Cars 2

[JEANYLASER]

awesome! I can't wait!

 

[Disney]

Hey guys, Disney here again. We've released a ton of new images from Cars 2, including a few new character images. Have you guys seen them yet?

 

[Disney]

Here are some fresh images of the new Japanese Cars from the film. Pretty cool, right?

 

[SSLFan]

So has anyone gone out to see the film yet? It opened yesterday. So far it's gotten mixed to negative reviews.

 

[Drtooth]

I do plan to see this, but my standards are significantly lowered. It seems enjoyable, and I usually enjoy a movie for what it is when I hear what some of the flaws are. This WILL be a Mater-centric movie, and it has a very kiddy friendly plot. I'll definitely consider that and probably enjoy it more than anyone else will.

 

[Drtooth]

Wait for it....

Cars 2 (by a medium sized margin) > the first one. I don't know how, I dunno why, but they totally managed to make it much more interesting this go around. And I gotta admit, as fuzzy I was about the Spy theme, but they managed to pull it off a LOT less jarring than they did with the trailers, albeit the movie should be subtitled "The Mater who knew too Much." Maybe it was that they got out of Radiator Springs and it was more visually stunning... maybe because Mater was a little more sympathetic... maybe because I liked the conspiracy theory aspect... I just don't know.

Mild Spoilers:


Now, I remember walking out of the theater after the first one thinking to myself, wouldn't it be great if there was a sequel about some sort of strange oil based conspiracy. And I also thought to myself when the project was announced, I think it would be very respectful if they retired the character of Doc Hudson in memory of Paul Newman.

Glad to know 2 things I wanted to see happened in the film.

 

[JJandJanice]

I saw Cars 2 a few days ago and to be totally honest, I do feel it's Pixar's weakest film to date. Honestly, at least the first one had a more "we're living cars" theme to it than this one. Sort of reminded me of the character "Towelie" from South Park as odd of a comparison that might seem to some. But what I mean is, I remember Trey Parker and Matt Stone mentioning in one of their commenties for an episode that sometimes they forget that Towelie is a towel and just starts writing for him as a character, I do feel that's what happened in Cars 2 a bit, that they just sort of forgot that they were Cars.

If you're a big fan of the character Meter or Larry the Cable guy, than this movie is perfect for you. As the character Meter totally ate up the screen time, way more so than Lighting.

Plus I have to say, I was a little disappointed with the character of Francesco, I honestly thought he was going to become more of a key character in the movie than what he turned out to be, which was just a "friendly rival" of Lighting's, and that's it. He didn't really add anything to the story, which I guess is hard to do, considering the story was mainly about Meter than Lighting's racing.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie ok and perhaps I'm over thinking it a bit. On a personal note, when I saw it, no one else was in the theater with me, which meant no annoying kids who don't know how to behave in theaters. Wish I could say the same thing about Kung Fu Panda 2. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie very much (maybe the ONLY time so far in my mind Dreamworks out did Pixar truthfully), but man the people in their would NOT SHUT UP, actually to be fair, the kids weren't so bad, their parents were actually WAY WORSE, if you can believe that, .

 

[Drtooth]

I really wish there was more to Fransisco's bit. I REALLY liked the character, though he seemed a little like that French guy that Sascha Baron Cohen played in Tallidega Nights (only Lightning didn't quite deserve the heckling that Rickey Bobby did). But it really felt like there should have been more racing, but it was obviously edited out of the film for runtime and overall flow of the movie.

I still find the spy theme kind of odd (according to the story, the spy thing came out of the fact a deleted sequence in the first one had Suzie and Lightning watching a Spy movie at a drive in... I SWEAR this is fact) but I think they managed to pull it off rather nicely with as LITTLE reference to James Bond as possible. That indeed is overly fished waters for parody.

Still, I give it a tick above the last one if nothing else that we got out of the desert and saw some pretty well crafted scenic designs. The craft shines through the direction of the film, and I still find the first, albeit slightly, to be their weakest. But again, that's like an A- to a straight A+ student.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

I'll chime in on this movie that I saw a few days ago with my soon to be 7 year old cousin. I thought the plot had a lot of James Bond references and it wasn't to hard to figure out. The plot had been recycled too many times, from the mistaken spy to the friend telling the other friend to just go, and it seemed like Owen Wilson's character was the secondary character this time around compared to the first one. However, I did enjoy the film and I thought the art direction was top notch. The scenery, from the buildings to the cars and various vehicles was great. I enjoyed the careful details the animators did with cities such as London. It was simply a blast looking at all those wonderful shots.

I have no idea why people consider Cars the weakest of the Pixar movies. Who cares, it's freakin Pixar. None of the other studios with animation departments do as good of a job a Pixar does. If people were trying to compare Cars 2 with Toy Story 3 from last year then forget it. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Both movies are made by Pixar and are animated films, but that's it. Just move on.

Final score: 3 out of 4 stars.

 

[Drtooth]

I thought the plot had a lot of James Bond references and it wasn't to hard to figure out.

I liked how they weren't screamingly obvious, and the same over-fished Shaken, not Stirred lines.

I mean, I agree... these are weak films in the sense that an A- report from an A plus student when most of the other students, you're lucky to GET an A- out of... some students just coast by with C's, and some somehow manage to give you D's or F's and manage to stay afloat with that. Even when Pixar isn't at the top of it's game, it's STILL at the top of the game most of the time. Still, Rango was the animated movie this year to beat, and I haven't seen anything top it yet.