28 June 2011

[product review: Cars 2 - The Movie.]


Our boys had been counting down the days until Cars 2.  Seriously.  For, like, a year.  When we were down to the last few "sleeps", I thought Josiah was going to lose his mind ... he was so excited.

We were pretty excited too.

We had ADORED the first Cars movie.  It was such a sweet story, with no "evil" or scary parts ... well ... maybe the "car tipping" part.  But that was it ... 

We arrived at the theatre an hour early - anticipating crowds ... but the theatre had done a great job of having a bunch of screening rooms assigned to "Cars 2".  There were only a handful of us in the theatre.

The movie started and we were whispering back and forth about how excited we were.  And then ... within just a few minutes, I realized this was going to be a VERY different experience.  

** do not read on if you don't want to know details about this movie **

The idea is simple enough .., Cars 2 is a spy movie.  And that's an attractive genre, but we were not anticipating the guns, bombs, and the words "death" and "kill".  Cars were being blown up ... tortured for information ... hunted.

My boys were VERY bothered by this ... but I should also say they ARE sensitive to these kinds of visual things.  We have to be very careful of what they watch - Mattias is 6, and Josiah is 4.  And some things that don't bother others, cause our boys to have nightmares.

Josiah hid his eyes behind his Light'ning for parts of the movie ...   Now - this movie is rated "G".  And we never felt strong enough to actually LEAVE the movie, but we definitely were hoping that it would get lighter as it went along ... 

This was my feeling ... I felt like this movie was made for those little boys who were 5 when the first Cars movie came out, and were now 9 or 10.  The storyline was complicated - far to complex for my boys, especially Josiah.  And we were sad to not see many of the old characters, except for Mater.  Sally, Red, Flo, Luigi, Sarge ...  they were in just a few short scenes.

The other thing that was frustrating was most of the characters had accents.  And yes, Luigi and Guido did in the first movie, along with southern accents of Mater and Chick Hicks ... but this was different.  The spies had english accents, and the main race car had and Italian accent.  I could tell that Josiah was lost at times, and didn't always understand what was being said.  

So.  All in all - It was disappointing ... mainly because Toy Story seemed to just get better with each sequel.  And Cars 2 seemed to just ... not.  When we left the theatre, Josiah looked at me and said, "Mummy - I don't think we should get that DVD."  

Ugh.

So disappointing for us - but I hope that if you got a chance to see it, that you and your family had a fantastic time ... I know that so many will love the "smart"ness of the story and it will definitely appeal to the vast majority.  And I do think that we will get the DVD one day *smile*. I think that the parts that were scarier, won't be on a tv screen - rather than a movie screen with dolby sound *grin*.

But for us is was a 4/10

If you saw it, what did you think??

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think if it had been an idependent film, not a "cars" movie I would have liked it a lot more, but it was nothing like the first movie. It was funny and clever, but nothing like the first. We took our nephew who actually cries he was so excited to be going and he sat there confused and lost smiling at the rare lighting McQueen scenes. My husband and I laughed, because much of the humor was for an older audience. I think it was just a tad too complex and too violent for kids, for a 10 year old, it would have been perfect.

Lindz said...

Hey Tania was interested in reading your resent post on sugar but it wouldnt come up.

Tawn said...

hmmm ... Lindz. Not sure which post you're talking about?? I ramble on about sugar a fair bit :-)

susan said...

I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about this movie. My kids are super excited to see it too - we actually went to the theatre but it was sold out, they were very disappointed but now I wonder if it was a blessing. My 6 year old gets scared at movies too, we actually fast forward the tractor tipping part in the first movie because he doesn't like that bull tractor guy.

Thanks for your review!

Tanya said...

Both my kids loved it. I think some of what bothers parents goes right over the kids heads. (think Bugs Bunny!) If your child is sensitive or overly affected by the implied weapons, then I would certainly avoid it. Not exactly the greatest Pixar movie ever, but my 6 year-old ( not sensitive) loved the Spy aspect, and my three year-old enjoyed coming home and dragging out all the "Cars" we have had accumalating over the years. It was fast paced, unlike the first one. We enjoyed our family night out, and neither of our kids seemed to come home wanting to shoot things or torture each other! :)

Tawn said...

thanks everyone for your comments ... you all put such good info out there ... I'm sure it'll be helpful for anyone who's needs extra info :-)!! Tanya - so glad your family loved it :-) ... nothing like taking the family out for a movie :-).

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