May not be an easy ride for the very youngest

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 2011)

Cars 2 does three things which Cars didn't.
One, it moves the action outside hick town Radiator Springs to a variety of locations around the world.
Two, it adds plot - an awful lot of it, and quite dense and textured, too.
Three, it puts towtruck Mater at the centre of the action.
All three of these changes are sensible, and made Cars 2 for me a more enjoyable movie than its predecessor.
Mind you, I am an old git, and I'm not sure that the plotting is entirely a positive thing as far as a young audience is concerned - there is an awful lot of reliance on familiar elements from James Bond movies, for instance, without which the smallest audience members are going to find much of this to be quite difficult to follow. On the other hand, there is more of Mater whose child-like impulsiveness and good-heartedness (and slapstick tomfoolery) works on a very simple level.
I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the first one.