Cars 3 is a 2017 animated/adventure film directed by Brian Fee, and produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. This is the third installment in the Cars film franchise, and the sequel to Cars 2 (2011). The film stars the voices of Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper, Nathan Fillion, Larry the Cable Guy, and Armie Hammer. The film follows Lightning McQueen as he sets out to prove to a new generation of racers that he’s still the best race car in the world.
My god, what is happening to Pixar? The production company that used to be known for its stellar films is just not killin’ it like they used to. Although my rating might not reflect this statement, Cars 3 is an absolute mess, and a film that I believe was only made for monetary purposes (in my opinion). Although this film looked fantastic like all of Pixar’s films, its visuals couldn’t quite save it from the mess of a script it had to follow.
There are plenty of things that went wrong with this film, but it also had some great pieces to it as well. The visuals were outstanding, like I mentioned above, and the computer graphics seemed to have been pushed to their limits with this film. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of individually rendered cars featured throughout this film which gives you the sense that each car has their own personality ranging from that of Lightning to even some lesser of importance car featured all the way in the back of a background. The sets that are built digitally in this film are gorgeous, and more specifically the beach scene. Oh my god, Pixar kills it with its visuals, and Cars 3 has got to be one of the best computer animated films to date.
To my surprise, Pixar usually features some of the best voice acting in the industry, and although all of the original cast returned to reprise their roles, it just wasn’t anything stellar to me. Sure Owen Wilson and Cristela Alonzo did an alright job, but that was the issue. It was just alright. There was nothing outstanding when it came to the voice acting in this film, and there were plenty of times where lines were horribly delivered by even the veterans actors in this film. Sure the character development was decent if not just alright, but what are the characters if the actors aren’t doing a good enough job.
Although the film was dramatically better than what Cars 2 produced, it was still nowhere near as stellar as the original. In fact, Cars 2 had nothing really to do with the Cars series, as it was a spy movie.. like, what? That’s the thing. This film just felt so unoriginal that the entire time that I was watching it I felt like I was watching a parody film about movie clichés. Like seriously, this film’s plot is so predictable that it just doesn’t make it enjoyable. It’s not like there are huge plot holes or anything, it’s just so damn predictable that it almost seems useless to spend the money to go and see it. Honestly, you could have a four-year-old write a better story than this.
The thing that bothered me the most was the continuity with Doc Hudson’s character. Although this is a spoiler free review, some might consider this a spoiler (if you haven’t seen the previous films), so skip this paragraph if you want to keep your virgin eyes away from this part of the review. That being said, Doc is dead and has been dead since the second film. The one thing that just doesn’t make sense in this film is that Lightning pursues Doc’s old teacher to help give him guidance and wisdom for the upcoming race, and although Doc has been dead since Cars 2 where he died of old age, his mentor is still around! Like.. what? It makes absolutely no sense and adds more confusion to the already super basic plot, and really takes away the importance of Doc, in my opinion.
That brings me to my next issue which is with the continuity of time in this series. Guessing that this film follows time in the same manner of the film’s releases, then Cars 3 takes place over 10 years after the events of Cars (2006). So the problem I have with the time in this film is that they constantly refer to Lightning as being ‘old’ yet how is that even possible? Just look at Dale Earnhardt. That guy raced for a quarter of a century from 1975-2000, and that’s with his unexpected death in the early parts of 2001. So with that logic, Lightning would by no means be even close to being ‘old’, or close to the end of his racing career. Why did this bother me, though? See the entire plot revolved around him being less of a racer and more of a mentor, and yet I just don’t see it because he really isn’t that much older than he was in the first film. I know I’m nitpicking, but this was a serious plot issue for me.
So I guess that’s where this movie leaves me. Cars 3 is a predictable, anticlimactic, decently acted, and full of small continuity errors film, yet it still features some of the best visuals in animation to date. Although this film was still enjoyable at times, I never really connected to the characters like I did in the original film over ten years ago. Sure this film was good enough for young kids, but to me it wasn’t, and I decided to give Cars 3 an “Alright” on theVade Review Bar. Sadly the Cars franchise had such great promise when it originally took to the road back in 2006. Now in 2017, this film series has finally run out of gas. And the bad news is.. that’s a good thing.
