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I still see absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. And let's be honest...even Pixar's worst (if that's what this is) is better than the Ice Age series.

Brett Beach: Even more than the commercialism aspect (which let's face it, was just as upfront in the Toy Story films), the critics seem to have seized on making Mater the star of the film as a major complaint, followed closely by the tries to shoehorn in a lesson at the end after all the commercialism.

Having just recently seen Cars, and finding it disappointing, with too much false sentimentality, I don't mind, in theory, that Pixar did a complete about face genre/plot-wise. I also think that elevating Mater to the lead was probably brilliant, if only because - and here is my armchair attempt at being a child psychologist - while the kids may love Lightning more because he's "cool," they probably identify with Mater on a much closer level (he's goofy/goofy-looking, isn't into icky romantic subplots) and feel a stronger bond.

To come back to Kim's second question, I think a lot of critics have weighed this against Pixar's back catalog and found it wanting, and that is totally fair. The masses can go on and on about how the nebulous "critics" have a stick up their ass, hate everything, "their" opinion is worthless, and so forth, and that is their right, but it's always a bullshit claim. In this instance, it would be safe to say, not one reviewer was rooting for Pixar to make a film that fell far short of the perceived quality of their back catalog. BOP gets called out for asskissing for selecting Pixar films as the best many years running. Will we get called out now for being "critics" and "haters" if we don't like it? Rock and a hard place.

David Mumpower: I have a contrarian opinion here in that I think the glowing praise heaped on Toy Story 3 was wholly unwarranted; it was a sweet film that fell short in the laughs department. I frequently state that the way I can tell how much I enjoy a movie is by how much I re-watch it. Toy Story 3 is one that makes me change the channel when it comes on. I am actively bored by it, which makes me feel guilty since my wife went to high school with the director's wife and considers her a friend and a very good person. Conversely, for all of the criticism directed at Cars, I find that movie to be visually stimulating and very well intended. I watch it as much as anything from the Pixar library other than The Incredibles. I know it's a Doc Hollywood ripoff but it's so well done that this doesn't matter tomorrow. The movie is a celebration of enjoying the journey in life, a message that resonates with me, somehow who almost died a few years ago.

With regards to Cars 2, the movie has that one thing that Toy Story 3 lacked: a sense of humor. If we take out the Ken modeling scene from Pixar's most triumphant project, I'd be hard pressed to name any other laughs from that movie. For a Pixar movie, that's unconscionable to me. While Cars 2 is nowhere near as good as most of the other titles in their catalog, it did make me laugh many times and I am grateful for that. I was worried that Pixar is starting to take itself too seriously as a movie-making operation. Cars 2 is getting a bad rap for just this reason.

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