There was no Cars 3 topic. Which is not really surprising. Cars 2 was terrible, perhaps Pixar’s worst movie. Should have gone straight to DVD. It was a clear attempt by Disney to cash in by shoveling derivative crap and to keep selling Lightning McQueen toys to little boys.
Cars 3 should be more of the same, right?
Except… it isn’t. Owen Wilson has always annoyed me, perhaps because played Lightning McQueen to a ‘T’ - an arrogant asshole. But this time around he’s more subdued, and therefore more tolerable. Cars 3, as far as I can remember, completely ignores Cars 2, and continues on from Cars 1 as if Cars 2 never existed – as it should. There are many callbacks to Doc Hudson and Radiator Springs.
But as the final act rolls around and Lightning McQueen prepares for his final showdown with his arch-nemesis Jackson Storm, the movie has telegraphed to you exactly what’s going to happen. How McQueen is going rip victory from the jaws of defeat, beat Jackson Storm, win the race, and Disney can go on selling Lightning McQueen toys to little boys.
Except.
That didn’t happen. In the final minutes of the movie, Cars 3 – of all things – goes full Sixth Sense on you.
Lightning McQueen does not win the race, and you realize McQueen’s arc went further than you thought. A lot further.
I’m no expert on Pixar movies, but Cars 3 is probably better than Cars 1, which isn’t that difficult, I suppose. I doubt Cars 3 should crack Pixar’s top 5. But if you have a young daughter, you should watch this movie with them.
My kids loved all 3 movies. I was pleasantly surprised at how good Cars 3 was. I didn’t fancy it at all but the kids really wanted to go and I enjoyed it. The kids actually prefer the racing in Cars 2, maybe being from the UK but the Nascar racing from 1 never really took they much prefer the F1 style of cars and racing it just needed more racing.
Cars 1 was quite solid overall (I’ve even forgiven Pixar for Tow Mater, which is about as magnanimous as I ever get), so Cars 2 being such a complete utter destroy-the-franchise moment – almost to the point that it tarnished Pixar’s entire film canon – was quite the bummer.
My main beef with Cars 2 is the oversaturation of Larry the Cable Guy.
Which is doubly annoying since Disney made a series of short films centered around Mater called Mater stories or some such, and it’s on Netflix. My son is obsessed with it.
