Cars 3: A Minor Fender Bender

 Let's just face it: Pixar is the king of animated films.  They've made such classics as the Toy Story movies, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles (which we are finally getting a sequel to next year), Up, Monsters Inc., and- I really don't need to go on do I?  That being said every king has a weakness, and to many Pixar's  is the Cars franchise.  Many people really dug the first one and a ton of people loathed the second, even go so far to claim it's the worst Pixar film.  I, however, am in the minority who enjoyed the second one.  By no means is it a classic, but, for me anyways, it's a perfectly watchable film.  When the third was announced, many people were rather ticked because they honestly just didn't care for these movies.  So now that the third one is here, how is it?  Does it match up with Pixar's other animated gems or is it a complete car wreck (pun very much intended).  

Cars 3 is directed by Brian Fee, who is taking over directorial duties from John Lasseter.  It stars Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, and Chris Cooper.  After Lightning McQueen (Wilson) has a terrible racing accident, he needs to prove to a whole new generation of racers that he still is the best.  Now, let's start with what this movie gets right.  It seems as if Pixar learned from the last movie because this one focuses on Lightning McQueen and not Mater, his faithful best friend. Lightning is just a much more interesting character.  Another thing that I loved was how this film explores Lightning's relationship with Doc Hudson in the first film.  Sadly, the actor who played him (Paul Newman) passed away in 2008, long before this film was even conceived.  Yet his voice is still present in the film.  This was done by taking old recordings of him talking to John Lasseter when making the first movie.  This was something I really appreciated because the easy route would've been to just get someone that sounds like him.  It also helps that the animation in this movie is gorgeous.  Each scene is animated with such care and such attention to detail that several times I forgot I was watching an animated film.  That is until a talking car comes rolling in.  Each grain of sand and each droplet of water is so gorgeously rendered.  It also helps that the cars look really good. They're very shiny and smoothly animated.  If one looks closely, you could even see the backgrounds reflecting off of the surfaces. One final aspect of this movie I enjoyed was that it was a passing of the torch, which is something I appreciated.  The way it was executed though, is what brings me to the bad.

For all it's glitz and glamour, Cars 3 gets pretty predictable towards the end.  Once certain characters have their backstories explained, I immediately thought, "So, this is how it's gonna go."  Not that this is a terrible thing, but after a while, come on guys.  It doesn't help that this movie is almost two hours long.  I always say that I'm fine with longer movies as long as I like them.  The only stipulation to that is don't waste my time.  There are some scenes in here that could've been cut out.  Not only scenes, but entire characters too.  I feel like this movie would've been a lot better if it just focused on Lightning and didn't cut back to the sports analyst saying, "He's only got such and such chance of winning."  For me, it just felt like I was being beaten over the head with the movie telling me it was an underdog story.  If these scenes were cut, it would've been a lot more emotional.  The humor (which Pixar excels at) is serviceable for the most part That being said about 60% of the jokes are about Lightning being old.  We get it!  This is an underdog story!  Another thing that really wasn't that great were the races.  In the first film, your heart is pounding with excitement as each race is shown.  Even in the second they do the same thing.  Here, eh not so much.  Visually, they are gorgeous with the particles bouncing on the track, but it lacks any emotion.  This movie is also a brilliant toy commercial,too.  Several characters go through many repaints and modifications (Cruz goes through 3!) that the movie might as well have just stopped and said, "Go to your nearest Toys "R" Us now and get this figure." 

To answer my question from before, Cars 3 is in no way a car wreck, but it's not Pixar's best either.  I'd like to think of this as a fender bender.  Don't worry, I am done with the puns.  The fleshed out relationships were good, the animations were beautiful, and it was a nice passing of the torch story. It was a little clunky and a little too long, with several superfluous scenes and characters.  The message was beaten over my head a little too much and the humor was alright.  This is the type of movie that you'd put on when there's really nothing else to watch.  To be honest, this is the most OK movie I've ever seen.  It wasn't terrible, but by no means is it great.  I would give this movie a 6.5/10.