Let me start by saying, for the record, that I am one of those people who felt that Cars was the weakest of Pixar’s first 11 films. By no means do I think Cars was a bad movie. We own it. We watched it last week. I always enjoy it when I watch it. It is leaps and bounds ahead of pretty much any other animated film (Sorry Megamind, I liked you too, but…). But it just didn’t have the same punch for me that all of the other Pixar movies did. That being said, there was no question in my mind about seeing Cars 2. I was totally there.
So, as you may have read online (I assume you read things online, right? No? How did you get here? Who are you?), Cars 2 got terrible reviews. It is the first Pixar movie to have a “rotten” score on rottentomatoes.com, and overall has received poor word of mouth. I would now like to assure you that these critics are wrong to give Cars 2 such negative reviews. But they are also completely right.
Cars 2 was a good movie. I enjoyed it. I will buy it on DVD and I will watch it again. It was also, by leaps and bounds, the worst movie Pixar has made so far. It is animated really well, it has an exciting story, and silly characters doing silly things. It has a tidy message that it squeezes in awkwardly in between action scenes. It is Kung Fu Panda. And I like Kung Fu Panda. But I see why people are disappointed. Pixar has made such exceptional films in the past, that it is almost impossible not to think a little negatively about this only “above average” film.
The biggest problem that I saw with the movie was that it skewed too young for the adults, and it was a little sophisticated thematically for the younger children. I think it was the whole spy thing. Toy Story 3 had a jailbreak theme, which I’m sure went over the childrens’ heads, but “I’m trapped, must escape” is a pretty simple and universal thing to understand. The world of espionage is slightly more complicated. I think the first clue that we were in trouble was when, about 20 minutes into the movie, Ruby turned to my wife and asked, “What’s a spy?”
The weirdest thing for me, having just watched the first Cars again, was that the original movie was basically all about slowing down, enjoying the journey, and finding a place you can call home, whereas the second movie is an international spy caper. It’s almost like they made a sequel to “Field of Dreams” about football. I think sitting down and watching Cars and Cars 2 back to back is going to be jarring, but I’ll let you know if that is really true later. I’m betting sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
You know, maybe I just need to see it again, without the distracting children in the theater. And by distracting children in the theater, I am of course referring to Baby Edward. He definitely did better at Cars 2 than he did at Mr. Popper’s Penguins, but he made quite a few new friends at the theater. No, wait, what is the opposite of friend…?
First he decided to toss his truck that we brought to distract him into the row behind us. Luckily I don’t think it hit anyone. Then, about halfway through the movie, he decided to peg his 3-D glasses as hard as he could into the rows in front of us. I think he hit at least two people, and the glasses landed somewhere 3 rows down. Why they gave him 3-D glasses in the first place, I have no idea. And for his big finale, he somehow managed to get a full straw of Mountain Dew and spray it all over myself and the woman sitting to my right. Luckily this woman seemed to be in charge of a large birthday party full of screaming 8-year-olds, so I’m pretty sure she was already sticky.
In the end, I feel that Cars 2 has gotten a bad rap, but it’s only because our expectations were so high. It’s like when Lisa Simpson gets a B on a test. It’s a good grade, but not for her. So take your kids to Cars 2. They will love it. You will probably like it well enough. Just don’t expect Toy Story 3.