This is the most polished and kid friendly Cars movie of all the trilogy and it also feels like it is tapping a bit more into something deeper than just a corporate bottom line.
Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is now past his prime and although he might still be able to bluff his way around the new kid on the block, Jackson Storm (voiced by Armie Hammer), deep inside he knows he is old.
Lightning, not one to give up, looks up his old mentor, Doc Hudson, who has passed, but his repair truck, Smokey (voiced by Chris Cooper), will help Lightning to find out that retired racers never give up… sort of…
The third Cars movie is much more of a generational story, which packs some essential life’s lessons in mentorship, when to give up and… girl power. First time director, Brian Fee, can probably relate to those traits being he himself was a protege of director John Lasseter in the first two Cars movies.
Almost a decade after the first Cars was released, it is also fascinating to compare how much CG Animation has progressed. Cars 3 is so much slicker you almost are able to forget you’re watching an animated feature and not a live-action one.
Cars 3 has definitely earned my checkered flag, I give it a thumbs up.
