# Cars 2: Pixar's first critical flop? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2011, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539 "2011-06-23T10:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/101 "2011-06-25T19:26:27Z")
we’re going to go see it in about an hour - will post my review when I return. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/102 "2011-06-25T23:58:44Z")
Quoth **Dewey Finn** : > [@](#): > > Also, some of the films, like Up and Ratatouille, don’t really make for great toys. Can you imagine playing with a toy Carl, Russell or Remy? Not really, but I _can_ imagine a Ratatouille-branded toy kitchen set. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/103 "2011-06-26T00:35:17Z")
We enjoyed it - the visuals were amazing (as expected) - the story was reasonabley good, atleast as put together as teh average ‘spy movie’ would be, if not better than some. The kids in the theatre clearly enjoyed it - my wife and I had quite a few good LOL moments, and had the standard amount of injokes and genre references. Some scenes were quite touching. It’s not ‘better’ than Cars 1, but it is every bit its equal - which means if Cars didn’t do it for you, this one won’t either. I realized something in this one that wasn’t as apparent in 1, watch this movie and let your mind go back to when you were a kid playing with your matchbox and hotwheels cars - That’s what makes these movies work. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/104 "2011-06-26T02:31:33Z")
I keep getting people on Facebook talking about how good it is. Then again, I live in Northern Arkansas, where we try to out-South the South. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/105 "2011-06-26T05:28:33Z")
Other than Sig Hansen voicing a crab boat for the movie, are there any other oddball cameos? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/106 "2011-06-26T06:19:20Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I liked _Cars_, although it took a little while to grow on me. I had an idea for a prequel that I think would have worked. Set in the 50’s, Guido and Luigi leave their village in Italy looking for a place to open their own tire store. They travel across Europe and the U.S.; Luigi would be the driving force (sorry), and Guido the silent comic always fixing things in the background without being noticed. (Think of Buster Keaton or Harpo Marx.) At the end, they arrive in Radiator Springs in its heyday and start building the Casa Della Tires. I have an alternate idea. They have to flee Italy in the steerage commpartment of a tramp steamer to escape a family vendetta. Then Luigi get hooked up with an auto theft and chop shop gang. Eventually his kid serves honorably as a Jeep in the war, and though they try to keep little Jeepie out of the family business, eventually he’s forced to run over a police car. Eventually to protect his family he has to have the best cars of Ford, GM, and Chrysler crushed down to metal cubes in a junkyard. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/107 "2011-06-26T18:54:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Can you imagine playing with a toy Carl, Russell or Remy? My younger son was frustrated by how difficult it was to find toys and other cool stuff with Remy (and Emile) on it… ---
**Author:** ![joew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@joew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joew)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/108 "2011-06-26T20:43:01Z")
I enjoyed It more than I thought I would. And more than the original - though that one is my least favorite Pixar movie. That being said, I have no reason or desire to see it ever again. It is a movie in search of a purpose. There is no “there” there. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/109 "2011-06-26T21:20:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I have an alternate idea. They have to flee Italy in the steerage commpartment of a tramp steamer to escape a family vendetta. Then Luigi get hooked up with an auto theft and chop shop gang. Eventually his kid serves honorably as a Jeep in the war, and though they try to keep little Jeepie out of the family business, eventually he’s forced to run over a police car. Eventually to protect his family he has to have the best cars of Ford, GM, and Chrysler crushed down to metal cubes in a junkyard. “They want to arrange a meeting between me and Hicks. In Mater’s garage. Where I’ll be safe.” “Mater. I always thought it would be Ramone.” “It’s the smart move. Mater was always smarter.” ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/110 "2011-06-27T01:14:19Z")
[This article says it’s at Number 1](http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/cars-2-keeps-pixar-drivers-seat-with-68m-ap). ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/111 "2011-06-27T04:06:00Z")
Was money the overriding reason _Cars 2_ was made? I’ve just seen it and do not think so. The animation was uniformly excellent. For instance, the cityscapes of London and Paris, the Italian Rivera, as well as the seascapes, were gorgeous, while my Japanese sister-in-law says the attention to detail in the Tokyo scenes was dead-on. Yes, even a cynical money-grubbing release by Pixar would be expected to be made with some attention to detail. Yet I think [this](http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/06/19/movies/cars-2.html) slide show illustrates pretty well that more than just a cursory attention was made to the visual aspects of the movie. As for the story, it was reasonably engaging to me, and easily held the interest of my 8 and 10 year old niece and nephew. Of course story quality is subjective, but the relative complexity of the one here shows that it wasn’t just some thrown-together bit of fluff with only an eye toward selling video games and stuffed toys. Does the movie as a whole it succeed? Maybe, maybe not, but I think the effort put into this movie shows that Pixar had every intention of making _Cars 2_ both a work of entertainment meeting its usual standards, while at the same time of course bringing in a decent profit. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/112 "2011-06-27T11:51:58Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > Was money the overriding reason _Cars 2_ was made? I’ve just seen it and do not think so. > > … Except for some fiddly little “arthouse” cinema, I believe that money is the overriding reason that ANY film gets made. That doesn’t mean that the cast and crew won’t or can’t do a professional job. That being said, I am not interested at all in seeing Cars 2. My children are both college-aged girls, and they have no interest in the film either. (Being geeks, we are all looking forward to Captain America.) I do not doubt it is a fine piece of filmmaking, but my family is not the target demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/113 "2011-06-27T12:14:23Z")
> [@simster](#): > > We enjoyed it - the visuals were amazing (as expected) - the story was reasonabley good, atleast as put together as teh average ‘spy movie’ would be, if not better than some. > > The kids in the theatre clearly enjoyed it - my wife and I had quite a few good LOL moments, and had the standard amount of injokes and genre references. Some scenes were quite touching. > > It’s not ‘better’ than Cars 1, but it is every bit its equal - which means if Cars didn’t do it for you, this one won’t either. > > I realized something in this one that wasn’t as apparent in 1, watch this movie and let your mind go back to when you were a kid playing with your matchbox and hotwheels cars - > > That’s what makes these movies work. Saw it with the twins (8 years old) this weekend. Twin #1 has motoroil for blood, naturally, this was the best movie he’s ever seen. Twin #2 was entertained enough to behave well. I liked it…it was better than Tuesday Night ReRuns. As a car guy, I liked the HUGE amount of hidden automotive lore in it (Yeah, you think the mountains that look like cars was the subtle thing, you’re only scratching at the first layer…dija see the great big Wankel Rotor at the Japanese press junket?) We’ll own the BLuRay of this so that I can look for the details and Twin 1 can wear out the disc. So, I liked the story, I liked the subject, I LOVED the easter-eggs, but I also recognize I’m not the average moviegoer, and I could see how the average moviegoer could leave underwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/114 "2011-06-27T13:22:06Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Except for some fiddly little “arthouse” cinema, I believe that money is the overriding reason that ANY film gets made. That doesn’t mean that the cast and crew won’t or can’t do a professional job. In some theoretical world where it is not possible to profit from a movie, certainly very, very few, if any would ever be made. Some people here have suggested money is the _only_ reason “Cars 2” was made, and perhaps that is the word I should have used. I would still think that the vast majority of the decision makers at Pixar want to put out a product they could be proud of. Of course I have no way of knowing this, but I hope that is the case. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/115 "2011-06-27T13:35:59Z")
> [@simster](#): > > watch this movie and let your mind go back to when you were a kid playing with your matchbox and hotwheels cars - > > That’s what makes these movies work. I don’t get it. Do most kids pretend their cars are alive? I just pretended they had little people in them and ran a lot of police chases with massive pile-ups and cliff jumps off the coffee table. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/116 "2011-06-27T13:46:44Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > In some theoretical world where it is not possible to profit from a movie, certainly very, very few, if any would ever be made. Some people here have suggested money is the _only_ reason “Cars 2” was made, and perhaps that is the word I should have used. I would still think that the vast majority of the decision makers at Pixar want to put out a product they could be proud of. Of course I have no way of knowing this, but I hope that is the case. To be honest, it’s more like 85% money, 10% car nuttness, 5% everything else. And to all the ‘sidewalks?’ type haters, I’ll say what I said on another forum: > [@Unintentionally Blank](#): > > It’s best not to look at these things too closely, it doesn’t have the integrity of something like, say, Avatar. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/117 "2011-06-27T15:24:10Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Also, some of the films, like Up and Ratatouille, don’t really make for great toys. Can you imagine playing with a toy Carl, Russell or Remy? I don’t know about toys, but Patton Oswalt (voice of Remy) did have a bit in his standup routine about how a kid came to his house on Halloween dressed as Remy, and Patton said, “You’re inside of me!” and scarred the kid for life. Apart from that, the one **Ratatouille** item I can remember seeing are little pie-shaped critter treats at the pet store, made for guinea pigs and rats and the like. Merchandising isn’t all about toys, but I’m sure they’re more lucrative than bunny snacks. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/118 "2011-06-27T15:36:16Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I don’t get it. Do most kids pretend their cars are alive? I just pretended they had little people in them and ran a lot of police chases with massive pile-ups and cliff jumps off the coffee table. I guess it depends on the child - clearly - but at some point when I was playing with my cars and having adventures - the different cars had personalities and voices - they did crazy things, they flew when they shouldn’t, they became submarines, the boats had voices, things exploded - etc. It was as I grew up that I became more concerned with how fast they should go (my gremlin can beat your corvette) or how far I could make them jump with the track, etc, and then eventually i started collecting them and they just sit - they lost their adventure. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/119 "2011-06-28T17:55:41Z")
That’s funny, my kid did not mention _Up_, _Wall-E_, or _Toy Story 3_ after watching _Cars_. He didn’t even talk about the _Cars_ Rotten Tomato reading either. He just wanted to play with cars! He enjoy the movie and watched parts of it over and over when he got the chance. Although admittedly it doesn’t have the same heft as the previously mentioned movies, It’s an OK goal for a kids movie to be entertaining for kids. There is a reason that _Cars_ merch as sold so well over the years. Kids like the characters and they are fun toys to play with. Do you want Disney to make and sell toys that are not fun, don’t make people happy, and are not going to sell well? Is that the way that you would run your business? Why criticize _Cars_ for having successful toy sales? No studio exec has ever forced me to buy a toy. I buy toys that are fairly priced, well made, and what my kid has expressed he would like to play with. That being said, we have a lot of imaginative fun with the \*Cars \*toys. And besides, they are a lot more fun than the “Painful Unfufilled Promise to Dead Wife Action Kit” that my kid has from the movie _Up_. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539/120 "2011-06-28T18:04:53Z")
> [@Mesquite-oh](#): > > And besides, they are a lot more fun than the “Painful Unfufilled Promise to Dead Wife Action Kit” that my kid has from the movie _Up_. I don’t care who you are, that’s some funny stuff right there! \ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cars-2-pixars-first-critical-flop/586539.md?page=7)