When I was younger, I loved the movie Cars 2. It was certainly one of my favourite movies from when I was five years old. I have seen the movie at least five times. But it has been a few years since my last viewing, so I decided to rewatch my childhood favourite once again. How did it compare to my memories of it?

For those who don't know, the Cars trilogy is set in a world where all humans and animals are replaced by many different forms of transport with cars as the most prominent species. The movies are mainly set around motor racing, however, the second movie (the one I'll be re-viewing today) is basically a James Bond movie... but with cars. It sounds crazy, but the result is very entertaining.

I'm going to come right out and say something controversial. I like Cars 2 more than the original Cars and Cars 3. The original Cars is entirely centred around car racing and introduced us to the idea of living, breathing pieces of metal, which on its own, is an extremely original idea. However, the sequel would need to do something completely different if it were to be successful. So it got as different as it gets: introduce Secret Agent James Bo- err, sorry: Secret Agent Finn McMissile. Why parody the ongoing 007 franchise? Purely for the purpose of entertainment. And as ridiculous as this all sounds, Cars 2 turns out to be a remarkable film. I can't really remember much of Cars 3 as I've only seen it once but from what I can remember, it also has an original story by exploring a new generation of car racing so was similarly original but obviously wasn't as memorable.

For a five-year-old boy, Cars 2 was so fun. It had some cool action sequences that forced the viewer to go home and recreated the epic scenes with their lego cars. It was super funny and had a very complex plot that I always pretended that I understood. That's what I loved about the film when I was five so what about what I love now that I'm fifteen. Well, the action sequences still made me want to go and play with my lego. I still found it to be super funny; laughing at the old jokes but also laughing at different jokes that I understood for the first time. And for the first time, I was able to follow the complex plot. And it made me wonder: how the heck did I understand the movie when I was five?

The simple answer is I didn't. Well surely the fact that Cars 2 was hard to understand for its target audience made it a worse movie, right? Not necessarily. In a movie as entertaining as this, it doesn't matter if five-year-olds don't get why the cars are shooting at each other; there were enough jokes, action sequences and thrills that a five-year-old couldn't care less about the politics of the movie.

But I noticed many other things upon this viewing. I mentioned that I understood many other jokes as well as noticing the many references to other media including the massive reference to the 007 franchise. I also noticed the incredible score that accompanied the movie as well as the incredible animation done by Pixar. But the biggest thing that I noticed was how versatile the film was; it had something for everyone. The action was perfect for both young and old, there were jokes that different age groups would find funny, and there were so many different movie genres that were ticked off by Cars 2; Disney+ literally labels this movie with five different genres, plus I could think of a couple more that they missed.

I said at the beginning of this review that saying that Cars 2 is my favourite Cars movie is controversial. This is because of all the people who grew up with the Cars movies that I have spoken to, hardly any of them said they enjoyed Cars 2, not to mention that the sequel didn't get anywhere near as good reviews as the first or third. And I think this is because Cars 2 is so different to the others and isn't centred around racing. But this is what makes Cars 2 so good; it's so different! Other criticisms I have read say that the movie was too confusing or didn't have much inspiring material, but this stuff doesn't matter to kids!

Even after many viewings, Cars 2 is just as entertaining. The sequel changes things up with a 007 parody and has many hilarious jokes. The movie has something for young and old viewers and is the kind of family movie that the whole family will enjoy, even if the kids ask to watch it millions of times.

Directors: John Lasseter, Bradford Lewis

Starring: Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Eddie Izzard

Year released: 2011

Times previously watched: 5+

Re-view rating: 8.5/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 24/10/2021