"Cars 3" Review - Finishing In 1st Place

Cars 3 definitely comes in as a big win. It’s for sure my favorite over the first movie.

The Cars universe sure has had it’s ups and downs. It’s not one of those gold standard animated films, but it’s great for kids and for sure has made a hell of a lot of money in all of Disney’s departments. The first Cars had a lot of heart and good intention, but really felt so silly because it was focused on country characters a lot of older people couldn’t relate too, and focused more on cheap jokes for the kids. Disney didn’t improve on that when it came to the sequel and those god awful Planes movies.

But now, Brian Fee, the director, finally got the formula right. Instead of focusing on Radiator Springs, the plot focuses sorely on Lightning McQueen, who is pretty much one of the coolest Pixar characters ever created. The plot connects back to all the great themes the first Cars had and adds some pretty crazy stakes, mainly the factor of age in sports. The new characters, like Cruz Ramirez, and Smokey, add are made so likable and add nothing but greatness to McQueen’s storyline that it makes Cars 3 the most exciting and relatable movie of the franchise. On top of that, the animation and the direction are top notch great. The old characters are still likable, and they do appear, but make no mistake, this is Lightning’s movie, and that’s how it should have been in the first place.

For all it’s great moments, it still shifts a little bit too much on the kids side which results in the storyline being kind of wobbly. The sport of racing always keep switching from being a professional sport, where rules can’t be bent and there can only be one winner, to that everyone’s a winner as long as you try your best and find some loophole in the rules. This is kind of hard to explain without spoiling the end of the film, which is very unorthodox (just like the ending of the first Cars).

Nevertheless, this film manages to finally give the Cars franchise a proper goodbye and a fitting full storyline that's not too risky, but still manages to satisfy all audiences, no matter what age. I for one am very pleased.

It was also really nice to see this film honor Paul Newman (the voice of Doc) in such an incredible fashion. Well done on that Pixar.

One Nebs Up!