Cars 2 - B-

In theaters. Rated G, 113 minutes. Trailer.

The first Cars film was one of Pixar's best because of a great story, quality lessons learned and a strong collection of interesting characters. Cars 2 brings the same characters and even adds with a spy voiced by Michael Caine and a few other minor cars, but doesn't come close to capturing the magic of the original. This one focuses on Tow Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) and his "fish out of water" issues as he accompanies Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) on a series of international races. Click below for more on C2:

The story was extremely convoluted and confusing, not to mention sort of backward....the theme was on "always being who you are", which I agree with, but I was having to explain to my kids that actually when you are in other countries you need to be respectful of their culture and try and learn. The visuals are stunning as you would expect, and I found the racing scenes extremely entertaining. This is decent for kids, but they won't get the story. A disappointment. (I won't even get into the liberal anti-oil plot points)