{"id":4366,"date":"2017-06-15T07:32:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4366"},"modified":"2017-07-05T10:31:37","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T17:31:37","slug":"review-cars-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=4366","title":{"rendered":"Review: Cars 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cars31\"\"fixbutton\"A definite improvement upon 2011\u2019s \u201cCars 2,\u201d \u201cCars 3\u201d is a more grounded racing adventure with enough heart to remind you that it’s a Pixar film.<\/p>\n

In this go round, Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) might be coming to the end of his fabulous racing career.\u00a0 After hundreds of wins, his style of racing is a thing of the past.\u00a0 New comer Jackson Storm (voiced by Armie Hammer) has all the technology to win in a consistently boring fashion with every risk calculated and each number counted and relied upon.\u00a0 And when it looks like Lightning has to call it quits, he decides to go back to basics in hopes of renewing his winning mojo.<\/p>\n

In returning to his roots, Lightning decides to visit the home of his late mentor Doc Hudson.\u00a0 And in flashback, we learn, again, how Doc taught Lightning the racing ropes.\u00a0 This trip down memory lane might prove that even though Doc is long gone, Lightning still has a lot to learn from his wise teacher.<\/p>\n

A lesser Disney-Pixar entry, \u201cCars 3\u201d is still a visually impressive film.\u00a0 The animation is really lovely.\u00a0 There are scenes where Mack (Pixar mainstay voice talent John Ratzenberger) drives through the countryside and the photo-realistic landscapes are pretty amazing.\u00a0 Why are they amazing?\u00a0 Because everything was rendered by Pixar artists.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure about the Pixar process, but this film will make a good case for a fully animated, yet live action, feature combination that is nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not talking about \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2\u201d weightless and unconvincing animation style. The ultimate trick for Pixar will be blending the animated environment with actors in a way that gives the world weight and does not suck the soul out of the performances.\u00a0 Needless to say, we\u2019re certainly getting there.<\/p>\n

The magic of \u201cCars 3\u201d visually is that the comic car characters seamlessly blend with the photo-realistic elements.\u00a0 It is not jarring or off-putting but very organic.\u00a0 There is a scene in the dark in a forest where the cars practice recklessly that is particularly excellent.\u00a0 And I liked a demolition derby sequence that will also tickle the funny bone of youngsters. The racing sequences on the beach are pretty special, as well.<\/p>\n

Also consider that Doc Hudson is played (voiced) by Paul Newman, who passed away back in 2008.\u00a0 I have not gone back and re-watched the first \u201cCars\u201d film, but I wonder if they merely used the same voice work from that performance or if they re-tasked previously unused audio.\u00a0 Either way, it is really special to hear Newman\u2019s familiar voice again.\u00a0 This is a continuing extension of the Pixar movie magic.\u00a0 Thankfully, we just hear Newman without digitally re-creating the actor in a computer as we saw with questionable results in the last \u201cStar Wars\u201d story \u201cRogue One.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, \u201cCars 3\u201d proves to be a solid summer family comedy.\u00a0 While lacking the narrative weight and importance of, say, \u201cInside Out,\u201d \u201cCars 3\u201d is fun and represents the on-going quality of the talent Pixar has on demand.\u00a0 Even a light and playful Disney-Pixar film is a cut above many other offerings in the family marketplace.<\/p>\n

Along with \u201cCars 3,\u201d Pixar shares a short film called \u201cLOU\u201d prior to the feature.\u00a0 It is very charming and certainly pulls at your heartstrings consistent with a story we\u2019ve come to expect from the studio.\u00a0 It is likely to factor into short animated film awards consideration, along with the expected \u201cFrozen\u201d short film due to accompany Pixar\u2019s next feature later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lighter Pixar Offering is Family Fun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4371,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions\/4371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}