Cars 3 follows Pixar's winning formula
Story appeals to multi-generations, while craftsmanship approaches perfection in new movie
EMERYVILLE, CA. — Kids will love it. Their parents will love it. Their grandparents will love it.
This has always been the strength of Pixar movies, and as I came to appreciate during an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the studio, and interviews with the Cars 3 director, writers and creative teams, it’s by no means a happy accident.
The stories in today’s Driving section are from those interactions.
This Friday the Radiator Springs gang is back for the third installment of the Cars franchise, and after getting a near 60-minute sneak peak of the animated film — I can say with confidence that fans of the Piston Cup racer, young and old and in-between, will not be disappointed.
Nostalgia is the beating heart of many Pixar films — think Toy Story and Up — and certainly was the over-arching theme of the first Cars movie, a love letter of sorts to Route 66 punctuated by Sally Porsche’s memorable line to Lightning McQueen as he watches cars crowding the four-lane Interstate while the old two-lane highway through Radiator Springs sits empty: “Cars didn’t drive on it to make great time; they drove on it to have a great time.”
Even Cars 2, a Bond-like spy caper, played on baby boomers’ sentimentality for the movies of their youth.
Cars 3’s theme of a veteran racecar — McQueen — being outpaced by a young up-and-comer will also resonate with boomers, as the younger generation begins to squeeze them out of the workforce. But there’s much more going on the rich storyline, including a multi-generational message that you certainly don’t see coming.
Not to give too much away, the story revolves around an aging McQueen being challenged on the track by a brash rookie racer (Jackson Storm) looking to unseat the veteran as Piston Cup champion. Yes, a complete role reversal for McQueen, who in the first Cars movie was that arrogant, self-entitled rookie.
To help him stave of the coming generation, McQueen works with a young, tech-savvy racing coach (Cruz Ramirez), and chafes at her ‘technology is your salvation’ philosophy. “I think of the movie as three generations: we’ve got the hightech stuff and we go all the way back to how it all got started, with moon-shining,” explained first-time director Brian Fee, who worked as a story board artist on the first two Cars movies.
‘STORY IS KING'
It’s fitting the dream factory that has produced the most iconic and beloved animated films of the 21st century is tucked away in a nondescript industrial park of this small city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay.
Fitting, as Pixar’s first movie — the short film Luxo Jr. — seemingly came out of nowhere, yet its revolutionary CGI technology marked the beginnings of an animation studio that has created characters that are seared into the world’s collective imagination: Woody and Buzz; Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan; Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl; Nemo and Dory; Wall-E.
And for gearheads young and old, Lightning McQueen, Matar and Doc Hudson.
I came away with a couple of impressions: first, while perfection by its very definition might not be possible, the Pixar culture is about getting as close to perfection in all aspects of the film-making process as humanly possible. And second, ‘story is king.’
It’s those two attributes, along with employing some of the most talented people in their fields on the planet, that make Pixar films the gold standard for animation. For that matter, even for real-life movies.
Like Cars movies before it, boomers will be able to enjoy Cars 3 just as much — arguably more so — as their five-year old grandchild sitting in the theatre beside them.
And how many movies have that going for them in 2017?
(For more on our Cars 3 coverage, including photo galleries, visit theprovince.com/tag/cars-3)