Cars 2

Rating: 8/10 (30 June 2011)

Cars 2 just opened in theatres and you can probably guess what my four year old son wanted to do this morning.
Well to be honest he has wanted to do it ever since I was stupid enough to play the trailer for him. Never play a trailer for a small child they don't get the concept of 'its a trailer' and you will regret it for the rest of the night. So after that fiasco I was finally able to take my son to see it and I and he can report back with our feedback.
I am including his comments in my review because to be fair who cares what a 30 year old male thinks when the demographic is clearly small children 8 years and under.
Lets start with the premise for those who may have not been following the sequel; Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson)and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to new places when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world's fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of potholes, detours and hilarious surprises when Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.
Torn between assisting Lightning McQueen in the high-profile race and towing the line in a top-secret spy mission, Mater's action-packed journey leads him on an explosive chase through the streets of Japan and Europe, trailed by his friends and watched by the whole world. Adding to the fast-paced fun is a colorful new all-car cast that includes secret agents, menacing villains and international racing competitors.
I have to start by saying I never saw the original Cars movie because for whatever reason as much as I am a huge Pixar fan the premise fell flat with me. Talking cars? No thanks. That said my son loved the first film and has all the toys, the stickers, and even has his room wallpapered with Cars characters. So to say I was really excited to take him to see the sequel was an understatement despite the fact my interest level was just above zero at best. Unfortunately Cars 2 is exactly what I feared it would be and maybe a little bit worse.
Cars 2 offers some top notch animation, big name voice over's and even include some interesting cameos like that of Sig Hansen Captain of the Northwestern from the show Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel. It has a few laughs, it has some action but it also has a good 45-60minutes of drawn out character interactions that made my little guy drift off from why we were there and at about the half way mark of the movie he was ready to get up and make a ruckus.
Cars 2 comes off to me as an unneeded sequel and although it had its laughs and some high points and when I asked my son what he thought he said 'it was good daddy' and when I asked him 'would you like to see another cars movie?' he replied 'lets watch something else'. He may have seen the first film easily 20 times but its safe to say that neither myself nor my 4 year old are interested in seeing it twice. Cars 2 was boring, drawn out and offered very little entertainment for me as an adult and very limited entertainment value for my 4 year old.
It cost us $40 when you include the popcorn and drinks and frankly I think I would have been further ahead to rent one of the Top 10 Pixar Movies on Luke's new top list for $3.99 then go see Cars 2. My advice is skip it and watch it on DVD. My kid is a huge huge CARS fan and knows every character and he was extremely distracted and bored and made it clear after he had fun but is in no rush to see it or anymore cars movies again. I can honestly say the highlight was the 8 minute long Toy Story short film at the start of the movie which was both funny, charming and entertaining. Everything Cars 2 was not. Can watch it on BBCmovie.com