Is there more strategy with the two card variation of Candyland?
When playing the two-card variant, both cards will end up in the discard pile at the end of the turn. The only choice is which of the two colours to advance to.

There is one obvious case where choosing the card with less movement distance is the better choice: Liquorice.

Suppose one card X moves the player to a liquorice space, and the other card S stops short. X is 100% going to skip the player's next turn (or worse depending on the rule variant). S has at most 100% to skip, if that colour is drawn again next turn, but this has been made less likely by the discard of the first card, and generally the presence of other colours still in the draw pile further reduces the likelihood of repeating X in the next turn.

If playing with the rule whereby Liquorice/Dot is cancelled by drawing the same colour again, then this probability has been reduced by the removal of the original X that put the player there.

The net result is that taking S will never put the player in a worse position than taking X, but is very likely to give a better position at the end of the turn following the skipped turn.

It is therefore always better to avoid the Liquorice space, when the choice exists.