REVIEW — “Cars 3”

Cars 3 is Pixar’s first new entry for the year, providing us with the familiar world of Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson). In this next go at the Cars franchise, McQueen is starting to get older. Younger racers are coming in hot with new tech and Lightning just can’t keep up, especially against newcomer Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer). Then in an unfortunate turn of events in order to prove himself, McQueen severely damages himself. Forcing him to face his past by fighting a future he does not want, and must prove himself in the towering Piston Cup.

I gotta say, I’m not huge into Cars but I did like this movie. So don’t worry guys, it’s not another Cars 2 repeat. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it is great, but the film had a lot of great moments. The script was very familiar, yet Pixar added their own ingredients to make the story a little bit more interesting. Rather than making it just a classic underdog story, the screenplay allows for big picture ideas that really tie into the story quite well. Since it allows for such a cool dialogue it really makes it a terrific experience for your whole family, whether you watch it with your dad, grandma, dog, or whoever else is in your family. The new characters are great additions to the Cars universe, especially the new lead, Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo). But as much as I did enjoy how the script played out, there were a lot of parts that left me wanting more, I felt stuck in certain scenes for too long.

As always, Pixar has top of the line animation, and Cars 3 only reinforces that. Some of the frames of the animation were really well thought out. You could tell they put a lot of care into the look of the world of Cars.  Also, for an animated feature, I must admit the editing was very cool. There were some really thoughtful cuts, which is rare to find in animated flick. Sonically speaking, I found Cars 3 to be really cool. They don’t take the easy way out. They make every car sound unique. They add cool noises and ticks to each individual car and really create a world of sound around the characters. Everybody feel like they’re their own individual, which is hard to do in a movie about anthropomorphic cars.

Overall, the movie is pretty good. But is it amazing? Not quite. The Pixar formula works here, but it doesn’t work to impress a new generation of viewers. The voice cast does extremely well, making all your favorite characters come to life again, and don’t count out the newcomers. That being said the film does really tug at your heart, make you laugh, make you smile, and everything else that you expect out of a Pixar property. And I must admit… I was close to crying a few times. Which to me makes it worth the price of admission. I would say Cars 3 is a terrific family film for everyone to see, sure it won’t blow you away, but it is definitely worth hoping on Route 66 to see. 4/5

(Did you like my forced Cars joke?)