We took our 4yo son to see Cars 2. I loved the movie, and so did our son. We saw it in 3-D (thanks to my hubby who was intent on the 3-D experience), but thought it wasn’t worth the extra cash. The movie did have some very limited bathroom humor…but they’re cars, so it’s a little removed. My son probably didn’t even understand it. The story-line was great. It was more of an action movie as opposed to the “transformative” story of the first Cars, but there was some really good morals mixed in - to accept your friends for who they are, quirks and all, and you’re only your best when you’re totally authentic to who you are. I did see the whole “big oil” theme in it without hearing anything about it beforehand, but it wasn’t in-your-face. Overall, I was completely entertained with all of the car chases (the best part of any spy movie), and my son was mesmerized with all the Cars.

Just took the kids to see Winnie-the-Pooh, and we loved it!  It was pretty faithful to the classic story.  Best for kids ages 3-6.

We haven’t seen either movie YET, but being an adoptive family I was pretty concerned about how Po’s adoption story was going to be handled in Kung Fu Panda 2.  It got very good reviews from the one message board I belong to.  It was handled sensitively and the language used was good.  The reason we haven’t seen it is because my oldest son’s favorite bird EVER is a peacock and I hear the peacock in that movie was evil extraordinaire.  A mom whose child is never freaked out by anything said her child was freaked out by it.  My kids can’t handle evil. Period.  We had to leave Tangled because my daughter was afraid of the “mean lady who kidnapped Rapunzel.” One of my sons won’t even look at a picture of Snow White because it reminds him of the queen and he said she scares him (he’s 7).  I could go on and on but my kids are a bit sensitive and I kind of like that.  We just don’t go to many movies anymore.

That being said, all our kids asked to see Cars 2 and although we were told it wasn’t as good as the first, we decided we would take them this weekend since 2 of our 4 have celebrated birthdays in the last 2 weeks.  I will let you know what I think after we see it.  I, personally, hold no expectations.  I just want my kids to enjoy it so it will be worth the bucks we plunk down to see it.

I’ve seen both Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2.  Honestly, if I had to pick one to see again I’d go with Cars 2.  Yes, I agree there is some “violence” but like a pp said - it’s car on car which seems to take some of the harshness out of it.  The big messages were good - love people for who they are, not who you want them to be…be true to yourself…don’t judge a book by it’s cover.  There may have been some big oil propaganda but I missed it until a pp raised it as a concern.  Kung Fu Panda 2 was good, but a little more violent in my opinion (maybe because the characters more closely resemble humans? because I really don’t think there is any more violence in it than in Cars 2).  The themes are great to me though - believe in yourself, you past doesn’t have to define you, and everyone has a purpose on earth even if they don’t know it.

Bottom line - I’d see both of them again (we’ll eventually own them on DVD).

My kids are 9 and 13.  I am pretty much ok with any movie rated G.  For PG movies I go to http://www.pluggedin.com, a movie review site from Focus on the Family and also kids-in-mind.com.  Both sites have extremely detailed reviews and tell you all the instances of inappropriate material such as sexual inuendo, bad language, violence, crudeness, and drug or alcohal use.  We do not see PG-13 or R movies (and when I say we I also mean my husband and I also).  I will usually give a movie a pass if it has a little potty humor but I will never, ever let my kids see a movie with sexual inuendo or bad language.  Which takes out a lot of PG movies.  So far we have seen Cars 2 and plan on seeing Winnie the Pooh.  Had to say no to Rio.

My kids are 8 and 10 - we loved Kung Fu Panda 2 - we are in the process of starting adoption paperwork and well we cried at the end.  I won’t spoil it.

We loved Mr. Popper’s Penguins.  We LOVED the book, but the movie strays from the book.  That being said we found it a decent family movie, even the young girl dresses modestly.  A great review site is http://www.parentpreviews.com - beware it can also spoil the movies reviewed, but they give detailed information about language, alcohol, etc.

We can’t wait to see Winnie the Pooh - it might seem a bit youngish, but our family loves the book, loves the friendship story and can’t wait to see it this weekend.

Happy Movie Watching!

My husband and I went to see Kung-Fu Panda 2 without our son (who is only 20 months so not quite old enough for the movies yet).  We really enjoyed it but I came away from it saying that I definitely wouldn’t take a young child (in my opinion, younger than 10) to see it.  I realize all kids/families are different and some can handle more than others.  However, the theme of losing one’s parents to violence was one that I couldn’t imagine exposing my young children to.  I was also about 36 weeks pregnant at the time so I was extremely emotional.  I had tears streaming down my face at one point during a very emotional scene.  The peacock is definitely evil and really mean.  I took it as more of a movie for older, more mature kids and for grown-ups.  All that being said, my husband and I found it very enjoyable and refreshing.  I don’t recall noticing any particular political or social agenda.  And as others have mentioned, there were great themes: not allowing your past to negatively define who you are today, everyone has a purpose on this earth, family & friendship are important, adoptive parents feel for and love their children just as much as any biological parent would… and there were plenty of laugh out loud moments.
We haven’t seen Cars 2 and didn’t plan on it based on the negative reviews.  We’ll probably wait for it to come out on DVD before watching it.

I like your criteria. I am also sick of the trash on screen out there. For most movies, that are ok, they are only worth $1 from Redbox.  I will only shell out $40 (the cost for my family at a matinee) for really excellent movies, like Narnia. Kids don’t need their subconscious inundated with the trash they call movies that don’t even have decent plots. They don’t include any morals because they don’t want to offend anyone but they offend me because they are not only a waste of time and money but also pernicious. I look for movies and stories that are true, good and beautiful! How about instead of going out to a movie spending the time reading a book together.

I have not seen Cars 2 but someone mentioned they could not tell who the bad guy was until the end. That sent a red flag my way. I love movies! I studied film in college. However, as I get older and have more children, I have a greater appreciation for good, classic, good vs. evil, non sexual acts, etc. movies. It was predicted that children’s films would become hypermediated and it’s true. So much is shoved into the child’s mind, that they get confused. I suggest going to your local library and renting good classic children films that have clear vs. evil. Now, Pooh sounds great from all the comments. I really like all the old Pooh videos such as a Blustery Day on VHS (though my VHS for some reason quit on me!).
First start with the basics (Milo and Otis, Little Bear, CCC of America films, Felix the Cat, Alice, and the old Disney films/animation), which you won’t find at the movie theaters (maybe Pooh is an exception?). Then as your children get older they will be able to appreciate the new more faster paced, harder to detect good vs. evil films shown in the theaters. Cheers!

We all plan to see Winnie the Pooh because all of my kids have been huge fans, even though as a family of older kids, we are “outside” the range expected (20 - 9).  I go to decentfilms.com and read the reviews by Steven Greydanus of the NCR.  He reviews all the family movies as well as adult fare from a Catholic perspective and he is always spot on target.

WE didn’t see either Kung Fu Panda or Cars 2 but my 11 year old daughter and I loved Mr Popper’s Penguins. Lovely story about the importance of family.

I love the criteria you outlined in your post, very thought provoking. My family and I, ( two boys, 7 &5 and my husband ) saw cars 2 a few weeks back, it was okay but certainly not the great all around movie the original Cars was.  My youngest was scared at many points due to the strong violent opening.  As well the story didn’t seem to grab either one of my boys.  Yesterday on a hot sticky Saturday afternoon I needed to be in a cool place, so I decided to take the boys to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  We had not seen the 1st and I am not a Jack Black fan but I was surprised how entertained I was.  The story was better than in cars, the humour was for boys but didn’t make me squirm.  I too understand boys like bathroom humour but I can’t stand it and don’t want to encourage it. There were some violent and strong scenes but I must say they followed the plot of the story and seemed to belong.  They weren’t violent just to be violent.  Between the two movies I much preferred Kung Fu Panda and I think my boys did too.

I really like the reviews on Decent films.com in general.  Here is a review of Cars2 there:  http://www.decentfilms.com/reviews/cars2

Cars 2 was the most disappointing Pixar movie they’ve done.  The story line was lame, to say the least, because it was merely a propaganda tool against “big oil.”  They didn’t even try to be subtle about it.  The propaganda would probably go over a small child’s head, but the story line itself was neither captivating nor entertaining.  Thank goodness there were a few funny one-liners.  I was really saddened by it b/c Pixar was starting to be my go-to for kid’s movies (The Incredibles and Finding Nemo were far better than anything I saw as a kid!), but now that Disney owns them again it looks like they might be headed down hill.  Cars 2 is definitely not worth the money.