Review: Cars 3

Cars 3 (2D)
Cert: U / 109 mins / Dir. Brian Fee / Trailer



So the school Summer holidays are imminent, which means it must be time for a Pixar movie. Last year saw an time-passingly entertaining, if thoroughly unwarranted, sequel entry being released into the water, whereas 2017 brings us… yeah, you guessed it. Same*¹.

Cars 3, arriving six years after its forebear and eleven years after its originator*², follows the story of Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), a hotrod-red racing car who's beginning to realise he's past him prime as young up-and-coming contenders leave him crossing the finish-line in their wake. We meet old favourites from the previous movies, plus a slew of new characters, all animated and voiced in the inimitable Pixar style.

Nothing short of exquisitely animated (and I love that the sets and backdrops are now essentially photo-realistic), it's enthusiastically voiced and fairly solidly constructed for a target-audience of younger viewers. But ultimately, the whole thing is uninspiring, coming across as little more than a loosely-connected series of fast-cut track races. For a full on Disney/Pixar production, you know this should be more engaging on an emotional level. If anything, the most interesting thing about the film is how uninteresting a film which had seven writers can turn out to be. It's also a Disney movie which manages to have a tongue-in-cheek dig at saturation-merchandising, which is either very meta, or blissfully non-self-aware.

By no means Disney/Pixar's A-game, Cars 3 will keep your youngsters entertained for the duration of its run-time, at least. As a tale of mentoring, motivation and the inevitability and acceptance of ageing set in the sun-scorched desert, it's a bit like Logan for the under-10s.

Albeit with less claret. Obviously.

Cars. Cars 2.



Not unless your padawans are dragging you there.



Keep the franchise ticking over in a low-gear? Yes.



Nope.



Nope.



Nope.



Level 1: This film's got the voice of Major Derlin in it.






*¹ Although in defence of what I'm about to say in the rest of this review, beforehand I witnessed trailers for The Emoji Movie, The Nut Job 2, The My Little Pony Movie and a CGI thing where James Corden voices Peter Rabbit, all of which look fucking dreadful, so at least I wasn't sitting through one of those. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² In all fairness, 2013 and 2014 took a detour and brought us an unwarranted spinoff and its own unwarranted sequel, respectively. ^{[ BACK ]}

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