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Max Braden: I thought the first Cars was great and thought complaints about it being unrealistic were silly. At first this teaser appears to jump from the first movie in a series to the seventh, when the writers have run out of ideas and just throw stuff against the wall. If Cars as spies is the plot they're going with, it wouldn't be far off from the third movie in The Love Bug series, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, when Herbie gets involved with a diamond heist. But there's so little in this teaser to go on that I wouldn't automatically believe that Cars as spies is the real plot, rather than some joke. I'll save the judgment for the full trailer, but I still anticipate wanting to see the sequel.

Kim Hollis: There's not a Pixar film I don't like, and frankly, I like Cars more than Finding Nemo, which I'm pretty sure is a rare thing in this world. I love Lightning McQueen and I agree with Jim that although Larry the Cable Guy is someone I would never ever ever watch in a live-action film, Mater is adorable. I'm totally onboard with the spy thing, because it's silly and fun and with the Cars series, that is what parents and kids are going to be looking for. My suspicion, like Max, is that the spy portion of the movie is just going to be a very side element of plot, and Pixar is choosing not to give anything "real" away with this teaser - same as they've done with every other teaser.

David Mumpower: Let's be up front about a couple of points here. We are getting a Cars sequel because Cars is the most lucrative franchise Pixar has other than the crown jewel, Toy Story. If you don't believe me, go to Amazon and do a search for "Lightning McQueen". I get 1,811 results. Eighteen months ago, The New York Times published an article stating that Cars had already accrued $5 billion in merchandising revenue. Just spin that number over in your head for a moment.

Secondly, let's be realistic about the fact that if this were anyone but Pixar saying, "Remember that movie we did in 2006? Now those people are spies in the next film!", we'd be rolling our eyes in disgust. While I understand the skepticism about whether this is anything other than a joke in the teaser rather than the plot of the film, I would not be surprised if it is. Again, merchandising is driving the decision making here. Think about how cool spy cars would look to kids. Then again, they sell those just by making this joke in the film.

I agree with Max that I think Cars gets a bad rap regarding its quality. The melancholy nature of the story is certainly in the mold of Doc Hollywood, probably to a legally actionable degree. Still, I have no problems with an unoriginal story premise as long as it's told well. To my mind, Cars has one of the most memorable moments in Pixar history, that romantic drive down Highway 66. The visuals in that sequence are also among the best Pixar has done. Cars is a movie marketed to kids with a story that appeals to adults who want to reminisce about a strip of land that once united all Americans but has become less important over time due to an improved interstate system. I really like that we can have a silly story about an egomaniac learning to the art of selflessness masking a tale about a lost slice of Americana. Similarly, I would not be surprised if the spy story being postured right now is hiding a much more enriching tale. I've learned to give Pixar the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. If they can make a cooking rat a winning character, they can do anything.

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