Cars 3 (2017 Film) Review

No Incredibles 2 yet, but Cars now has a trilogy. Although, after the failure of Cars 2, was it a good idea?

Cars 3 features the voice talents of Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Armie Hammer, Chris Cooper, Nathan Fillion, and the Radiator Springs characters from the first two films.

If you're kids could handle the first two Cars films, then they can handle this one. Still, here's the Kids-In-Mind review. The one thing that's worth noting is that Lightning, as shown in the promotional material, undergoes a brutal wreck that some children can find very sad.

Still, this is the best Cars film yet. "That's not saying much though." You're right, but unlike the last film, this one feels like its worthy of the Pixar brand. I had a hard time calling it the best though, because the first one, low as it may be on a Pixar ranking, is a solid film and Paul Newman (Doc) is one of the reasons I have trouble crowning Cars 3 the best. However, when you watch this, it feels like they brought the journey full circle and I appreciate when a franchise does that. To me, Cars 3 feels like it's the last film of the series and Pixar should be pleased of how they wrapped it up.

At least, I hope it is finished. The movie does hint at a possible Cars 4, but it also feels open-ended where a likely sequel feels necessary. The only possible reason why a Cars 4 would come to pass, is for the merchandise and Cars Land to stay relevant. Judging by this article, that doesn't seem like a possibility and if this is the end of the films, I liked it.

Lightning McQueen

After taking a backseat to the lesser comedic character in the previous entry, Lightning takes center stage once again in a new and interesting direction.

Cars 3 helps you reflect on how the character has grown over the course of two films. I'm excluding Cars 2 because Lightning was barely in that and his character didn't go through any progression as a character. Once he was a young rookie hotshot starting a racing career to being an aging veteran struggling to hold on to the thing he loves to do. It's very powerful stuff when you think about it and Owen Wilson radiates that emotion with his voiceover work. I also credit the animation for combining his voicework to the animated character.

You know what, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that there were many times throughout the film, where I thought Owen Wilson deserved an Oscar nomination for this. These moments were that powerful. It had the right amount of drama, emotion, and realism that the Academy looks for when selecting Best Actor nowadays. It's not gonna happen, but I can dream and there were a few so-so moments where it lessens the possibility. That said, Owen Wilson displayed raw emotion that no one can deny was great. I never thought I'd say those kinds of things about Owen Wilson's acting.

It's in the marketing and they don't add much to it, but Lightning's crash was still impactful. The way the music was building to it and the animation during it made for a beautiful and sad scene. I actually heard one or two people crying in the theater.

Cruz Ramirez

Then we get to Lightning's partner-in-racing, Cruz Ramirez. When I first saw the character, I was nervous about her possibly being another version of Mater, but even more grating. As the story progressed and when the character's arch became more realized, I became more invested into the character and liking her a tad bit more than Mater. Her can-do attitude and her eagerness to race were main attributes for me liking her better. She reminded me a bit of Dory, but without the short-term memory loss.

One thing I didn't expect with Cruz was how deep they took into fleshing the character out with bit upon bit of detail. Pixar didn't take the easy route with the character. Pixar made sure that you knew who the character was, what her history is, and what she's trying to achieve. They did that and more. Providing the character with great lines and making sure she wasn't a flat character. Cristela Alonzo's voicework wasn't anything amazing, but she was well-cast as Cruz.

Jackson Storm and Chick Hicks

While being a stunning car, Jackson Storm wasn't enjoyable for me. He was a one-note antagoinist. There was nothing exciting or fun about the character. He was just the cliched character that we've seen many times before in better depictions.

Armie Hammer did not fit with the character. His voice was very monotone and flat. That's likely due to Jackson Storm not having much of a personality or backstory. He didn't even have any goal to achieve. It made it seem like the only reason he was there was to be the foil for Lightning. I would be lying if his racing wasn't impressive, but in his case, the skill wasn't enough to hold up the character. In my eyes, he seemed like a Chick Hicks 2.0.

Speaking of Chick, he does briefly return. His scenes aren't very consequential to the story though, which is why mentioning him here isn't a spoiler. Didn't like him in the first movie, didn't like him here, but for different reasons. In the first movie, he was very much like Jackson Storm. Here, he didn't have a purpose for being there. He could've been replaced by any other character and it wouldn't have made any difference. Even though I'm not a fan of the character, it was disappointing to see that Michael Keaton didn't return to play the role again. Replacing him with Pixar's own Bob Peterson was a jarring change. It negated the character's purpose. If the original actor couldn't return, don't use the character. The desicion to use him was forced and unnecessary.

Animation and Score

If you imagine that the eyes aren't there, the animation is phenomenal. It has some scenes where it feels like you're watching a well-animated racing game. The guys who make the Cars video games should take note, because if they could make the games this good, I would definitely play it all the time. Unfortunately, the video games aren't as good as what's seen in this film. One thing that Pixar never weavers in, is its animation quality. There's always that feeling you have when, if you take all the cartoonish cars and replace them with real cars, it actually looks like real life. It's only when you see the eyes on these cars that you're pulled out out of its realistic looking graphics.

Original Pixar composer, Randy Newman, composes the score for Cars 3. There's nothing particularly remarkable about it though. It's seems too much like his scores for Toy Story and Monsters University. Many times while listening to it, I was reminded of those film's scores rather than feeling of something wholly new and original. There are a few great beats here and there, but it can't match itself against the other Pixar scores.

I enjoyed the classical, country-style songs more than the actual instrumental score, which is unusual considering the fact I normally enjoy the composed score over the songs that are used during the film. Most of them weren't particularly memorable, but ZZ Ward's Ride was pretty fun to listen to while it played in the film and during the film's ending credits. It had a great rhythm to it and the loud speakers amplified it which made it even better.

Animated Short: Lou

Another thing that Pixar never seems to fail at, are the shorts that play in front of every single one of its features and sure enough, Cars 3 also has a short film in front of it called Lou. I'm not gonna spoil what happens in the short, but both the story and the messages are something that adults and children will enjoy.

The characters are few, the score is pretty good, and the animation is great. While there's no dialogue in the short, the characters are still able to communicate without words. It's something that Pixar started to do with WALL-E that has now progressed into what you see in this short. Which gives me this idea.

What if Pixar tries to do a feature-length film where none of the characters speak at all. They did that a bit with WALL-E, but this time, no one speaks and the characters don't even make a sound. That seems like a great idea.

Grade: B

If you've stuck with the Cars franchise through thick and thin, you should definitely see this third, and possibly final, installment. Kids will enjoy it, parents will enjoy it. It's a perfect family movie with a few touches of realism which adults will find entertaining. If you aren't a Cars fan, you should likely wait till this comes to i-Tunes or something. Though I didn't see it in 3D, I think that because the animation quality is mesmerizing and the racing scenes are spectacular, you should see it in 3D.

That's my review of Cars 3. What did you think of it? If you haven't seen the film, are you wanting to go? If you have seen this film, what did you think of my review? I'd also be curious to hear your opinion of the film as well. Write those thoughts in the comments section below as well as what you'd want me to review next. Share this with your friends. Thanks for reading, I'm the Film Fanatic, bye-bye.