Film of the Week: Cars 3

Whether you believe this is just another way for Pixar to rake in the money from merchandise, you cannot deny, they always put a staggering amount of effort into this film. The animation is incredible as always, the story does pass on a good message to the kids – never give up.

From a child’s perspective, this would have been filled with action, comedy, and unknowingly taught them a bunch of life lessons in the process. It certainly would have kept me quiet for an hour and a half.

From an adult’s perspective, well, the film is a soft retelling of the first movie, but instead of Doc Hudson being the mentor, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) teaches Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) how to be a racer and compete in the biggest race of the year. Also, from an adult’s perspective who is a fan of Pixar, this third instalment is much better than that of the second, and is on par with that of the first, with an emotional story, a few comedy moments scattered throughout and a message that doesn’t just applies to children, but also reminds us adults not to give up either. They make no reference that I could see towards the second movie, effectively wiping it from cannon entirely and focused entirely on racing again.

Cars 3 also explores Lightning McQueen’s relationship with Doc Hudson. Between films, the voice actor who played Doc in the first film, Paul Newman, passed away, so this film was also in tribute to him as well by using archived material for the flashbacks.

The Cars franchise has undoubtedly made Pixar a lot of money primarily from the sales of their merchandise. The staggering amount of toys sold has prompted critics to speculate the real reason for extending this franchise further is to increase those sales only. I enjoyed the moment when Cars 3 parodied their merchandise in one scene where Lightning is being persuaded to quit racing altogether and sell stuff with his face and name on to make more money than he ever will when racing. Pixar’s worst film in their catalogue is Cars 2, and so it is understandable that people would hesitate when this film was announced. With this franchise, Pixar has slightly distorted their trust, but upon seeing it, I was right to have trusted them. The teaser trailer was certainly a dark, gritty, and completely unexpected set of events, prompting me to immediately become excited for the film, and I was not disappointed.

It certainly isn’t their best film. It doesn’t come anywhere near my top 5, but it isn’t their worst film either. They’ve learnt from their previous mistakes and made something we can enjoy, instead of question. Considering Pixar’s incredible record with making amazing, hard hitting films over the years, with 18 feature films under their belt, one or two missteps is impressive. I am looking forward to what they have in store for us in the future. Their next film is Coco. I’ve deliberately kept myself in the dark to avoid spoiling it beforehand, not as if there has been much information released anyway. As the company grows, and technology develops, they will be able to create films faster, with the animation better than ever before, I just hope the story isn’t affected by their speed.

The background imagery was mind blowing. Some places only showed for a couple of seconds, but the amount of detail seriously made me have to question if that really was computer animated – it was that realistic.

I do recommend this film. It’s a good family-friendly movie, one that entertains the adults not just the kids.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)