Cars 3

Cars 3 is a 2017 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Brian Fee in his directorial debut, written by Kiel Murray, Bob Peterson and Mike Rich, and executive-produced by John Lasseter, who directed the previous Cars films, the film is the third installment of the Cars franchise and a sequel to Cars 2 (2011). The returning voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt and Larry the Cable Guy are joined by Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper, Armie Hammer, Nathan Fillion, Kerry Washington and Lea DeLaria, in addition to a dozen NASCAR personalities. In the film, Lightning McQueen sets out to prove to a new generation of high tech race cars that he is still the best race car in the world.

Released worldwide on June 16, 2017, the film grossed $383 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, with many calling it an improvement over its predecessor and praising it for its emotional story and animation.

Plot
Lightning McQueen and the other veterans racers of the Piston Cup suddenly find themselves struggling to win against next-generation rookies like Jackson Storm who utilize advanced technology and modern training methods. As Storm's breakout success attracts other rookies to the series, most of the veterans either retire or are fired to make way for the new generation. In the final race of the season, McQueen rushes a pit stop and desperately attempts to overtake Storm, but overworks and blows a shaky tire, losing control and suffering a violent crash.

Four months later, McQueen is still recovering in Radiator Springs, isolating himself from his friends and spending his time watching footage of his late mentor, Doc Hudson. After receiving some encouragement from his girlfriend Sally, McQueen decides to return to racing and calls his sponsors from Rust-Eze, Rusty and Dusty, who reveal that they have sold the team to a new owner named Sterling. In a new state-of-the-art training center, Sterling assigns McQueen to train under racing trainer Cruz Ramirez. McQueen struggles to adapt to Cruz's modern methods and fails to improve, so Sterling tries to force him into retirement. McQueen offers a deal: if he can win the first race of the season, he can continue racing as long as he wants; otherwise, he will retire immediately. Sterling is worried about damaging McQueen's marketability, but accepts the deal, and assigns Cruz to join him.

McQueen tries to train on nearby Fireball Beach but ends up spending most of his time teaching Cruz how to drive on the sandy terrain. McQueen then attempts to join a race incognito at a famous dirt track called Thunder Hollow, but inadvertently enters a figure-8-style demolition derby with Cruz, which she wins, unintentionally humiliating McQueen on TV. McQueen rails at Cruz for wasting his training time, and Cruz reveals that she had been inspired by McQueen to be a racer, but quit when she felt like she didn't belong. She resigns as McQueen's trainer and heads back to the training center.

After talking to his best friend Mater, McQueen decides to track down Doc's mentor Smokey, in Doc's hometown of Thomasville, and catches up to Cruz and convinces her to rejoin him. In Thomasville, McQueen meets up with Smokey, who reveals that Doc found happiness after retiring from racing in training McQueen. After McQueen accepts that he will never be as fast as Storm, Smokey and his friends help McQueen 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 wins, shaking his confidence.

At the race in Florida, McQueen starts last, but with coaching from Smokey in the pits, manages to advance through the field. Sterling arrives to find Cruz still in her racing trim, and orders her back to the center. Cruz begins to leave, heartbroken. McQueen overhears the exchange, and at his next pit stop, he tells his crew to outfit Cruz in his racing number and sends her out on track in his place. Cruz is initially slow, overwhelmed by the experience, but Smokey and McQueen help her to focus and remember her training, and she makes her way forward. When she catches Storm, he first tries to intimidate her, then rams her against the wall in desperation, but she uses one of Doc's tricks to outmaneuver him and wins the race.

As Cruz celebrates her victory, Sterling offers her a role on his team, but she instead takes a counteroffer from legendary owner Tex Dinoco. Sterling reminds McQueen about his bet, but as McQueen started the race that Cruz finished, he gets a share of the win, thus winning his bet. Sometime later, McQueen and Cruz return to Radiator Springs, where McQueen reveals that Tex has bought Rust-eze from Sterling, and decides to become Cruz's crew chief.

Cast
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 * Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen, a legendary Piston Cup veteran
 * Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez, Lightning McQueen's trainer
 * Chris Cooper as Smokey, Doc Hudson's former mechanic and crew chief
 * Nathan Fillion as Sterling, a rich business car and the new Rust-eze team owner
 * Larry the Cable Guy as Mater, a jolly tow truck and Lightning McQueen's best friend
 * Armie Hammer as Jackson Storm,<ref
 * Tom and Ray Magliozzi as Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze, respectively, the owners of Rust-eze. Following Tom's death in 2014, unused archive recordings from the first film were used for Rusty's lines.
 * Tony Shalhoub as Luigi, a Fiat 500
 * Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera, a Porsche 996, and Lightning McQueen's girlfriend
 * Lea DeLaria as Miss Fritter, an intimidating monster school bus at the Thunder Hollow demolition derby
 * Kerry Washington as Natalie Certain, a statistical analyst
 * Bob Costas as Bob Cutlass, a Piston Cup race commentator
 * Margo Martindale as Louise "Barnstormer" Nash, a Piston Cup legend and a friend of Doc
 * Darrell Waltrip as Darrell Cartrip, a race commentator and former Piston Cup racer
 * Isiah Whitlock Jr. as River Scott, a legendary Piston Cup racer who is a friend of Smokey
 * Bob Peterson as Chick Hicks, a former Piston Cup racer and rival of Lightning McQueen, who now hosts his own TV show. Hicks was voiced by Michael Keaton in the first film.
 * Peterson also voices Dr. Damage, an ambulance monster truck competitor at Thunder Hollow.
 * Guido Quaroni as Guido, a forklift who is Luigi's best friend and assistant.
 * John Ratzenberger as Mack, a 1985 Mack Super-Liner who is Lightning's transport.
 * Kyle Petty as Cal Weathers, one of Lightning's racing friends, and a veteran racer for Dinoco.
 * Lewis Hamilton as Hamilton, a voice command assistant to Cruz Ramirez. Hamilton previously voiced himself (as a WGP racer) in the second film.
 * Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore, a Volkswagen Bus. He was voiced by George Carlin, who died in 2008, in the first film.
 * Junior Johnson as Junior "Midnight" Moon, a 1938 Ford Standard Coupe who is a former Piston Cup racer
 * Ray Evernham as Ray Reverham, Jackson Storm's crew chief
 * Paul Newman as Doc Hudson, Lightning McQueen's late mentor. Unused archive recordings from the first film were used for Newman, who died in September 2008.
 * Cheech Marin as Ramone, a Chevrolet Impala Lowrider, and Flo's husband.
 * Humpy Wheeler as Tex Dinoco, the owner of Dinoco.
 * Katherine Helmond as Lizzie, a Ford Model T.
 * Paul Dooley as Sarge, a Willys Jeep.
 * Jenifer Lewis as Flo, a Motorama show car, and Ramone's wife.
 * Shannon Spake as Shannon Spokes, an RSN reporter.
 * Madeleine McGraw as Maddy McGear, a young Axxelo Microlux who is Lightning's biggest fan.
 * Michael Wallis as Sheriff, a seasoned 1949 Mercury Eight police car.
 * Mike Joy as Mike Joyride, a radio host.
 * Jeff Gordon as Jeff Gorvette, a World Grand Prix competitor who now works as a Piston Cup race announcer
 * Daniel Suárez as Danny Swervez, a next-gen racer; #19
 * Ryan Blaney as Ryan "Inside" Laney, a next-gen racer; #21.
 * Bubba Wallace as Bubba Wheelhouse, a next-gen racer; #6.
 * Chase Elliott as Chase Racelott, a next-gen racer; #24.
 * Richard Petty as Strip "The King" Weathers, who has retired and now acts as crew chief for his nephew Cal.
 * Andra Day as Sweet Tea, a forklift waiter and singer at Cotter Pin Bar & Grill.

Production
Development on Cars 3 began in 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, director of the previous Cars films, stated that the film had 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 system, RIS, which made scenes like the demolition derby race possible. The system was previously used on Pixar's Finding Dory. In previous movies the animators had to first do the animation 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 authomatic 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 footoage for the film's race scenes.

Music
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.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack features "Run That Race", an original song written and performed by Dan Auerbach, who stated the song is "about never giving up and always trying your best". Auerbach said that the filmmakers showed him the story and some dialogue, from which he pieced together a story for the song. The soundtrack also features "Ride", an original song performed by ZZ Ward featuring Gary Clark Jr., which was released as a single on April 14, 2017.

Score
The film's score was composed by Pixar's frequent collaborator, Randy Newman, who previously composed the first film's score. Tom MacDougall, Disney's executive vice-president of music, said that Newman has "a real connection to the Cars world" and that "His ability to capture the feelings on this film, its characters, locations, and the Americana theme through out is extraordinary-the music is so naturally fluid and inspired. It really feels like Randy is coming home with this score". Newman quoted tracks from the first film in moments where Fee "wanted to evoke an earlier time."

Release
Cars 3 was released in theaters on June 16, 2017, in the United States, in 3D, Dolby Cinema and selected IMAX theaters, 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.

Video game
A tie-in video game has been announced to accompany the film's release. It was developed by Avalanche Software, which was shut down by Disney in 2016, but was acquired and revived by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It was released on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on June 13, 2017, in North America, in Europe and Australia on July 14, 2017, and in Japan on July 20, 2017. As Disney no longer develops and publishes video games after the release of Disney Infinity 3.0, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment published the tie-in game.

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.

Short film
BBC, Disney and LEGO released a short film via YouTube, on April 13, 2018, that is inspired by both the Cars animated series as well as the popular TV series Top Gear. The film tells the story of Lightning McQueen's trip to the Top Gear track, where he achieves his dream of racing against the Stig.

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 theaters 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 5th.

Internationally, the film made $21.3 million from its opening in 23 markets, which was 9% more than Cars 2 and 29% more than Cars. The film opened in China on August 25 and grossed $10.8 million over its debut weekend. The biggest markets in terms of total earnings are China ($20.8 million), followed by France ($19.5 million), Japan ($16.1 million), Mexico ($15.6 million), and the UK ($15.2 million).

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 68% based on 209 reviews with an average rating of 6.1/10. 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.

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 installments."

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."

Future
Regarding a possible Cars 4, Cars 3 producers Kevin Reher and Andrea Warren stated speaking to Cinema Blend that "If there's a good story to tell, I mean, our heads kinda break after having gotten this one done, like "oh my God" what could you do the further adventures of? But like any sequel, from Toy Story 4 to Incredibles 2, as long as there's a good story to tell it's worth investing, we do love these characters, we love them as much as the public does." Regarding which character would be the main protagonist in the film, Reher and Warren stated that "if Cruz is a breakout character, kind of like Mater was, she would be involved in a 4". Owen Wilson stated at a Cars 3 press event that possible stories have been discussed for a Cars 4, though he would personally like for a fourth Cars film to delve into aspects of the thriller genre, akin to Cars 2. In an interview with Screen Rant, Lea Delaria expressed interest in reprising her role as Miss Fritter while promoting the release of the short film, Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool with the Cars 3 DVD and Blu-ray release.