In retrospect an animated movie about anthropromorphized vehicles maybe never really had any long-term prospects but still surprising to see how quickly the series ran out of gas. By the second installment the characters already played the "let's go to Europe" card. By number 3 our hero - Lightning McQueen - (get it, his name is a reference to actor / racer Steve McQueen, aren't Easter eggs fun!) gets replaced. Maybe Thewestchestarian missed something but the plot features "2.0" (it actually says it on Jackson Storm's paint job) racers replacing McQueen's generation (which is what he did in the first film - aren't callbacks fun!). Yet the car/human hybrid, McQueen passes his baton to seems to also be a first generation car? Unwisely, this installment ventures into math which is the natural enemy of pathos. Storm cruises at 207MPH with gusts up to 214MPH but our heroine Cruz (get it? "Cruz" like in "cruising" in a car - aren't puns fun?!) tops out at 193 during training. So how is she keeping up?
Anyway, the plot not making a lot of sense and the abundant overuse of references, puns, and callbacks is not actually important. Pixar made it's name through snappy dialog (see anything Mike says in Monsters, Inc.), powerful emotional moments (see first vignette in Up), and sheer artistry (see all of Wall-E). Cars 3 just delivers little of the first 2 and the, perhaps unfairly, moviegoers have grown accustomed to the art in the Cars universe after two previous outings.
In short, kind of a meh outing but at least they kept Daniel Lawrence Whitney's Larry the Cable Guy in check in this one.
Review of Cars 3
