Cars 2
Cars 2 swaps Radiator Springs for a globe-trotting spy adventure, and with that comes a noticeably harder edge than the original: cars are killed, tortured, and threatened with explosives throughout. The friendship themes and colorful action will delight many school-age kids, but the film is meaningfully more intense than its predecessor.
Most comfortable for kids 7 and up; younger fans of the original Cars may find the spy-thriller tone and sustained peril surprising.
If you’d rather skip
Opening oil-rig sequence: Finn McMissile is discovered by armed henchmen, a shootout with guns and missiles erupts, and a car falls from the platform into the ocean and smashes apart.
A spy car is restrained and tortured with an electromagnetic pulse device to extract information, then killed when his fuel is made to explode.
Villain Professor Z's henchmen include aggressive-looking shark-shaped boats.