Cars three movie review: An engaging story that will zoom its way into your heart
Time, it seems, is always on the wrong side of youthful cinema geeks. It’s been more than ten years since the original Cars – a film about the passage of time and how things switch without being under your control.
It was a sweet and sensitive film under the guise of a brash racing comedy. The sequel, Cars two abandoned the message of time and turned out to be a soulless, disappointing ‘Minions’ like over the top visual comedy with no real sense of purpose.
Cars Trio, fortunately, turns things around and produces a story with the striking heart and the spirit of the original. Time, it seems is a vapid circle.
A still from Cars Three.
Directed by very first timer Brian Fee who is a veteran Pixar storyboard artist, Cars three may feel familiar to the fans of the very first film, but in a good way. While the franchise has never been as much about the story as it is about selling branded fucktoys, Fee does a fairly good job of executing a compelling story about talking cars.
We’re reintroduced to Lightning McQueen (Wilson) who is loving his time being a racing legend. Things quickly go wrong as McQueen chances upon Jackson Storm (Hammer), an arrogant and ridiculously rapid youthfull racer who leaves his opponents in a trail of smoke. McQueen then gets embroiled in a flamy crash and is sent to a rehab center to process his unexpected fall from grace.
Pixar once again proves that they’re the only animation studio consistently capable of making films that can connect with children and adults alike. While kids will be entertained by all the colorful racing imagery and the physical comedy, there are a few decent one-liners for adults to chuckle at. The level of animation, even however expected from Pixar, is just insane.
The company is now closer than ever to genuine photo realistic animation. The backgrounds in the racing sequences are so beautifully rendered it’s some times difficult to make out if they’re animated or set against real locations. The races, tho’ the entertaining highlight of the film are still secondary to McQueen’s character moments where he’s fighting to rediscover his strength.
The narrative is also cautiously crafted to gently tap into adults’ nostalgia, a reminder of how different (and most likely better) their life was when they observed the very first movie ten years ago.
Themes such as dealing with a mid life crisis, facing the threat of junior and more talented people taking your place, coming to terms with the constant risk of ageing and recognizing ones boundaries are themes lightly digestible for people in their thirties who grew up watching the Pixar movies, so props to Cars three for addressing these things without hammering them onto the screen. At many places the film almost feels like an apology from Pixar for forcing us to witness the previous movie.
There are also a few celebrity cameos but those into F1 will miss Michael Schumacher’s little turn in the original movie. A sequel is never as welcome as a Pixar original, but with a film this good it’s hard to complain.
Much like McQueen, we need to accept the reality and look at the brighter side – that Cars three is going to be the sequel that will pump in enough money for Pixar to make more original films in the next few years. And with less Mator around, it seems the future is bright.
Published Date: Jun 16, two thousand seventeen 01:05 pm | Updated Date: Jun 16, two thousand seventeen 01:05 pm