From this particular VEHICLE! Get it? Yuk yuk yuk!
…Sorry, I just had to say it. 
Oooh, I liked Cars 2, but I can’t back you up there LoF. TS3 was pretty darn amazing.
I feel no hate towards the film nor have I seen it, but I dislike the whole idea of a sequel to the least awesome Pixar film. And Pixar making something not good? Impossible!
Cars 2 is coming out here on the 22nd from what I gather and since I’ve already seen the awesomeness that is KFP2 it’s next on my list, though unfortuantly considering how good KFP2 was I wonder if it will suffer any in comparison.
I do hear that apparently the moral conflicts with the moral of the first and I quite liked the morals of the first one among other things. Plus some trailers seem to have mater acting like the ugly american without realising it- not in a horrible malicious, hateful way or completely true to the sterotype but still. I used to work in the tourist inductry and didn’t meet the ‘Ugly American’ yet there (granted we didn’t get many Americans in general where I was), though the few I gave tours to were nice enough, seemed interested and once a couple from there (Texas) tipped me like £5. Tipping a tour guide is strange, nice but strange. Plus £5 is unusally high too. It was what almost $8/9 at the time? Not that I’m complaining of course.)
Hahaha! Well, the conflicting morals part it true but I don’t agree with the ‘ugly American’ thing. I mean sure, there was a tinge of sterotypical behaviour but nothing offensive or extremely blatant I don’t think. Or at least not enough to affect your feeling of the movie in my opinion.
If you enjoyed the movie aside from the American stereotyping joke… isn’t that pretty much saying that it’s only not okay to stereotype when it’s you?
Because this entire film plays on stereotypes and important cultural icons of countries. You also can’t throw away that the entire first film is a celebration of American culture. I personally laughed at the joke because, yes, us yanks can be kinda outlandish at times. XD
I never said that the American sterotyping bothered me…? I meant that it might bother some people but really it shouldn’t. And considering I’m a Canadian, there was no way I could have been offended by any of the stereotypes since their weren’t any. And personally, I wouldn’t care if there were Canadian sterotypes in there, I would most likely laugh and enjoy it.
Oh, I was being hypothetical. I didn’t mean you like literally you, but you as in whatever party was offended by the joke. Sorry about that! 
Oh my gosh! I’m sorry! Now that I look back at your post I see what you meant. I totally apologize, I didn’t mean to seem attacking or anything! So sorry!
Oh lawl, it’s fine. You didn’t sound like you were attacking me or anything. 
As an aspiring International Relations major, itt appears that I don’t have to leave the comforts of my home to witness examples of foreign affairs, I can find them right here on PP.
Pixar Planet welcomes ALL opinions, especially when they are relevant to Pixar. demiurge already said that he was a Pixar fan, so he/she has every right to express their opinion about the studio, whether you agree with it or not. The fact that they have signed up here to express their confusion and disappointment that Cars 2 was released the way it is, shows that he/she IS a true Pixar fan, because, like me, if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t have taken the time to sign up here. Just because it’s not a positive review, it doesn’t make their opinion or tone negative, necessarily, just because it’s something that you might not want to hear.
As far as I’m aware, Pixar Planet is for discussing Pixar, whether that be to appreciate Pixar, or giving constructive criticism and our views on the studio’s choices. I think this type of debate should be encouraged, even if we don’t have the same viewpoints, because it shows that we all care enough about the studio because there is such a dialogue in the first place.
I’m not sure whether it was supposed to come across this way, but whether it is because Mater is from a little town, and, I would presume, not as worldly concerning other cultures, he does come across as a typical or stereotypical American tourist - loud, un-knowledgeable, imposing, honouring their own customs instead of the custom of that country. I’m not bashing on Americans or anything, believe me, because it’s usually only the annoying tourists that get the attention. But speaking from someone outside of America, Mater, whether intended to give that impression, does represent that.
Or it could just be typical, grating Mater, I dunno.
What bugged me about the above is the fact that the film acts as if this is perfectly okay, not the tad disrespectful at all.
I agree with everything you’ve written. I can’t say that Cars was ever my favourite Pixar film, but it was ok, and I never felt that it was a bad thing for it to have been released. Personally, I felt Cars to be too slow, but whatever, everyone has different tastes, and it was still a fresh movie and it was critically ok enough that it didn’t tarnish their reputation. Everyone makes mistakes. But to take Pixar’s worst film and then release a very average sequel is not a mistake.
Yes, I too would have had way more respect for Pixar had they pulled the plug on this, instead of releasing it. But when you look at how much they had invested in it already, as well as the fact that Cars (which was Pixar’s least critically successful film) was John Lasseter’s pet project, and how much they were going to profit from the merchandise, then you begin to understand why it was allowed to go ahead. But this is Pixar, it shouldn’t have gone ahead, but it did, unfortunately. Shame, because I thought Pixar was different.
May I ask how you found out that Brad Lewis directed 80% of the film? Not that I’m doubting you or anything. I’m just interested to know how you found that out. Before Cars 2 came out, then I might doubt that John Lasseter could do such a thing, but after seeing Cars 2 then I think it’s a real possibility.
One thing I don’t get is the fossil fuels VS alternative fuels. Hasn’t the eco thing already been done in WALL-E, but better? Not that I’m saying that there’s a limit to sending messages about caring for your environment… I wouldn’t have minded if the message was handled better and easier to understand. To me, that whole fuel thing didn’t seem very clear. I think what it comes down to is the film was all over the place. It wasn’t focused at all. Too many messages going on. It’s that lack of a story or emotional anchor that lets it down.
I went into Cars 2 with an open mind, even after seeing Rotten Tomatoes. I actually had high expectations for it. I thought that I would be able to prove those critics wrong. Unfortunately, after the 10 minute introduction of Finn, the movie lost its momentum and I had to admit that Pixar had finally done it. Sacrificed story for other gains. I didn’t want to believe it was true. Sequels, especially by Pixar, are as good or better than the original, and since I thought that Cars was good in the cinema (I saw it twice there), then I was very much looking forward to seeing the film. I’m just sorry, as a fan, that the critics were right.
I’m glad that there are Pixar fans here that enjoyed it, but when the outside world has a problem with Pixar (who probably admired the studio just as much as I did, and relied on them for quality entertainment) then it’s a problem for me, being a fan, regardless of whether or not I enjoyed the film, which I didn’t.
Cars 2 intentionally put out an environmental message. WALL-E’s was coincidental. So I don’t think Pixar was thinking “Haven’t we already brought this up?” because they had never intended to bring it up before.
lol, movies don’t magically write themselves. And, like I said, it doesn’t bother me too much if Pixar want to re-visit the environmental message again. Pixar is a liberal company based in California. I get it. What I didn’t like was the strange and confusing handling of the message. It just seemed like there were too many messages going on at once anyway.
To me it just felt like the typical Mater. Considering Mater is a stereotype character to begin with, naturally his behaviours were perceived as stereotypical as well. This brings a random question to my head…how come Mater is the only character in Radiator Springs with a Southern accent? 
QFT FTW!
Does Flo count? Anyway, I suppose the majority of residents in Radiator Springs are outsiders who eventually settled down in the town (like Sally, Luigi, Guido, Ramone and Flo, which are canon). Mater is probably a true ‘native’, hence his ‘good ol’ boy’ accent.
I’m also very curious to find out where you obtained this information, Phantom. Seeing how they did that with Jan Pinkava for Ratatouille and Brenda Chapman for Brave (I was watching an interview with Lasseter yesterday where he said “Mark Andrews” was the director with barely a mention to Chapman), I’m not surprised.
NOTE: I just found out that Lewis is leaving Pixar. Not sure if this is due to the ‘museum curator’ move pulled by Lasseter.
Yes, I totally agree. As I mentioned in another post, if they made Mater act less of an ignorant fool and more of a fool-who-tries-hard-to-fit-in, then maybe he would’ve garnered more sympathy from me. For most of the film, he acted as a passive passenger who serendipitously stumbles into danger and conspiracy plots. Even when he is being ‘kidnapped’ by Finn and Holley, he doesn’t argue convincingly enough that he is not a spy (which is what any sane person would do when he/she realises the mistaken identity). If he wanted to go along with being a spy, they didn’t make it clear enough that he was trying hard to be one; it was all ‘a game’ to him, and that sort of ruined any empathy I had for him.
Well said, and a point I have expressed many times before after encountering overly defensive fans over the last year or so.
The majority of members here are understanding and open-minded, thankfully.
Please don’t patronize me.
I’m quite aware screenplays, novels, comics, fanfics, etc do not write themselves. However, Mr. Stanton has said on a multitude of occasions that the perceived environmental message of WALL-E was an affect of the main messages circumstances. The main message of the film was that love is more powerful than programming; that relationships are what separate us from machines and break the daily grind. Stanton needed WALL-E alone to begin his plot, and thus the idea of the planet being a mess was created. He did not go in intending the environment complications such a setting would have, and has made that very clear in more interviews than I can count, and I personally believe him.
While, on the other hand, it seems apparent that Cars 2 was very aware that it was preaching (oho yes the preaching. My least favorite thing about Cars 2 and probably my only honest to goodness complaint. I agree with you on the message being messy, rachelcakes)alternative fuel and big oil as an enemy. Thus, Cars 2 was intending an environmental message while WALL-E was not. That’s what I was referring to.
Funnily enough, for my personal experience, I wasn’t paying much attention to the green fuel message as much as I did for the trash recycling message in Wall-E. Perhaps because it isn’t as physical a concept to observe as seeing towers of trash overtaking a city. But that’s just me, and I’m not really bothered by lefty-propaganda, even the blatant ones like Happy Feet or Fern Gully.
But I agree with you and Stanton that the main message of Wall-E is ‘true love conquers all’, not ‘let’s throw our rubbish into the proper bins’ (although that could be the secondary message). For Cars 2, there was not so much a message as a lack of it (well, maybe ‘true friendship conquers all’, even though said friend needs to learn some manners). I mean, it’s there, but it was not properly conveyed, with Mater acting like he’s lost all self-control and inhibitions, instead of him trying to act confident/posh/well-groomed like Lightning’s colleagues and failing to do so (which is more forgivable and empathetic than the former).