Saturday, September 10, 2011

Cars 2 (2011)


My wife and I decided to take my 2 year old special needs son, and my 5 (going on 12) year old daughter to see Cars 2. We are all fans of Pixar animated movies and we thought they would get a kick out of seeing one on the big screen. My daughter did, my son did too…for a while. Although we went for the kids, my wife and I both enjoyed the movie.
In Cars 2, Lightning McQueen is prodded into racing in the world cup where cars from all styles of racing compete against each other. Nascar, Formula 1, Rallycross, etc. Lightning’s faithful, yet simple-minded buddy, Mater, is accidentally pulled into the world of espionage and finds himself working alongside British intelligence to defeat a plot that could lead to McQueen’s death.
One thing Pixar is great at is knowing who their audiences are. It is primarily kids, and their parents who have been stuck going to see a children’s movie. Any parent who has had to sit through a 2 hour kids movie has wished they had a book to read, etc just to overcome the boredom. Pixar has always been great at subtlety injecting adult humor into their movies. The jokes are almost always over the kids head and often involves a double entendre. This makes the movie bearable for parents, and while keeping it kid friendly. Cars 2 is no exception.
Several times my wife and I (and another dad in the theater with his kids) found ourselves laughing hysterically at jokes that our kids didn’t get. The movie itself was not bad. It wasn’t Pixar’s best but it was still enjoyable. The voice acting was funny, and pulled in some perfectly cast voice actors. The storyline was silly yet fun. The biggest indicator was how long it held our children’s attention span.
If you are looking for a family friendly film, and have seen the original Cars, then check out Cars 2. I give it a 7.5 / 10.

No comments:

Post a Comment