Cars 3

**Cars 3** is a 2017 American animated film directed by Brian Fee. It is the third instalment in the Cars franchise and the eighteenth Pixar animated feature film.

It focuses on Lightning McQueen who sets out to prove to a new generation of race cars that he's still at the top of his game, with the help of young technician Cruz Ramirez, to prevent Jackson Storm from winning the Florida 500.

The film premiered in Kannapolis, North Carolina on May 23, 2017, and was released theatrically on June 26, 2017.

## Plot

Five years after competing in the World Grand Prix, Lightning McQueen, now a seven-time Piston Cup champion, finds himself overshadowed by Jackson Storm, a rookie who is part of a new generation of race cars who use the latest technology to improve their performance. As Storm's success progresses throughout the season and attracts other rookies, most of the veterans either retire or are dismissed by their sponsors. In the final race of the season at Los Angeles, Lightning starts falling behind Storm after both of them pitted. He tries to keep up, but in doing so suffers a violent crash, leaving him badly injured and ending his worst season on record prematurely, while Storm goes on to win the Piston Cup.

Four months later, Lightning, who has since recovered from his crash, decides that he will continue racing and calls his sponsors, Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze, who reveal they have sold Rust-eze to a businessman named Sterling. Sterling assigns Lightning to train under Cruz Ramirez, where he struggles to adapt to the modern training methods. After Lightning accidentally damages a simulator, Sterling tries to force him to retire. Adamant that he can still race, Lightning instead offers that if he wins the upcoming Florida 500, he can decide if he wants to keep racing; otherwise he will retire immediately. Sterling reluctantly accepts the deal. Lightning tries to train on nearby Fireball Beach, but ends up spending most of his time teaching Cruz how to drive on the sand. Lightning then attempts to join a race undercover at a famous dirt track called Thunder Hollow, but inadvertently enters a figure-8-style demolition derby with Cruz, which she wins with both of them hiding their identities. Lightning's cover is blown when Cruz accidentally swerves to avoid a water truck, causing him to tumble over and spilling his water on Lightning, adding to his humiliation.

Frustrated for wasted his time taking care of Cruz, Lightning rages at her and accidentally breaks her trophy. An upset Cruz reveals that she had wanted to be a racer just like Lightning all her life, but never started a race due to her feeling that she could never be one. She resigns as Lightning's trainer and heads back to the training centre. Guilty and with no other options, Lightning calls his friend Mater for advice. He suggests that Lightning track down Doc Hudson's mentor Smokey, in his hometown of Thomasville, Georgia, so Lightning catches up to Cruz and convinces her to re-join him. There, he meets up with Smokey, who reveals that despite the fact Doc never raced again, he found new happiness in training Lightning. After accepts the fact that Lightning will never be as fast as Storm, Smokey and Doc's old friends, Louise "Barnstormer" Nash, River Scott, and Junior "Midnight" Moon, help him learn new tricks to overcome his speed disadvantage, using Cruz as his sparring partner. However, during the final practice race, Cruz suddenly overtakes him and he suffers a flashback to his crash, shaking his confidence.

At the Florida 500, Lightning starts at the back, but with assistance from Smokey in the pits, manages to gradually push up the ranks. Sterling, who still believes Lightning can't win, orders Cruz back to the training centre to prepare a rookie for the following race, despite her wanting to stay and watch the race. Overhearing the exchange and remembering Cruz's dream of racing, Lightning avoids a massive multi-car pile-up and has his crew outfit her to take his place in the race, believing she is the key to defeating Storm. While shaky at first, Cruz is able to push up the ranks, thanks to Lightning coaching her from the pits, and eventually ends up right behind Storm. Feeling threatened, he tries to intimidate Cruz, even to the point of ramming her against the wall in the final lap. Using one of Doc's old moves, Cruz flips over Storm, overtaking him and winning the race.

As she celebrates her victory, Sterling offers her a role on his team, but she instead takes a counteroffer from Dinoco's owner Tex Dinoco. Since Lightning and Cruz were both wearing #95, both have won the race, meaning that Lightning gets to decide if he is done racing. Some time later, Lightning and Cruz return to Radiator Springs, where Lightning reveals that Tex has bought Rust-eze from Sterling. Now decked in Doc's old racing colours, Lightning decides to continue racing, but trains Cruz first for the season.

## Cast and Characters

* Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen
* Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez
* Chris Cooper as Smokey
* Nathan Fillion as Sterling
* Larry the Cable Guy as Mater
* Armie Hammer as Jackson Storm
* Tom and Ray Magliozzi as Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze
* Tony Shalhoub as Luigi
* Guido Quaroni as Guido
* Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera
* Lea DeLaria as Miss Fritter
* Kerry Washington as Natalie Certain
* Bob Costas as Bob Cutlass
* Margo Martindale as Louise "Barnstormer" Nash
* Isiah Whitlock Jr. as River Scott
* Bob Peterson as Chick Hicks / Dr. Damage
* John Ratzenberger as Mack
* Lewis Hamilton as Hamilton
* Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore
* Cheech Marin as Ramone
* Katherine Helmond as Lizzie
* Paul Dooley as Sarge
* Jenifer Lewis as Flo
* Michael Wallis as Sheriff
* Jerome Ranft as Red
* Junior Johnson as Junior "Midnight" Moon
* Madeleine McGraw as Maddy McGear
* Angel Oquendo as Bobby Swift
* Diedrich Bader as Brick Yardley
* Andra Day as Sweet Tea
* Chase Elliott as Chase Racelott
* Ryan Blaney as Ryan "Inside" Laney
* Bubba Wallace as Bubba Wheelhouse
* Shannon Spake as Shannon Spokes
* Daniel Suárez as Danny Swervez
* Ray Evernham as Ray Reverham
* Mike Joy as Mike Joyride
* Richard Petty as Strip "The King" Weathers
* Kyle Petty as Cal Weathers
* Humpy Wheeler as Tex Dinoco
* Jeff Gordon as Jeff Gorvette
* Darrell Waltrip as Darrell Cartrip

## Music

See Also: Cars 3 (Soundtrack)

Fee said that both the score and the soundtrack "really help support the story we are telling". Both the soundtrack and the score were released on June 16, 2017.

## Production

Development on Cars 3 began in late 2011 after the release of Cars 2, and by March 2014, pre-production on the film was underway. In October 2014, Pixar's former chief creative officer John Lasseter revealed at the Tokyo International Film Festival that the film would feature a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki's film The Castle of Cagliostro, in a form of an old Citroën 2CV.

Prior to the film's release, John Lasseter, who had directed the previous Cars films, stated that the film would have a "very emotional story", similar in tone to the first film. Co-writer Kiel Murray, who also co-wrote the original Cars, said of the return to the series' roots, "With these franchises you always want to know who it's about. The first movie was about McQueen, and the second movie was a sort of off-ramp to the Mater story. We wanted to get back to the McQueen story. When we looked at what would be next for him, we wondered what that would be like both as an athlete, and also for what he was dealing with in the rest of his life."

According to director Brian Fee, the production team did a lot of research, and, while they "looked at athletes in other sports", the team mainly focused on NASCAR racers. Fee said that they "even talked to a sports psychoanalyst who explained that many of these drivers can't imagine themselves doing anything else", an idea that resonated with the team. Mike Rich said that rookies taking over the sport is a "kind of endless story in sports" and compared McQueen to Wayne Gretzky and Misty May-Treanor as well as many others. Fee said that "being a parent became [his] main resource to find and understand the emotion" in the film's storyline. Scott Morse, the film's story supervisor, said that he wanted to highlight the film's emotional core and the character's relationships, wanting the film to feel like a sports film while also focusing on McQueen realizing "what their relationship meant to Doc".

On January 5, 2017, it was announced that Armie Hammer and Cristela Alonzo would voice Jackson Storm and Cruz Ramirez, respectively. Two months later, Nathan Fillion, Kerry Washington and Lea DeLaria joined the cast.

The production utilized a new rendering mode, Rix Integration Subsystem (RIS), which made scenes like the demolition derby race possible. The system was previously used in Finding Dory (2016). In previous Pixar films, the animators had to do the animation first before the rendering, but RIS allowed animation and rendering to take place simultaneously in a process called "hardware shading", making it much easier for the animators to see what a completed scene would look like when finished.

Fee said that the film's animation is "art directed realism" and stated that it causes the film's characters and sets to "feel more real and alive than ever before", while Bill Cone, the film's production designer, said that "The term they use is believability, which is the basis for everything [Pixar does]". Global technology supervisor Sudeep Rangaswamy said that his team used an automatic process for the film's shots, which, in his words "allows a lot of flexibility" and that "It made shots that were previously impossible to render possible". Director of photography-camera Jeremy Lasky and editor Jason Hudak researched NASCAR footage for the film's race scenes.

## Release

### Theatrical

Cars 3 was released in theatres on Friday, June 16, 2017, in the United States, in 3D, Dolby Cinema and selected IMAX theatres, accompanied by the Pixar short film Lou. The film had a special screening for the NASCAR industry in Kannapolis, North Carolina on May 23, 2017. The world premiere was held in Anaheim, California on June 10, 2017.

### Home Media

Cars 3 was released on Digital HD on October 24, 2017, and was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 7, 2017, by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

## Reception

### Critical Response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 69% based on 233 reviews with an average rating of 6.10 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Cars 3 has an unexpectedly poignant story to go with its dazzling animation, suggesting Pixar's most middle-of-the-road franchise may have a surprising amount of tread left." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 59 out of 100, based on reviews from 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

The movie was considered an improvement over its predecessor by critics. Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote, "Cars 3 is a friendly, rollicking movie made with warmth and dash, and to the extent that it taps our primal affection for this series, it more than gets the job done. Yet in many ways it's the tasteful version of a straight-to-DVD (or streaming) sequel." David Fear of Rolling Stone gave the film a positive review, saying: "There's an emotional resonance to this story about growing old, chasing glory days and the joy of passing the baton that leaves the other two films choking on its digitally rendered dust. The end goal this time out isn't just to sell a few more toys and Lightning McQueen lunchboxes. It's actually tapping into something deeper than a corporate bottom line." Mike Ryan of Uproxx called the film "the Rocky III of the Cars franchise", and wrote "There's a hint of sadness that seems to be present throughout Cars 3 that gives it a little more weight than the previous instalments."

Alonso Duralde of TheWrap gave the film a mixed review, saying: "As a spawner of merchandise, Cars 3 fires on all pistons but, as a movie, it's a harmless but never stimulating 109 minutes." Vicky Roach gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying: "Returning to the iconic, backroads nostalgia of the original film, Cars 3 puts the flashy, unpopular middle film squarely in its rear vision mirror. The route that the filmmakers take might be familiar, but after gunning it, they take the corners like pros."

### Box Office

Cars 3 grossed $152.9 million in the United States and Canada and $231 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $383.9 million, against a production budget of $175 million.

In North America, Cars 3 was released alongside Rough Night, 47 Meters Down and All Eyez on Me, and was projected to gross $55–60 million from 4,256 theatres in its opening weekend. It made $2.8 million from Thursday night previews and $19.5 million on its first day. It went on to open to $53.7 million, finishing first at the box office and dethroning two-time first-place finisher Wonder Woman. Cars 3 had the lowest opening of the series, but nevertheless was the 16th Pixar film to debut at number one. In its second weekend, the film grossed $24.1 million, dropping to third place, behind Transformers: The Last Knight and Wonder Woman. In its third weekend the film made $9.7 million ($14.1 million over the five-day 4 July holiday weekend), dropping to fifth.