Cars

My Indonesian maid took a 2-week leave to celebrate new year at her home country. Vivian and I have to quit our work during this period.

I took the opportunity and brought Euterpe to watch Cars 2 on a weekday morning. It was almost the end of her summer vacation and she had not gone to the cinema for even once - not to say a trip to some remote resort. No big deal I agree, but not an entirely satisfactory happening I must say.

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Neither my daughter nor myself watched the original Cars. Nonetheless we had an enjoyable two-hour. The story was smooth and there's no problem of getting used to who's who. The film is, in essence, a cartoon version of James Bond, and I'm sure Pixar was deliberately putting emphasis on this impression by having the last one-third of the story in London, and making Finn McMissile an English spy.

My only disappointment was they used a little post-script of the Toy Story 3 as the appetizer - the cost is minimal and it should be the time for something innovative so that one could test the response of the audience.

A sign of lack of creativity; that's worrying.

PS. I subsequently learnt, slightly to my surprise, that it is Pixar's worst reviewed feature film to date. It is also the studio's lowest-grossing film in North America since A Bug's Life.