Cars 3

Cars 3 videos

Cast & Crew

Owen Wilson

Lightning McQueen Voice

Cristela Alonzo

Cruz Ramirez Voice

Armie Hammer

Jackson Storm Voice

Chris Cooper

Smokey Voice

Nathan Fillion

Sterling Voice

Larry the Cable Guy

Mater Voice

Tony Shalhoub

Luigi Voice

Margo Martindale

Louise Nash Voice

Kerry Washington

Natalie Certain Voice

Cheech Marin

Ramone Voice

Lea DeLaria

Miss Fritter Voice

Bonnie Hunt

Sally Voice

Bob Costas

Bob Cutlass Voice

Paul Newman

Doc Hudson Voice

Michael Wallis

Sheriff Voice

Paul Dooley

Sarge Voice

Brian Fee

Director

Kiel Murray

Screenwriter

Bob Peterson

Screenwriter

Mike Rich

Screenwriter

Kevin Reher

Producer

John Lasseter

Executive Producer

Jeremy Lasky

Cinematographer

Jason Hudak

Film Editing

Randy Newman

Original Music

Natalie Lyon

Casting

Kevin Reher

Casting

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Critic Reviews for Cars 3

Audience Reviews for Cars 3

• Apr 08, 2020

  Cars has never been the highlight of the Pixar series. The first film was okay and maintained the heart of the Pixar label, but these sequels are not ideal. Cars 3 is a perfect ending to the series though and puts all the focus back onto the central figure after Cars 2 put him to the sidelines. The film in general is very basic and takes no real chances to deliver anything different, it's just more of the same. Pixar would do themselves a great service and put this series to bed. It's clearly had its time and would be better suited to VOD style releases by Disney themselves. 08/04/2020

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  brendan n Super Reviewer
• Aug 01, 2018

  Lighting McQueen takes one last lap in Pixar's Cars 3. When new next-gen race cars start taking over the racing circuit Lighting Queen decides to update his training program in order to get the speed needed to continue to compete. The plot is pretty formulaic and predictable, and is constantly hitting the audience over the head with its theme of letting go in order to move forward. Still, the animation is really good and delivers some fun races. And there are some nice bits of humor. Cars 3 isn't the best of the series, but it's not a bad one to go out on.

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  Super Reviewer
• Mar 12, 2018

  I'm starting this review less than 30 minutes after I just finished watching this, so you know I got some shit to say. I don't think a review of this film can start off without addressing the elephant in the room. That elephant in the room, obviously, is Cars 2. There's can't be a Cars 3 with a second installment, right? That's how sequels work. I guess you could make the argument that, prior to Cars 2, I was something of a Pixar apologist. Perhaps I don't think that's fair to say, but you could make the argument. If I saw something I didn't like, I was gonna point it out. It just turned out that, for the most part, Pixar's level of quality was above and beyond what anyone else was doing at the time. You could make the argument that they're still above and beyond what anyone else is doing right now. They've won like a gajillion Academy Awards for Best Animated Movie. Part of me also thinks that's because the Academy, apparently, refuses to even consider any films by non-American studio. The year Ratatouille won was also the year Persepolis came out. Both excellent films, but Persepolis, in my opinion, might have slightly edged out Ratatouille. Out of 17 years Best Animated Feature has been a category at the Oscars, only TWICE has a non-American studio won. Ghibli won one for Spirited Away and Aardman for Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. That's neither here nor there. The point is that Cars 2 changed everything, in my mind for Pixar. Here was a cynical movie produced for cynical reasons. Disney saw a cash cow in the Cars franchise, given the popularity of the merchandise for the original movie. Cars 2 reflected that cynicism with an awful story with terrible characters. The thing about Pixar movies is that they are uncommonly smart. They don't treat your children like they're morons, even though they may be. Cars 2 was a movie that did talk down to its audience and assumed that they were as stupid as the characters that inhabited its world. At the time I stated that John Lasseter, who directed the film, should never have any direct involvement in the creating process of an animated film ever again, or at least ever again for Pixar. He can do what he wants for Disney Animation Studios. He was the one who conceptualized the idea of Mater taking the lead role. Mater can be an entertaining enough character in small doses, but when he's absolutely insufferable when he's pushed to lead character status. He just wasn't meant for that, he's a diversion, not the lead. Lasseter traveled around the world and he wondered what Mater would do in those situations. Driving on the wrong side of the road, figuring out road signs in Japan, the autobahn in Germany. So, essentially, the idea was a giant culture clash and how a country bumpkin would react to being a fish out of water. Because...comedy. Oh and did I mention that everyone else around Mater thinks he's a super secret spy when he's clearly not. He denies it throughout the entire film. Just awful. Ever since then, I've been wary of Pixar. I haven't truly forgiven them yet for Cars 2. Everything they've made since then has ranged from good (The Good Dinosaur) to very good (Brave, Monsters University) to great (Finding Dory and Inside Out). To me, and I haven't seen Coco yet, they haven't reached their previous levels of legendary quality ever since then. And, let's be real, this sequel was never gonna reach those heights anyway. It just wasn't. The Cars franchise is Pixar B-team through and through. It's sort of obvious that, as much as they may say otherwise, their not as fully invested in this franchise as they are in their other, more original works. There's a reason why, outside of the Toy Story trilogy and maybe Finding Dory, sequels have never really had the same effort put into them as their standalone stories. You can just notice that, for this movie, they took a smaller team aside and put them to work on this. There's just not that usual stellar quality and attention to the smaller details that make Pixar standalone movies such a joy to watch purely on a visual level. Having said all I have said and I still do think this was a cynical movie produced for cynical purposes (to cash in on what's left of the Cars franchise), I do think they produced a considerably better movie than Cars 2. I think the hints are there that there's something more at play here than just Pixar deciding, on their own, and not Disney as a corporation, that this franchise needed another sequel. The hints being Sterling, a rich business car (I hate typing that out), who buys out Lightning's sponsors and has him move to his advanced training center, wants to make Lighting McQueen into a brand with merchandising up the ass. He gets to decide Lightning's fate, which is like Disney deciding Pixar's fate in what movies they produce. I know some of you will say that I'm reading too much into it, but I don't think I am, honestly. Hell, even the climax with ***SPOILERS*** Lightning stepping down and letting Cruz Ramirez take over the last race for him feels like Pixar telling Disney to let them move on with new and fresh stories instead of rehashing characters and universes that don't need any more rehashing. It's so fucking obvious. Seriously though, in spite of all patently obvious allegory to Pixar's current state, I felt that this was still a good movie. Just a good movie, nothing more than that. But when you have to follow Cars 2, a good sequel would end up feeling like Citizen Kane. I think the story does feel kind of timely in that Lightning McQueen is outdated as a racing car, there's these new models of Cars (TM) that are more efficient, faster, aerodynamic and whatever other fucking technical car terms you can come up with. The movie deals with McQueen's training in order to find a way to be competitive with this new breed of racing cars. He'll never be faster than these modern cars, but he can be smarter and use their advances against them. Oh, and of course, there's a major crash at the beginning that puts Lightning's career in jeopardy. Yes, the car crash from the trailers that made this movie look like a gritty reboot of the franchise. This crash is what drives the film's events. Does Lightning have what it takes to stay competitive in a rapidly changing racing world? It's a simple story, but it is effective in that it simplifies the approach from the first sequel and just looks at a more down-to-earth story. Lightning pleads with Sterling to allow him to win one race, if he doesn't he'll retire like Sterling wants him to after he destroys the racing simulator. Lightning wants to train his own way, getting his tires dirty, blah, blah. Sterling makes him take Cruz (the trainer at the center) to help him out. And that's when the movie really begins. I will say that while Cruz and Lightning's interactions are the emotional core of the film, particularly once Cruz tells Lightning that she wanted to be a racer like him but she just couldn't compete, parts of it feel just a little forced. Like Pixar movies are known for their pathos and they had inject some of it here just because they had to, not because the story demanded it. At least with Finding Dory, Dory's journey to find her parents was the driving force of the film and it ended up working as an emotionally satisfying journey. This, on the other hand, while having a surprisingly sweet climax where Lightning realizes that he's trying to hold on to past glories when he could open the door for new talent, just doesn't feel as satisfying. Again, it just feels like it's there because it's what's expected of a Pixar movie, not because the story required it. I will say, however, that Cruz Ramirez is a great addition to this franchise. I don't think this is a franchise known for its quality characters. Nope, Mater does not and will never count. They're mostly reliant on stereotypes. Not saying that Cruz is an incredible character, but she is very good and definitely the highlight of the entire film. She is very entertaining. The animation is very good, but not truly Pixar elite. There's just not much you can do in a film that's centered around cars, so the animation, while still very good, has never stood out in this franchise. Again, Pixar always seems to put in more of an effort in creating beautiful worlds when it comes to new stories and characters. Not saying they don't work hard at what they do, whether it's a B-team movie or not, but it's clear there's not as much shine in this as, say, in Coco. I think the reception to Cars 2 must have taken a toll on Cars 3 as it made $200 million less than Cars 2. I don't think there's any other way to explain that other than the Cars 2 was seen as inferior in quality, so why would people spend their money on an inferior Pixar franchise? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it's possible. Maybe the fucking Minions overtook the Cars franchise in that respect. And it's a shame, because the Minions are fucking insufferable. What else can I say? Voice acting is good, but other than Cristela Alonzo, who plays Cruz, no one else really sounds that inspired. I mean Owen Wilson does a good job, but he doesn't excel in way, shape or form. There's not much else to say about this. If you were expecting Cars 2 level of badness, then you would be wrong. How glad to say that I was wrong about my own expectations as well. They were very low. My expectations were definitely surpassed, but this would still rank at the bottom of Pixar's films. It might be a good movie, but it's nothing more than that. And, from a company like Pixar, one always expects much, much better than this. I still enjoyed it and I'd recommend it if you have Netflix and want to watch something harmless with your children, but an animation classic this is not.

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  jesse o Super Reviewer
• Jun 26, 2017

  I could not have been less excited about the prospect of a third Cars movie. Most would say it is fair to classify this now trilogy as the weakest link in the ever-growing Pixar brand, but I don't bring this up to quickly cut down the third installment in this franchise that has borne nothing more than extended or unnecessary narratives, but rather to commend it for stepping up its game with what is likely the last chapter largely featuring Lightning McQueen if not the beginning of a new generation of Cars films as Cars 3 actively attempts to correct much of what has dragged these films down to sub-par Pixar levels from the beginning. In 2006, an idea such as a world filled with talking vehicles and a story that paid homage to the racing world, where it'd been, and where it might be going was an inspired enough one especially considering the combination of Disney and Pixar had yet to fail to meet if not surpass expectations. There seemed so much energy and so much enthusiasm for this first endeavor and while, having re-watched that first film recently, Cars is certainly a fine enough experience it didn't transcend the genre of animated movies in the way many of its predecessors had. Rather, Cars was more along the lines of an animated movie made strictly for the kiddos rather than one that had the ability to both appeal to the children in the crowd as well as emotionally resonate with their parents. That isn't to say it didn't try, but it is in the same kind of middle area where the purpose is present yet the payoff doesn't totally work that we find Cars 3. Many will agree Cars 2 was a total misstep and deviated from what at least made the first film charming and even if the Cars movies didn't make them buttloads of cash via merchandising it would seem Pixar might be intent on course correcting for the sake of artistic credibility as Cars 3 makes a genuine attempt to steer this franchise back into the arms of what inspired it in the first place-the good ole open road. While we are eleven years down the road from the first Cars in the future the dynamic will be rather jarring as the original Cars and Cars 3 more or less bookend the career of McQueen; chronicling both how he learned to be the racer he always aspired to be as well as helping him cope with the passing of time, the passing of the baton, and understanding there might be more to life than crossing the finish line first. read the whole review at www.reviewsfromabed.com

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  philip p Super Reviewer