Cars 3: It's Not the Years, it's the Mileage

I’m either the least qualified person to review Cars 3 or the most. Least, because my 8-year-old son is a Radiator Springs obsessive. He loves Lightning McQueen and Mater and the gang – we’ve even been to “Cars Land” at California Adventure – and I couldn’t even begin to count how many times we’ve watched Cars, Cars 2 (blimey…) and Mater’s Tall Tales together. So I’m a little biased, in that if he’s happy with the new movie, then I’m gonna be happy. But with all that exposure does come a certain expertise. I know when it feels like Radiator Springs, and I know when the pistons aren’t firing.

So I’m happy to report that at least for this family demographic, Cars 3 is a winner. It’s very deliberately a step back from the Mater-centric spy-nannigans of Cars 2, returning to the charm and focus on character and action that’s endeared the Cars universe to legions of kids – and their somewhat slow-to-come-around parents.

Cars 3 pretty much pretends Cars 2 doesn’t exist. Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is still ripping up the race track, when unexpectedly, he finds himself in the wake of a newer, faster, high-tech race car called Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer). All computer-designed aerodynamics and humorless efficiency, Storm knows he’s superior to Lightning in every way, and like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, he can think only, “I must break you.” In trying to keep up with Storm, Lightning endures the mother of all crashes, akin to Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man, “She’s breaking up…she’s breaking up…” leaving him nearly totaled.

It may seem odd for a kids’ movie to be focusing on getting old and seeing the new generation threatening in your rear-view mirror, but that’s really the meat of Cars 3. Lightning has to go back to the gym – a new high-tech training center, and submit to the motivational regimen of new character Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo). Cruz is ultra-modern herself, perky and determined, but maybe a little naive about the “seasoning” that makes a veteran.

This first-act training center set-up is the weakest part of Cars 3, and pretty talky. Thankfully, the film picks up quickly and only gets better as it goes along. Lightning needs to get outside – to get back to his roots. Cars fans know that Lightning wouldn’t be Lightning without the tutelage of Doc Hudson (Paul Newman), who’s no longer with us, but who’s brought back in Lightning’s reveries thanks to the tasteful use of previously unused Newman recording sessions from the first film. Doc also had a terrible accident that cut his racing career short, despite how much he felt he still had left in him. Thematically, Cars 3 is really about Lightning coming to terms with his own “mortality” and trying to figure out how he’ll pick his own self up and what kind of second act he’s going to make for himself. The shadow of the past – of Doc Hudson and his legendary elders – contrasts interestingly with Cruz, Storm and the new ways of the present. Lea DeLaria, Margo Martindale, and especially Chris Cooper, embody welcome new characters. The loss of Route 66 and the echo of the past was a major theme of the first Cars, so it’s a good fit here.

None of which gets in the way of a rip-roaring fun time for your kids, let me tell you. Lightning and Cruz have to go on a “backroads” journey of discovery and reinvention – Lightning has to visit the past to find his future, which serves as a school of hard knocks for Cruz, who’s great in the lab, but never spent much time in “the field.” From unexpected demolition derbies to derelict race tracks, it’s all rendered by Pixar art department vet Brian Fee in a pretty dazzling directorial debut. The compositions in Cars 3 are jaw-dropping at times. The high-altitude reveal of the climactic Florida Speedway is stunning – like a shot from Gladiator. The racing action is dizzying and the camera is right on the asphalt, giving you a tremendous sense of speed and perspective. More than any of the previous films, the animation of the cars and environments is positively eerie. The cars seem tangible and absolutely tactile, they’re so realistically rendered.

No spoilers from me, but I was really delighted by the finale of Cars 3 and how they chose to handle this chapter. It’s clever and surprising and it sends you out with even more affection for the characters. Exploding with action, humor, and brightly marketable primary colors, Cars 3 is a great summer family picture that should do really well. And I can only imagine how familiar I’ll be becoming with it, when it hits video later this year. Ka-CHOW!