I am on holiday this week, so have not seen a single lap of the Brickyard 400 or the latest GP, so...
Sometimes critics take themselves and their chosen art too seriously. Be it a food critic harping on about "cooked to perfection", a motoring journalist getting excited by "feel and balance", or a movie critic boring everyone with "characters and emotion".
There are times when everyday people want food that is good for the price they are paying for it, most of the time people choose a car because they like it, and at times people just want to watch a movie that entertains!
The vast majority of reviews I have read about Cars 2 talk about the lackluster plot, the average this, the not good enough that. It's not as good as the Toy Story series or Wall-E. It doesn't have enough for adults to be entertained, and it only exists as a merchandising money stream for Pixar.
Does any of the last paragraph matter to me...
NO!!
I have just watched Cars 2 with my wife and my 5 year old daughter and we loved it!!
If you are a child you will love it! If you are an adult, and are willing to leave your adultness at the door and let your inner child out for a couple of hours, you too will love it! If not go watch some black and white foreign move with subtitles.
In a word Cars 2 is fun. It is entertainment that never takes itself seriously and just revels in taking you along for the ride.
The plot is good fun, save the world and trust your friends. The script is a laugh, from "Tow Mater, average intellegence" early on, to Flo and Sally eyeing up the Italian racers "open wheels" without letting on to Ramone or Lighning near the end. The film never slows down, from one action sequence to the next, one laugh to the next or from one stunning piece of animation to the next, and the animation is wonderful. The racing sequences are a delight, while the car-ified world is fabulous. One big diffference between the original Cars movie and this sequel is the number of "real" cars in this one. In Italy Luigi dances with a new Fiat 500, and in London the police cars are Ford Mondeos... ok maybe I am taking this a little too seriously.. back to the "fun"...
The in-gags are there to be spotted too, a banner at one of the races for "LasseTyres" is a cool one for the man himself to slip in there, and "Big Bentley" and a train called "Stephenson" and... and...
The film is very much the Mater show. It doesn't have the deepest characters or greatest plot in movie history. It does nothing to move the art of the computer animated motion picture on, even half a step.
BUT as I said earlier, does any of the last paragraph mater to me...
If you are a car person, if you want to have a laugh, if your inner child needs to be let out for a bit...
Watch Cars 2, you will love it!!
This review was written for "Shiftin' Gears" by James age 3.2... going on 32...
