Cars 3 Blu-Ray Review

Lightning McQueen returns to our screen in Cars 3, returning to the original movies roots of getting prepared for racing the race of his life, rather than trying to shoehorn a spy subplot into it, like we saw with Cars 2.

Cars 3 puts Lightning McQueen into the position of a veteran racer, at his prime and enjoying the sport until a new rookie, Jackson Storm, takes his spot as the new number one  racing star.  As Lightning struggles with the sport changing and a major crash sending him home, meaning Lightning has to retrain with the help of his new younger trainer, Cruz Ramirez.

There are some great scenes in the movie, especially those involving the Banger Car racing, as it’s fun seeing Miss Fritter chasing down the heroes in a Destruction Derby style race.  It’s a shame many of the original characters like Mater weren’t given more time to shine, especially seeing how Mater was almost the main character in Cars 2.

One thing that really stood out with Cars 3 was the incredible visuals, especially those during travelling montages, which I felt give “The Good Dinosaur” a run for its money as it’s hard to tell if some of these backdrops were real or not.

The movie has a Rocky V feel to it, which feels slightly odd since Lightning McQueen doesn’t look any different to how he was portrayed in the original, and actually feels a few movies too early.  It also feels like Disney want to push the franchise in a different direction with the female Cruz Ramirez as the main star, which honestly feels too forced.

I also felt the characters changed their look way to often, not because the story needed it, but more because the demand for variant toys of Lightning McQueen from Disney, but that could just be me being cynical.

Also featured on this Blu-Ray release is a short call Lou, which was a lovely tale of a school yard bully being taught a lesson by a creature from the Lost Property box.  I always love how Disney use animated shorts with their features, giving younger talent time to shine and  give us fans a excellent short.

There is also a new short featuring an advert for Miss Fritters school, which was fun to watch once but nothing I’d want to watch again, like Lou.

Other features include many behind the scenes featurettes, which is your typical home video fare, most of which falls into the promotional kind that feels unnecessary once you’ve seen the movie.  There is also some audio commentary for those that like these.  And as you’d expect, the video and audio quality is very high, you can feel the crowd, engine and tires come through the speakers plus see every detail on the screen in high quality.

Overall: Cars 3 is a much better movie than Cars 2, since it returns to the original idea, however it feels too early to retire Lightning McQueen off.  Pixar makes some of the best animated movies, often breaking new ground and pulling on our heartstrings, but Cars 3, doesn’t quite hit either of those things.  It’s a solid effort and I’m sure younger fans will enjoy it, but it’s not one of Pixar’s best, but still way ahead of other companies efforts.

Review Score: 7