Netbug, if I understand you correctly, I believe I agree with you. What you’re saying is, if Pixar enjoyed making Cars 2, then it shouldn’t matter what everyone else thinks, right? The point is that they had fun. And when they’re done with it, they can show everyone what a good time they had through the thing they made. Whatever you do, you should enjoy doing it. That’s what my dad always says. And after all, the slogan of the first Cars was, Life is a journey. Enjoy the trip. If anything, I think that’s what Pixar’s been doing most here. 
That’s a good portion of what I meant. The other part is that critical consensus =/= how much regular film goers and families liked it.
Ah, right. Well, I believe I agree with that part too.
Cars 2 For The Win, everybody hates it, I love it, it sure had some problems like the final race cut, but, I truly enjoyed, so underrated, I hope everyone would give it a second or third chance, it would grow on, just like the first Cars did.
It’s true, but at the same time it shouldn’t be a blanket statement. For instance, I saw Cars 2 with my dad and then later on with my boyfriend. My dad will watch a variety of films, including ones with James Bond, and my boyfriend’s into the more “standard” stuff, especially in the action genre. Both fellas enjoyed Cars 2. I did not, and I consider myself to be a regular moviegoer and part of a family that watches movies together (though I don’t have kids). That partially has to do with the fact that I’m not interested in the genre (spy) or general subject matter of the movie (cars). I can’t name a single movie I genuinely enjoy that significantly involves spies (does The Incredibles count?) and race cars. I am interested in Japan and Tokyo, though, so naturally some of the scenes that caught my attention were set there.
But I was also going to say that critics are people, too. Not every single critic’s the same, of course, but critics are mothers and fathers, and they loved to be entertained. Personally, I’ve been studying film as a minor (and fun!) for the past 3-4 years, and that may be the reason why I tend to agree with the general consensus of critics, because I have a stricter eye than most for elements of a quality film. Cars 2 succeeds well enough as an entertaining, fun movie, but it fails at masterful storytelling and reaching fuller depth with characters (in my personal opinion, obviously), especially for Pixar.
Netbug009 - My post isn’t so much responding exactly to what you’ve said, because I pretty much understand what you’re getting at, but it’s more so at the common assumption that the general public/mass audiences are in a completely separate category from critics who are professional, paid film writers. Just my two cents. Not really directed at you, although I did quote your post, haha.
One of my main concerns for Cars 2 is that there’s too much Mater. I like him as a character, but he gets old after being on the screen 80% of the movie. It’s like having Dory taking up that much time in Finding Nemo.
It was because the ki’s liked him. Kid’s like dumb character’s.
Well, true. But you do get sick of seeing him for most of the movie.
I think calling Mater dumb is kinda harsh. He is innocent, childish, and lacks an understanding of the larger world outside his hometown, but he also has a strong technical intelligence and in the first film was hinted at having a strong emotional intelligence as well.
But I mean when he dosen’t show it. When we were little a lot of kids like Kronk. He was stupid but he was also funny snd s good person.
agree, a dumb character for me would be Sid from the ice age series, or donkey from shrek, mater could be annoying at times for some people, but as Netbug mentioned he has a strong emotional intelligence
so i asked my dad (who also likes the first Cars and Mater) why no one seemed to like Cars or Cars 2 (this was before i found this wonderful site) and he said people probably didn’t like Cars because there wasn’t much action, yes there are the races, but a lot of people make fun of Nascar (especally where i live) plus something about people getting freaked out about a human creation that people depend on doing what its told thinking for itself and having its own world. (this is different from Wall-e because those human creations were built to think for themselves to an extent) and the Cars 2 hate is just an extension of the Cars hate, a lot of people i know never even saw Cars 2 because the critics said it was bad, after i get the DVD im going to show them the movie so they can draw their own conclusions independent of the Rotten Tomatoes people.
I agree the critics’ were too hard on the movie. It is one on Pixar’s weakest but it’s not bad.
I think another reason for it is because it is dull compared to Pixar’s other films. And also in 2011 there have been a bunch of extremely well recieved animated movies, Cars 2 not being one of them.
I did start to get bored at some parts. Hope Brave isn’t the same.
I thought the critics were too harsh for Cars 2 as well. The reason why the reception was so low was that the critics weren’t expecting this type of movie coming from Pixar.
I got it for Christmas and in re-watching I can kinda see things about the movie and wonder what the movie would have been like if these things were different. This by no means says that i now hate the movie, I still enjoy it, but I couldnt help but wonder about them. I havent read through the whole thread so sorry if these things were already mentioned.
I wonder of course what it would be like if Doc was there. Ramone is now the one fixing the cars it seems, and I wonder where he got the knowledge to do that? Mater all of a sudden knows a lot about car engines. Doc would have known a lot about that too, since he was the one who fixed them. So I wonder if it still would have been Mater’s film. I heard rumors the sequel was supposed to have focused on Doc but whether that’s true I have no idea.
I wonder what it would have been like if it was just a spy film, with Finn & Holley as the main characters. There was so much going on with this one. I would get sucked into the races (which were my favorites scenes of the first movie, anytime somebody was racing i was happy) then they’d cut to Finn Holley and Mater. Then they’d cut back. Sometimes it seems like the Radiator Springs characters were there because they felt they had to be, rather than being integral to the plot.
One little issue with the Mater/Holley pairing is what I heard during the commentary. Apparently it was all because one lady at a preview wanted Mater paired up. That doesnt seem like sound reasoning to throw in a pairing just to appease one person. Besides that, I didnt really feel it with Mater/Holley
Now like I said, I still like the movie. I love the character of Finn and of course the whole thing is very nice to look at. The love the spy aspects of it and how much the Cars universe got developed and diversified. And I greatly enjoy what I did see of the races 
I didnt really mind about Mater being the main character.
I hate people that do that. And anyway my whole family liked the movie.
I said I thought it was okay. It isn’t crap like the critics say it is, but it’s low on my list.
Cars 2 gets too much hate. I think it’s a great movie. It’s exciting and action-packed, and Mater is as hilarious as ever. I especially love the scene where he eats the wasabi thinking it’s pistachio ice cream…big mistake! 