Cars 3

2 out of 5 stars (has some good moments, but is overall bad)

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Pixar. They have provided my generation with animated classics finding heart, humor, and emotion in ideas that seem poised to fail. However, Pixar's track record as of late has been very hit-and-miss, alternating between tear-inducing masterpieces like "Inside Out" and serviceable fair like "Brave". Every film studio has a few hiccups, but Pixar used to be the outlier, the company my generation could depend on for grade-A entertainment, and, if anything, allow us now 20-somethings to watch an animated movie and not have to lower our standards "because it's for kids."

"Cars 3" wants desperately to be one of the great Pixar movies: At points it delivers honest truths about the cruel nature of the racing industry and has a great number of laughs, but the film is less than the sum of its parts. For every emotional moment, witty line, or thrilling race sequence, there is a lazy joke or painful bit of writing. The film is caught between being a more realistic dramedy dealing with mature themes, or just settle with entertaining young children (which, in my theater, it completely failed to do). I've definitely seen worse children's films, but "Cars 3" hurt me more because it had promise.

We once again follow Lightening McQueen (Voiced by a bored-sounding Owen Wilson) at the top of his game, with pals Mater (Voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), Sally (Voiced by Bonnie Hunt), and all the other side "caracters" by his side. However, Lightening's racing career is threatened by rising hotshot Jackson Storm (Voiced by Armie Hammer), who causes him to wreck during a big race and take time out to change his game plan at a tech-heavy training center. Unfortunately, Lightening is paired with ultra fangirl Cruz, who is as good at training as I am at Calculus, forcing him to work harder than ever, and possibly realize that he's reached the end of the road.

I have never loved this franchise. "Cars" was fine if unremarkable, and "Cars 2" was total kiddishness. "Cars 3" falls somewhere in the middle, with unexpected drama and moments of poignancy, but also having the overly childish humor. I thoroughly enjoyed the racing sequences in this film, and there are several moments of witty banter that made me laugh out loud, but those elements failed to coalesce into an entertaining whole for me. The film wants to emulate "Toy Story 3", which was more of a dark prison drama than a family comedy, but the difference between the two franchises is that "Toy Story" entertained children AND adults, while "Cars" primarily entertains kids. Kids who loved the first two films in this series will love this one too, but those of us who never understood the appeal of this series will gain very little from this one.

"Cars 3" has occasional funny lines, good racing sequences, and unexpectedly poignant drama, but childish humor once again kills any dramatic weight that could have existed otherwise.

Rated G

The first Cars movie was awesome and it jumpstarted a lot of rip-offs tv shows for children. talking cars or talking planes everywhere nowadays... cars was the origin and of course there have been two sequels to that movie. while the first sequel felt forced onto the franchise this one here fits perfectly. a great continuation about how his career would develop over the years. he's not a rookie any more... he's not as fast as he used to be... he needs to find out how to solve this... the hints about where the story goes are subtle and reach the right conclusion in the end. and its feels like this might also be the final movie for the franchise but who knows... it a solid 7. if you loved the first one you will love this one as well

I'm actually shocked by how low the ratings are for this movie. I thought it was the best Cars film and a pretty solid film in general. It follows Lightning McQueen in a completely different role, that of the aging star who is out of touch with the times. It is heartbreaking, it is dramatic and it is compelling. I never knew I could feel so sorry and yet so hopeful for such a has-been.

In retrospect an animated movie about anthropromorphized vehicles maybe never really had any long-term prospects but still surprising to see how quickly the series ran out of gas. By the second installment the characters already played the "let's go to Europe" card. By number 3 our hero - Lightning McQueen - (get it, his name is a reference to actor / racer Steve McQueen, aren't Easter eggs fun!) gets replaced. Maybe Thewestchestarian missed something but the plot features "2.0" (it actually says it on Jackson Storm's paint job) racers replacing McQueen's generation (which is what he did in the first film - aren't callbacks fun!). Yet the car/human hybrid, McQueen passes his baton to seems to also be a first generation car? Unwisely, this installment ventures into math which is the natural enemy of pathos. Storm cruises at 207MPH with gusts up to 214MPH but our heroine Cruz (get it? "Cruz" like in "cruising" in a car - aren't puns fun?!) tops out at 193 during training. So how is she keeping up? Anyway, the plot not making a lot of sense and the abundant overuse of references, puns, and callbacks is not actually important. Pixar made it's name through snappy dialog (see anything Mike says in Monsters, Inc.), powerful emotional moments (see first vignette in Up), and sheer artistry (see all of Wall-E). Cars 3 just delivers little of the first 2 and the, perhaps unfairly, moviegoers have grown accustomed to the art in the Cars universe after two previous outings. In short, kind of a meh outing but at least they kept Daniel Lawrence Whitney's Larry the Cable Guy in check in this one.

Aside from what should be obvious to most of those who are over the age of 5 - merchandising, merchandising! I can hear Yogurt from Spaceballs say (which this movie does try to sort of, kind of, almost satirize but doesn't quite get there, and I'll get to that later) - I wondered going in why Pixar would make Cars 3. The first Cars, one of those unlikely passion projects for John Lasseter, was fine though not remarkable unless one didn't mind getting their Paul Newman fix (last movie too!) if it meant wading through the "comedy" of Larry the Cable Guy, and the sequel was one of the most mediocre films of the past decade, from anywhere (again, Larry the Cable Guy as the protagonist). But then I thought that this was exactly why it would be interesting to see the movie - what would the Pixar creative team come up on this one. What they came up with was a good movie, no more but no less either.

Aside from a far smaller quotent of scenes with that grating Mater character (I'll get off it now but, really, who really was hungering for more of Mater in their movie theater in 2017?), this is another example like Monsters University where the filmmakers are favoring a strong message over having a simple villain. And, curiously enough, while both movies do feature Nathan Fillion as an almost/would-be antagonist, it's not about that (it can't be coincidence that in both movies he voices the show-off, cocksure figure, right? - actually Armie Hammer is more-so that character here, but nevermind), I suspect that the message was what was key for those in the story room. What could make Lightning McQueen interesting again after all these years? Was he even interesting to begin with? It's not even him so much as it is what a character's arc is, and what Pixar taps in pretty well here is the idea of moving on and what education means.

In the story of Cars 3, McQueen gets into a terrible accident as the first turning point - one remembers that from the surreal teaser trailer where it made it look as though this might be the Saving Private Ryan of Cars movies or something - and though he wants to get back into racing there's constant trepidation, about his age, about his ability, about everyone else out on the track... and then comes, ironically enough, his trainer (thanks sponsor Fillion!), with a good voice job by Cristela Alonzo by the way, who of course didn't grow up as a, uh, small car wanting to become a trainer of other cars, she wanted to be race car herself! But she lacked the confidence and the wherewithal to keep at it (those who can't do teach sort of thing). Matter of fact, that may be the whole point of the movie, but it's also saying that isn't necessarily a bad thing - if you want it, it can be great.

It reminds me too of what happens in other professions like in the movies where actors find they aren't getting the good roles or aren't being challenged enough so they decide to direct, and it takes on a whole new feeling and passion. All of this noted, Cars 3 doesn't exactly make this some big surprise, it's actually a predictable story that, at least for me and I'm sure many others, one will see coming a mile away as far as whether or not Lightning McQueen is going to do that first race (really the only question is how much or how little will he really race before passing on the baton). But Pixar was sneakily impressive here with how it brought real emotion, or as much as can happen with these cars, and Owen Wilson and Alonzo have a good pairing in the film that has an arc and develops over the course of the story.

There's a little shakier ground that Pixar tip-toes up to as far as what it means to have, say, branding and merchandising - the Fillion "Billionaire" car Sterling (I wondered if he had ever wanted to race or as a tiny car wanted to be a, uh, Billionaire car, however they can spend it) looks at Lightning as a vehicle, no pun intended, for money-making, that his admiration for McQueen is for what he is *valued* as a commodity, as a presence or a thing, as opposed to his ability (which goes a way to explain why he's not impressed when he begs Sterling that he can do one more race). But I'm not sure Pixar developed that side of it enough, or perhaps they could only do so much satire in a G-rated movie for all audiences. It may be enough, though a little more could've gone a longer way to make a decent movie into one of their REALLY good sequels like Monsters U or Toy Story 3.

At the end of it all though, Cars 3 is entertaining, occasionally quite funny (some puns and jokes hit better than others), and eschews typical villainy or the usual antagonists and embraces more like existential questions, which is probably more than a kid-friendly blockbuster like Cars 3 of all things had to concern itself with. I give Pixar points for that, and if seems like something that had... effort put into it, at least up to a point. Not to mention, last but not least, what seems to be a fitting coincidence (or it may be just what Lasseter intended) that a first-time director was promoted up to do this movie within Pixar, Brian Fee. It was time to get in the race, I suppose, and he showed up to do well.