Review of Cars 3 (2017) by Elizabeth K — 10 Jul 2017

Instead of Pixar making a sequel to THE INCREDIBLES, which everybody has been asking for, we get TWO sequels to one of their worst movies they've made that I'm sure nobody asked for except maybe anyone under the age of 10. Why? Because merchandising... and also to probably make up for CARS 2. If you've read my reviews of every Pixar movie from last year, you'd know that I'm not a fan of these movies. They're generic, boring, dumb, overly long, and they're about talking cars. These movies are clearly meant just for little kids. But I don't think Pixar should do that, people go see their films because they speak to both the kids and the adults. We've got studios like Blue Sky and DreamWorks that put out stuff for little kids, and even some of their films are better than some of the recent Pixar films.

But when the trailers for CARS 3 came out, it looked like they were going to go in a different and darker direction with this one. Maybe they really listened to their viewers about how much we disliked CARS 2 and that they're really going to make up for it. Even though it's another CARS movie, maybe they're going to show us something really engaging and thought-provoking that can make the entire trilogy more worthy. I was actually kind of looking forward to seeing it since the trailers were showing virtually nothing about the movie. And also I'm trying to support Pixar by giving them my money.

Now that I've paid them and have seen the movie, I can tell why they didn't show much in the trailer because the movie doesn't show much. I don't know why they made the trailers look dark because this movie is anything but dark. When you see Lightning McQueen crash in the teaser trailer, that was literally just one scene at the beginning, and it was quick too. It didn't feel like it was something important to the story because, in the very next scene that takes place a little while later, he's all fixed. I thought this was going to be towards the middle or at the end and it carries through the rest of the movie to create a more weight and tension to the film. But as soon as that scene was over, I immediately lost interest.

This film basically goes back to the routes of the first film, when it was supposed to be about racing and preparing for the big racing event, only this time McQueen is training to become faster than he ever was to go against these new technologically advanced cars that I guess just happened to show up at every race without any sort of context for how they ended up with the other race cars. They just show up and the characters just go with it without any knowledge of these cars for whatever reason. You'd think they would know at least a little information about these new cars beforehand or maybe these new cars would be in a different racing facility or something that separates them from the original race cars. We're not through the ten-minute mark and already nothing's making sense. Anyway, as McQueen trains for the big race, he makes a deal with the owner of his brand that if he loses the race he's forced to quit racing, but if he wins he decides himself when he wants to quit. With that, you can get the basic idea of what this movie's going for. It's basically ROCKY III for kids, the main character needs to defend his title by going up against a much more determined opponent.

This movie was beyond predictable. I don't think they were trying to add surprises to the movie, but come on, you could've made this a little less conventional. They're clearly following and referencing the plots of other movies I've seen already and I could predict every moment that's going to happen and I get really uninterested. And like every CARS movie, it does NOT need to be almost two hours long. For a little kids movie with talking cars, why did it have to be an hour and fifty minutes long? It could easily have been twenty minutes less if they cut out all the pointless action sequences and many exposition scenes that I don't think kids would get that invested in. With its overly long running time and predictability, it easily makes it one of the most boring Pixar films I've seen.

There are a few things for me that kept it from being a waste of time. One was the animation, and you know spectacular computer animation when it comes to Pixar. The backdrops and the glossy sheen on the cars are really beautiful to look at. When they're on the beach, the water and the grains of sand had such detail I would swear they just filmed it and added in CG cars. It's that good! Another thing was the way they looked back on the character of Doc Hudson from the first film who the movie flashes back to. I liked how they showed how much he made an impact on Lightning McQueen's life. It was really awesome to know that they used archival recordings of Paul Newman's voice in this movie and I thought it paid great homage to him. And the last thing I liked was Cruz Ramirez. She was a fun and likable character. Even though she's basically the sentimental character who dreams of becoming what she wants to be (a racer) but was never able to, she always had this energy in her and savors every moment she is able to race. And they do this thing at the end where she may become the new main character in later movies kind of like passing the torch, which is a nice message. Part of me was glad that the CARS movies are now being introduced to a much more enjoyable character. But I was mostly dreading the idea of Pixar making even more of these movies now, and I'm really tired of them. I mean, how long can they possibly keep this franchise going and what are they going to do with it?

It feels like this whole film was Pixar making an apology for what they did with CARS 2. I mean there's no pointless spy espionage plot, there's a lot less Mater, there's no toilet humor surprisingly, and it does go back to the routes of the first movie where it should be. Those who are fans of the first movie will most likely appreciate that. But for me, the whole time I was thinking to myself, "Am I really watching a Pixar movie?" These are the guys that made movies like THE INCREDIBLES, FINDING NEMO, UP, INSIDE OUT, the TOY STORY trilogy; all these really creative and amazing films that I and many other people love with all their hearts. INSIDE OUT is becoming more and more of a stick in a mud of mediocrity, and outside of that movie we haven't gotten a legitimately great and creative Pixar movie since TOY STORY 3. I can understand them making something mediocre once in a while, but to make only one great film once in a while? I'm starting to get worried! I really hope this is where their creative slump ends. We finally got THE INCREDIBLES 2 coming out next year, and another film called COCO coming out later this year which looks very promising. But as for CARS 3, I thought it was dull, generic, and just all-around forgettable. If you enjoyed the first one you'll most likely enjoy this one. But if you're like me who doesn't care for these movies, then you can easily skip it.

Grade: C-.