characters genders. At the same time there's a heap of spy stuff going on about some alternative fuel sources, defective car types being discriminated against, an oil deposit out at sea, and Mater accidentally gets involved with all this with Finn and another agent called Holley Shiftwell.
This is the movies main focus, the spy stuff and not racing. Lightning doesn't know about the spy stuff till near the end of the movie and just does races. The races, of which there are only 3 which is odd for a WORLD tour, are beautiful to look at. Seriously, the one in Italy is so life like! Just like a really Italian seaside town with more racing areas built in. But there's not enough focus on them or the racers which is one of the movies problems. What we do see of them is fast paced and exciting though. That was a highlight of the movie.
This was one of the main complaints from people. Not enough racing. If you look in the cars 2 artbook you can see that all kinds of races were also planned like an endurance one, a race in Russia, the Blackforest of Germany and other places across the globe. It's a pity we didn't see these.
But it all boils down to Lightning finding out about Mater doing spy stuff, revealing the lead villain and making up as friends after an argument. The last third of the movie is really silly, with flying rocket cars and over the top fighting but it made people laugh and the young members of my family were happy. Once the bad guys have been stopped and Mater is knighted by the Queen car of England of all things, everyone goes back to Radiator Springs for some friendly fun. Lightning even becomes friends with the Italian racer who was constantly teasing him.
It's a very silly movie really though there is some violence like one car being overheated till his engine blew. But I've see worse in cartoons. It looks spectacular and the races are fun. I loved Lightning and the other racers when you saw them and the spy stuff was amusing at times. It's just Mater I cannot abide in such large doses. He's not a good main character and not everyone goes for his type of humour. Kids like him though, so maybe that's why he was the star of the movie and not Lightning. I give it an 8 out of ten as I do find it beautiful, well animated fun but Mater makes me take of 2 whole stars.