Cars 2

At the age of four, there isn't much that defines Drew more than his love for Lightening McQueen, Mater, and the rest of the Cars clan. He has die-cast cars, puzzles, stickers, slippers, blankets, books, and of course the movie (among other things), that keep him busy busy busy with all of his Radiator Springs pals.

You can most often find him playing with his cars, as his imagination runs wild, creating new adventures for them as they race throughout the house.

Drew is definitely Cars biggest fan.

So it only seemed appropriate for us to go see the new movie, Cars 2, when it hit theaters last Friday, June 24. And besides, I think Brad and I were as anxious to see it as Drew was! Drew's been counting down the days since we flipped to the June calendar, and when he sees the preview on TV, he asks for us to rewind it so he can watch it "just one more time."

We rounded up a sitter for Reed (poor kiddo missed out, but would you want to take a spunky, squirmy 2-year-old to the movies?...that's what I thought) and we headed out for the 2:15 show.

Waiting patiently for the movie to begin!

Yeah, baby!

Oh, Radiator Springs, how we've missed you!

We're not sure exactly what Drew's opinion is on the movie. Perhaps we didn't go at the best time of day for him (2:15 is typically the middle of quiet time, and while Drew doesn't nap every day, I think he was a little droopy). The theater was chilly, and about halfway through the movie, Drew cuddled back and forth between Brad and me. There were several moments that Brad and I laughed (at some of the adult humor that Drew wouldn't understand) and he would tell us to "Stop laughing! It isn't funny!". He definitely didn't understand the spy storyline, which is okay, but it does dominate much of the movie. We didn't see as much of the old characters or of Radiator Springs as we were hoping, and even Lightening McQueen seemed to have less of a part than we are used to. We think Drew enjoyed it, because really, Mater makes everything better; it just wasn't as understandable to a four-year-old as the first one was.

Both Brad and I walked away a bit disappointed. The sweet innocence of the first movie was somewhat abandoned in the second movie in order to generate the international spy theme that was introduced. There was violence (albiet with animated cars), fiery explosions, and in the end, when the bad guys were out to actually kill McQueen? Kinda killed my Cars mojo. On the flip side, many of the new characters were awesome (and you can bet we'll be adding those to our die-cast collection), and the moral of the story was worth tuning in for.

Our recommendation? Go see it. Take your kids. It's still fun, and the animation is sweet. Plus, as an added bonus, you get to watch a cute Toy Story short before the movie starts.

Now, how long 'til Cars 3?