Review of Cars 3 (2017) by Sean L — 25 Jul 2017

Now on the home stretch of his career, the tables have turned on racing legend Lightning McQueen: suddenly out-muscled by a sleek, younger generation, he's struggling to keep pace as the wily veteran amid a fleet of impetuous rookies.

Much more in-line with the original film, to the point that *nothing* is mentioned of the wacky sequel, this is a natural, role-reversing progression of the themes presented during the franchise's first lap.

It can be blunt and obvious, but at heart this is a kid's movie and I appreciate the effort to mix a little extra meaning into the destruction derbies and Hot Wheel paint jobs. The whole package looks great, of course, as one might expect from a major Pixar effort.

There's tons of variety in the scenery, which is just stunning (the cars themselves occasionally seem glaringly flat by contrast), and the race scenes (particularly McQueen's big crash at the end of the first act) are vivid enough that you'd be forgiven for overlooking the giant eyeballs behind each windscreen.

I wouldn't place it in the pantheon of greats in the studio's past, but it's at least a deserving successor to Cars 1, if not an essential conclusion to that story. They could've just doubled down on Tow Mater and his international slapstick hijinx, raked in the bucks and called it a day, but instead we received something a little more contemplative and deserving of a feature-length.

Kudos for that.