Cars 3 Review
G
Disney/Pixar
1 Hr and 49 Minutes (+5 due to a new animated short called Lou)
Voice Cast: Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Armie Hammer, Larry the Cable Guy, Nathan Fillion, Kerry Washington, Lea DeLaria, Margo Martindale, Bonnie Hunt, Chris Cooper, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger. Bob Peterson
REVIEW: Well, the time has finally come. Cars 3 is finally here, and honestly, I’ve have NOT been looking forward to it one bit. The teaser was effective, but every trailer afterward had me lose interest. On the one hand you have a Pixar movie, and on the other hand, we have a Cars sequel. After watching both films this weekend (which you can read my REvisit here), I was hesitant walking into this unbiased. Will this be another rough patch in Pixar’s road or will this be the best Cars film yet?
Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician, Cruz Ramirez, with her own plan to win, plus inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn’t through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing’s biggest stage!
THE GOOD: Say what you will about these movies, but you have to admit this animation is top notch. There is no other way to describe it more than the words dazzling and detailed. The movie isn’t as bright and colorful as the previous film for a lot of it takes place at not so colorful locations such as a demolition derby, abandoned racetracks, and not so shiny beaches. With these sites, you get more of a real world realism that isn’t in your face about it being a world inhabited by cars. Some shots are so detailed you can mistake them for being shots in a live action film. It's pretty similar to how the environments of The Good Dinosaur looked. You see the dust and rust on several cars, and you see the detailing of their paint job when they get refurbished. The studio’s animation is getting so advanced that at this point I’m convinced they can begin to make motion capture films without the people in suits.
Everything that leads to the crash is intense and rather captivating. For 11 years, Lightning McQueen has always been everyone's favorite Piston Cup racer. Where the beginning of the first movie had Lightning introduced as the rookie, this opens with Lightning becoming from a veteran to a legend whose time is fading out. You see all of Lightning's racing friends retire or get replaced because of the next generation racers and it quickly takes a huge toll on him. Now we see him racing as a legend with next high-speed racers all become the rookies that Lightning used to be. It's pretty much Lightning is an android, and he’s racing against a bunch of iPhones. You become emotionally invested in what is going on. It's a Pixar opening that hits you hard as your heart begins to break. By the time you see Lightning crash, you start to flinch every time you see him hit the ground like:
The movie plays like a direct sequel to Cars opposed to the cash grab dumpster fire that was Cars 2. We have this entire film focused on Lightning McQueen as it should be. It never mentions the second film at all, but only mentions the first. By the end, I was contemplating referring to this as Cars 2: That 2011 Movie Never Happened so This is Cars 2. It almost goes out to say Cars 2 never happened. Pixar has forgotten about it as much as their audience wishes to forget. Shoot, you barely get any Mater in this, and that alone is a blessing. As a matter of fact, the little moments he’s in here he truly shines. He’s rather charming in the small moments he has. The movie is reminiscent in tone of the original. It is light-hearted and harmless but never shy itself away from having emotional depth with its characters. It does have the tendency to get annoying, but the film maintains a lot of heart and emotion the first film had.
When we lost Paul Newman in 2008, the guys at Pixar knew they had to give off a proper sendoff to both him and his character Doc Hudson, and this film excellently accomplishes it. This comeback story should've been the Cars 2 sequel that should've been released in 2011. The film incorporates flashbacks from the first film as it revolves all around Lightning’s mentor Doc Hudson who was played by the late Paul Newman. The film utilizes Doc as an emotional plot device for Lightning to power through the funk that he’s going through and must overcome. We get unused achieve voice recordings fromPaul Newman, and it works. It all started with one of the climatic scenes in the original and it now as it happens to Lightning you see it haunt him.
Though the movie’s narrative is predictable to a tee, it does get creative when it wants to. One of the biggest set pieces takes place at a Demolition Derby so Lighting and Cruz can get his mojo back together. The way how that entire scene is handled is superbly well done as it's both inventive and fun. It plays like an underground street fighting scene in your typical sports comeback movie.
The film goes from having the same narrative beats of Rocky, but by the third act, it turns into Creed. It becomes the most mature film easily in the franchise in ways you don’t expect. You can predict what is to happen as the movie goes on, but you genuinely become surprised how the story gets to its finish line.
The new characters are fun to watch especially Cruz, but at times she gets way too hyperactive. She is young and full of energy, but she has way too much energy for she is annoying at times. She does mean well since this is her character who has a lot of heart, but when we're introduced to her, she gets under the skin. As the movie goes on you, begin to like her more due to the level of depth the screenwriters gave her.
You also have Armie Hammer as Lightning's rival Jackson Storm who is arguably a bigger a-hole than Chick Hicks (who surprisingly appears in the movie but is voiced by Bob Peterson since Michael Keaton was busy doing Spiderman around the same time). You also have Nathan Fillion as Lightning's new sponsor, Sterling and I swear his design looks exactly like Nathan Fillion to me. Though none of them are memorable, a lot of these new characters are fun to watch. A numerous amount of characters are introduced when it reaches its halfway point that you have to keep up in a way. There was even a point I heard a character's voice and said, "wait is that beloved character actress Margo Martindale?"
THE BAD: The film often has the Pixar moments that make this stand out amongst the previous installments. The real issue about this narrative is that it is the Cars comeback story that takes its plot points from such films as Rocky, The Karate Kid, and Raging Bull. As cool as that sounds, imagine all of that boggled down to be applied to a Cars film. It lags a lot throughout its long running time to a point your mind starts to drift off (no pun intended). Ever so often it would reel you back in with a set piece or funny joke, but when the film goes through a lull, it goes on for a while.
Everyone treats Lightning McQueen like he’s a dinosaur due to the many characters around him calling him old every two minutes. It's funny as first, but then you realize you don’t know his age. Do cars even age in this world because everyone looks the same age? It'd be nice if cars did have an age so I can laugh at the old jokes. Everyone refers to him as an old car but NOBODY IN THIS WORLD ACTUALLY AGES! The animation doesn’t help either because every car introduced is animated shiner than ever before.
LAST STATEMENT: Though it has a recycled plot taken from every sports film ever, Cars 3 is a marginal improvement over its predecessor for the charm and heart that is both poignant and mature.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 77%
Super Scene: Lightning's Big Decision
I just realized, Disney/Pixar you have been sitting in my 3.5/5 range since November 2015. I hope Coco blows me away. I would love to give a film of yours a rating higher than 3.5/5.
