Cars 3

Cars 3 is Pixar's eighteenth feature film, and the second sequel to the 2006 and 2011 films Cars and Cars 2, released on June 16, 2017. It was directed by Brian Fee.

Synopsis[]

“

Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers, the legendary Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) is suddenly pushed out of the sport he loves. To get back in the game, he will need the help of an eager young race technician, Cruz Ramirez, with her own plan to win, plus inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected turns. Proving that #95 isn't through yet will test the heart of a champion on Piston Cup Racing's biggest stage!

”

In May 2016, Fee gave the first details regarding the plot: the film sees Lightning McQueen, now a veteran in the racing world, facing the rise of a new generation of race cars epitomized by Jackson Storm. Following a defeat to Jackson Storm, Lightning enlists the help of a new trainee, Cruz Ramirez, a sleek female race car, to prepare him for the the Florida 500, in the hope that he can give a game-changing performance. Fee elaborated: "Think of where he'd be in his career now in real time. [Lightning] is not an old man, but he's one of the older cars on the circuit with new rookies coming in. People start to wonder and ask when he might retire."^[1]

Plot[]

Lightning McQueen, now a seven-time Piston Cup champion, is preparing for a big race, when suddenly Mater visits him in his trailer, keeping him company. Lightning, who appreciate his best friend for the company, then asks Mater to give him some quiet. Mater leaves and Lightning soon races with his close friends and rivals Bobby Swift and Cal Weathers. They love teasing each other. The trio are fun to watch on and off the track. Everyone a friend in the trio wins, they will get a prank after the race. Lightning seen getting covered in foam and confetti in one of the races by Bobby and Cal with Bobby saying "Congratulations Cupcake!" and in another race Cal is seen getting his tires blown up by Guido along with getting Lightning's balloons as Bobby and Lightning laugh.

One day, a rookie named Jackson Storm, who is part of a new generation of race cars who use the latest technology to run faster than veteran racers, comes from nowhere and beats not only Lightning, but Bobby and Cal as well. After a few more races, because of Storm's perfections of a Next Gen race car, veterans were either fired by their sponsors or retired, including Bobby and Cal. Lighting is one of the few veterans left. On the last lap of the final race of the season, Lightning has the lead, but Danny Swervez, Chase Racelott catch up, and Storm, the most dominant Next Gen racer in particular takes the lead away from Lightning. Lightning tries to catch up to Storm, but pushes himself so hard that he spins out of control, has one of tires blown out, and collides with the wall, launching him into a rollover crash, leaving him seriously injured on the pavement. As a result, McQueen finishes the season in 4th place.

Four months later, Lightning is recovering back in Radiator Springs, but is afraid he might never be able to race again. Lightning has mostly been hiding away in his late mentor Doc Hudson's garage and watching the big wreck in 1954 on the projector. Sally comes to check on him. She notices how Lightning has nicely decorated the garage and he still looks very attractive with that primer on. Although there's an air freshener, Sally notices his own stench, which she is getting used to. Lightning opens up that he doesn't want to be forced into retiring, like Doc, but also that he can't race like before. Sally suggests for him to try something new. Lightning reflects this as Mater also comes to check on him. Lightning finally decides to go for the idea, comes out of the garage and start training again.

Lightning calls brothers Rusty and Dusty, the CEOs of Rust-Eze, saying that he wants to train like Jackson Storm, and they inform him that they're opening the new Rust-eze Racing Center. Lightning travels there, only for Rusty and Dusty to tell him that in order to pay for the facility, they sold Rust-eze to a billionare car named Sterling. Lightning tells the brothers he will miss racing for them and it has been a great experience. Then Sterling shows Lightning around the new premises. Lightning is in awe of this. Then Lightning is introduced to a young woman named Cruz Ramirez, who is on one of the best simulators ever created. Lightning notices her spunk, speed and passion that he mistakes her for a racer. Sterling explains, she's a trainer for the training center, the best in the business. When Cruz finally meets McQueen, these two don't always get off on the right wheel, despite her being a huge fan of him and McQueen wanting to put the work in.

Cruz believes motivation is about using anything negative to push through to the positive. However her methods of doing so causes the both of them to butt hoods. From the start, she makes fun of him for his age to try to push him to success, and his buttons every chance she gets. She even goes as far to give him a drip pan during one of the sessions. Lightning finds her training ideas for him to be ridiculous, even humiliating. When Lightning finally gets to use the simulator he accidentally destroys it leading to a meeting with Sterling.

Sterling tells Lightning in his office that his racing days are ending, and that in order to provide Sterling with revenue, he will be selling legacy merchandise instead. Lightning, annoyed at the realization that Sterling cares more about him as a brand than a racer, asks for one more race, and makes a deal with Sterling: if Lightning wins, he gets to decide when he's done racing, otherwise he'll retire and sell Sterling's merchandise. Sterling agrees to Lightning's deal, and lets him train at Fireball Beach with the help of Cruz.

At the beach Cruz brings a treadmill to track McQueen's speed instead of using the sand. She says she's afraid Lightning will fall in the beach and can't get up. Lightning basically says that life sucks and then you manage to drive again. He also discovers that Cruz has no clue how to race outside the training center. She doesn't have much experience with racing on any track outside. Throughout the day, Cruz is really struggling and Lightning is teaching her a bit on how to drive on sand. By the time Cruz is able get through the basics on racing on sand, Lightning discovers his speed is 198 mph, which is still slower than Storm. Then Lightning sees a sign for a dirt track known as Thunder Hollow and decides to do more difficult training there. At the speedway, Lightning (disguised as Chester Whipplefilter to avoid paparazzi) comes upon the Crazy Eight Demolition Derby and he and Cruz are joined by a huge school bus named Miss Fritter. The derby starts and after Lightning challenges Miss Fritter to avoid hitting Cruz, she becomes the last undamaged car. Because of this, Cruz is declared the winner and Lightning becomes upset because of his failure to be on top. Not only that, Cruz accidentally trips over a water truck that blasts water on Lightning, blowing his cover and revealing his identity to the crowd.

Later on the struggle and frustration becomes too much for him. In the trailer, after Cruz cheerfully boasts about her win, Lightning gradually snaps at her and he works himself into a full blown passion. He is frustrated with the fact that he can't make progress in being faster than Storm. When Cruz thinks she's taking care of him, in reality, he's too busy taking care of her. Lightning's passion is so bad that he insults Cruz's, telling her she's not a racer while he bangs the window, accidentally breaking her trophy. This enrages Cruz and she demands Mack to pull over. She melts down as she reveals she never wanted to be a trainer in the first place. She always wanted to become a racer her whole life because of him, but when she got to her first race, she saw that all of the other cars looked stronger, and therefore left. She calms down and decides to go back to the training center. Meanwhile Lightning has calmed down himself and he feels bad for lashing out the way he did. After Cruz leaves, Lightning sees a report on TV that Storm set a new record for the fastest lap in a race. He calls up Mater to get some good advice and he replies that Doc's trainer would know the most about racing. Knowing his trainer to be an old truck named Smokey.

The next morning Lightning finds Cruz. She's still upset about what happened the night before and she vows to not be Lightning's trainer. Despite this, Lightning manages to talk her into going to Thomasville, Doc's hometown to look for Smoke. Lightning believes not only he can get training from him, she can be able to get training into becoming a racer herself. Cruz reluctantly agrees, but she also forgives him. Arriving at Doc's hometown, they begin to happily race together on the dirt track before driving into Smokey. They go out for a drink and to chat with Doc's old friends and racing rivals, River Scott, Louise Nash, and Junior Moon, who are not afraid to be brutally honest with Lightning about his rough season. The cars talk about their stories during their racing days. Louise in particular talks about women's rights in racing at the time and how she managed to steal a number so she can prove the racing world she can race. Then the cars also talked about how Doc was like in the racing world.

After hearing stories, Lightning remarks that he wishes he could have seen Doc at the happiest part of his life, his racing years. This prompts Smokey to show Lightning a garage containing a whole wall of pictures of himself and Doc together. He tells Lightning that coaching him was the best part of Doc's life and that while he can never be faster than Storm, he can be smarter than him. Lightning participates in a practice race against Cruz, but he still can't catch up to her. After watching footage that shows Doc pulling ahead of another car after drafting, Cruz and Lightning are successfully able to complete the exercises. They perform a final practice race, and Lightning takes the lead down the final stretch. However, he then has a flashback to his crash and loses the race, before heading off with Cruz and Smokey to Florida.

By the time they get to Florida, Lightning is nervous seeing the stuck up Next Gens. However after seeing the rest of his friends from Radiator Springs show up, he is full of determination. He is surprised also finds Smokey and Doc's old friends cheering him on as well as finding Jeff Gorvette rooting for him too. Sally tells Lightning he will do great in the race. In the meantime, Storm is seen mocking Cruz and making her uncomfortable. Sally looks on in disapproval while McQueen tells Storm to leave Cruz alone. Storm proceeds to make fun of him but Lightning is still filled with determination. Before the race, Lightning lines up in the last position due to missing all qualifiers and he passes the other racers using the skills he learned at the dirt track. When a wreck occurs between the Next Gen racers, Lightning manages to dodge all of the cars.

Although Lightning is doing well during this race, he can't help but overhear an encounter between Sterling and Cruz. Sterling demands Cruz to leave because she is a trainer and proceeds to insult her. When the cars go in the pits, Lightning goes as well to give Cruz a chance to prove Sterling wrong. Lightning and his pit crew get Cruz ready to race while Mater distracts Sterling from intervening. While Cruz races, both Smokey and Lightning act as her crew chiefs. After several laps, Cruz pulls up behind the pack and she picks her way between them before pulling right behind Storm on the last lap. Cruz taunts Storm making him lose his focus. He decides to ram her into the wall. Cruz drives up the wall and flips in the air over Storm in a manner similar to Doc, thereby winning the race. Upon this victory, Sterling immediately offers Cruz to race for him, which she refuses. She decides to accept Tex's offer to become the new Dinoco racer instead. Both Lightning and Cruz are declared the winners due to both wearing #95. When Sterling protests this, Tex pulls him aside to have a chat with him. While Cruz is being interviewed, Lightning looks on with pride. Sally tells him he did an excellent job teaching her and since he's one of the winners, he can choose when he's done. Lightning says "I'm gonna keep racing, but before that, there is something I want to do."

Lightning will continue racing the next season but for the rest of Cruz's rookie season, he will be Cruz's crew chief and train her. It is also revealed that Dinoco has bought Rust-eze from Sterling. In Radiator Springs, Lightning and Cruz put on an exhibition race for their friends. They have adopted Doc's old racing colors and number, respectively, to honor his memory. The two cars race on Willy's Butte as their race begins. In a post credits scene, Mater is singing a funny song and is cleaning in his lot. And when his iPad rings, he gets startled and jumps in fright, then inadvertently knocks over his reception antenna along with tires falling down from his shack's roof, and the FaceTime on his iPad goes dead, much to his dismay.

Voice cast[]

Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen
Paul Newman as Doc Hudson (archive audio and unused dialogue from first film)
Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez
Chris Cooper as Smokey
Armie Hammer as Jackson Storm
Nathan Fillion as Sterling
John Ratzenberger as Mack
Larry the Cable Guy as Tow Mater
Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera
Cheech Marin as Ramone
Jenifer Lewis as Flo
Paul Dooley as Sarge
Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore
Katherine Helmond as Lizzie
Michael Wallis as Sheriff
Guido Quaroni as Guido
Tony Shalhoub as Luigi
Richard Petty as Strip "The King" Weathers
Bob Peterson as Chick Hicks and Dr. Damage
Jeff Gordon as Jeff Gorvette
Bob Costas as Bob Cutlass
Darrell Waltrip as Darrell Cartrip
Ray Magliozzi as Dusty
Tom Magliozzi as Rusty (archive audio)
Chase Elliott as Chase Racelott
Daniel Suárez as Danny Swervez
Ryan Blaney as Ryan "Inside" Laney
Darrell Wallace Jr. as Bubba Wheelhouse
Kyle Petty as Cal Weathers
Shannon Spake as Shannon Spokes
H. A. Wheeler as Tex Dinoco
Ray Evernham as Ray Reverham
Mike Joy as Mike Joyride
Kerry Washington as Natalie Certain
Lea DeLaria as Miss Fritter
Lewis Hamilton as Hamilton
Isiah Whitlock Jr. as River Scott
Junior Johnson as Junior "Midnight" Moon
Margo Martindale as Louise "Barnstormer" Nash
Angel Oquendo as Bobby Swift
Madeleine McGraw as Maddy McGear
Andra Day as Sweet Tea
Jerome Ranft as Red
Jeremy Maxwell as Arvy
John DeMita as Doc Hudson Documentary Narrator, Demolition Derby Announcer^[6]
Django Craig as Kurt, Superfly^[7]^[8]
John Hoffman as Demolition Derby RV Fan^[9]

Production[]

It was previously assumed that Pixar would order a third film in the Cars franchise after the box office and merchandising success of Cars 2. On August 17, 2013, voice actor Michael Wallis (the voice of Sheriff) told radio audiences that Cars 3 would take place on California's Route 99.^[10]

At the Disney stockholder meeting on March 18, 2014, Disney CEO Bob Iger first announced that Pixar had begun pre-production on Cars 3 and The Incredibles 2.^[11]^[12]

At the 2015 São Paulo Disney Expo, it was hinted that the film would be released in Brazil in 2018.^[13] In an interview John Lasseter did with Autoweek on the occasion of Pixar's 2015 bi-annual Motorama car show, he gave a potential release date of summer 2018 or 2019.^[14]

Randy Newman revealed during an interview with The Advertiser in the February of 2016 that he would be the film's composer.^[4]

Lasseter later revealed on June 8, 2016, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly's Marc Snetiker, that Doc Hudson, a character from the first film who died before the events of the second film, would be referenced several times in Cars 3.^[15]

On November 21, 2016, the first teaser trailer for Cars 3 was released on the Pixar YouTube channel. An extended teaser aired January 9, 2017.^[16]

A full trailer was released on April 26,^[17]^[18] and a one-minute sneak peek was revealed at the Radio Disney Music Awards.^[19]

A "Rivalry" trailer was released on May 10.^[20]

A clip showing Cruz's command assistant Hamilton was released on Lewis Hamilton's social media accounts on May 25.^[21]^[22]^[23]

Another clip showing McQueen and Storm was released on the Movieclips Trailers YouTube channel on June 6.^[24] It was then released on the Disney UK YouTube channel on June 14,^[25] and the Pixar YouTube channel on June 15.

A "The Limit" trailer was released on June 9.^[26]

A "My Senior Project" clip was first released on the Disney UK YouTube channel on June 14.^[27]

A "Legacy of 95" featurette was released on the Disney UK YouTube channel on June 22.

Life-size models of Lightning and Jackson Storm were shown at the 2017 Formula 1 British Grand Prix as part of a promotion by Disney and the Formula One Group to promote the UK release of the film.^[28]

Soundtrack[]

Along with original score by Randy Newman, there are rock and pop songs, including "Ride" by ZZ Ward and Gary Clark Jr.^[29] The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Original Score Soundtrack were both released on June 16, 2017.^[30]

Attached Short Film[]

The short film Lou, directed by Dave Mullins (one of the film's animators), was attached to the theatrical release of Cars 3.

Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool[]

A short called Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool, directed by James Ford Murphy (the film's promo director), appears in all home media releases (with the exception of the DVD release).

Cars 3: Driven to Win[]

In January 2017, after it was reopened and bought by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Avalanche Software confirmed a game based on the film.^[31] On April 5, 2017, the title of the game was revealed to be Cars 3: Driven to Win, and it was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in North America on June 13,^[32]^[33] Australia on June 14,^[34] and Europe on July 14.^[35]