Movie review: Cars 2
June 27, 2011 by Julia
Filed under exhibits, festivals, and shows, Featured
image credit: Disney and Pixar
My three year old adores his Cars cars and Radiator Springs play set, and since I first caught wind of Cars 2, I’ve been waiting for the movie release to take him. He’s not a sit down and watch a movie type of kid, said to qualify this review. So far every movie that we have ever dragged him to (for the sake of taking the six year old to the theater) has ended in epic fail with the exception of Toy Story 3. I want to say that he loved the movie, but my kiddo was terrified, antsy, and -uh- bored?
Cars 2 I don’t think will resonate with the under 4 crowd unless the child loves movies, action, and can sit through films even without comprehension. My son is a McQueen fan, and there’s not a whole lot of McQueen on screen so he kept asking where Lightning McQueen went. ”Why are the bad cars getting Lightning McQueen? Is Mater bad?” This sequel centers around Mater more than McQueen, and if I had to guess, McQueen was onscreen maybe 25% of the movie. I on the other hand am a Mater and James Bond fan so I found the movie hilarious and liked the cheekiness more than the original Cars movie. When I posted on Facebook to friends, their two little boys (ages 3 and 2) had similar reactions as my son.
My son fidgeted through most of the movie, ate the entire box of popcorn, covered his ears through the loud explosions, asked about every number painted on the race cars, and kept saying at the top of his lungs that he wanted to go home. I rummaged through my purse for any extra snacks in the hopes to delay our departure because *I* wanted to finish the movie. 
My daughter had to be nudged awake, but I didn’t count on her enjoying the film. She’s a princess fairy Ponyo fan through and through, but I dragged her to the movies since an admission ticket is less expensive than a babysitter.
I won’t spoil the movie for you so I’ll just type in generalities. Keep in mind if you’re taking young children to the theater, there are a lot of “bad cars” and explosions that may upset a sensitive child. The overt message of big oil may offend the politically conservative parent or make the champion of alternative fuels cheer. The quippy dialogue may go over a young child’s head, but as I said – I enjoyed this movie far more than my children did. Is it a bad movie? Not at all. I just think it isn’t as well suited for younger, sensitive children (compared to the first) because of the action-packed scenes, but the kids who first watched Cars in the theaters are older now so they would get a kick out of Cars 2. There is an overarching theme of friendship that carries over from the first movie.
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My kids are 4, and pretty sensitive when it comes to movies/shows. They loved Cars 2 and I thought it was far more entertaining and fast paced than the first. I don’t think they took their eyes off the screen once! Like anything, everyone will have different experiences. I thought the emphasis on friendship was great and even my four year olds caught on to it. The only negative I see to Cars 2 is that now we have a whole new set of cars to buy!!
Yes, I definitely feel like this movie was faster paced, and the friendship emphasis is a good moral lesson for the kids.
When we got in the car after the movie and my 6 year old had one simple question, “Why were they all killing each other?” I regretted bringing everyone. Pixar films are known (and applauded) for their appeal to young and old but filling a film so beloved by little kids and marketed to families with an endless barrage of guns was just a poor decision on Pixar’s part. They were unnecessary to the brilliant plot and important message for kids (that you should just be yourself). The number of times they could have replaced “Kill” with “hurt” “get” or some car reference such as “crush” or “have an accident” are astounding and personally, doing so would have enhanced the film for families.
My intent is not to be critical of the film; though I agree with Julia, and my son was bored restless, I thought it was an otherwise decent movie (not as good as the first but not terrible). It’s that Disney/Pixar seemed to have neglected their core audience that bugged me.
We just got back from seeing Cars 2….my 4 year old never took his eyes off the screen. This was his first movie in a theater & I thought it would be too loud for him, but he never covered his ears. I was a little upset with all of the time they said “kill”. We haven’t had a conversation about the movie (he fell asleep on the way home), so I am interested to hear what his impression was of the movie. I had my 2 year old there too, he was very engrossed for the first part, but lost interest as 2 year olds do. Luckily we went with a friend’s moms group who had made arrangements for other moms with little kids to go early (was nice not having to worry that the 2 year old was disturbing people).
We took our 4 year old son on opening night. I had read reviews that said McQueen wasn’t in the movie as much as the first and they didn’t like the plot, it was too hard to follow, etc. My son loved it, although it was a little too loud for him and he had a bit of a hard time with all the bad guys trying to get McQueen and Mater. I loved it, but I’m a big action movie fan. I don’t think it was AS appropriate for small children as the first movie, too much violence, even if it was “just” aimed at cars.
I have to agree with Paul. We went opening weekend and the theater was packed with kids who were bored, restless and disinterested. My son is only 3 but we’ve seen several other movies in the theater with very good results. He sat still as a stone through Toy Story 3 and Tangled. I was also very disappointed with the amount of violence. Lots of “kill”ing and guns that were not necessary.