Cars 3: faster, brighter and less sexist
The Cars franchise returns with a female hero this time, after its director realised his daughters needed a role model, writes Leena Tailor.
Brian Fee will never forget the day his daughters told him they couldn’t learn a new instrument because it wasn’t ‘‘for girls’’.
‘‘They told me guitar is only for boys,’’ recalls the Cars 3 director, speaking to the Sunday StarTimes at California’s Sonoma Raceway. ‘‘They’d only seen boys playing it. It hurt to think they don’t even want to try because they’ve decided it’s for boys. I don’t like them feeling anything’s off-limits. I want to break down barriers, so my children don’t think anything’s for boys or girls.
‘‘The biggest thing I want a kid to take away [from Cars 3] is that anybody – boy, girl, any race, any age can do anything.’’
Enter yellow 2017 CRS Sports Coupe Cruz Ramirez, an overly enthusiastic young trainer with her own failed racing dreams, who roars into town to help beloved Lightning McQueen overcome the biggest hurdle of his career. Eleven years after winning the hearts of kids around the globe in a film franchise which has spawned merchandise, video games and even its own section at Disneyland, the racing idol faces the harsh realisation that he’s neither as fast, cool nor skilled as he used to be.
Heightening his insecurities is the arrival of Jackson Storm, a younger, cooler ‘‘weapon on wheels,’’ who threatens McQueen’s iconic status in the racing world.
‘‘He’s in a mid-life crisis,’’ says Fee. ‘‘He woke up one day and realised he can’t do the things he used to be able to do. An athlete has an expiration date – their career is over when they’re 40. So, what do they do with the rest of their life? Jackson is more hightech, much faster and comes with an entire generation of new rookies that are threatening McQueen’s generation, so we’re playing with the generational themes of when kids come in and do your job seemingly better.’’
In exploring McQueen’s predicament, Cars 3 writers conducted interviews with ageing racers like Jeff Gordon about the difficulty of accepting retirement decades before most people do.
‘‘We also talked about [retired basketballers] Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan and how it’s a real dilemma for these athletes when you realise your legs aren’t as springy,’’ says writer Bob Peterson.
‘‘Do you crumble and fail or make yourself into something better? When you reach that point where youth is largely in the rear- view mirror, that’s a tough moment.’’
Technological advancements since the first Cars film mean the world on-screen is now more visually tangible than ever, meaning the ‘‘meatier’’ plotline comes with a version of Radiator Springs, which ‘‘feels like you can reach out and touch it’’. The team at Disney’s Pixar Animation Studios displayed a fascinating level of attention to detail, like the hours of research that went into animating mud for an actionpacked demolition derby sequence. ‘‘Mud was one of the toughest challenges on this film – it’s not really liquid and not really solid, which makes it really difficult to replicate in CG,’’ explains effects supervisor Jon Reisch, before presenting images of different muds from the team’s arduous research.
Of course, many of those minuscule details will go largely unnoticed by viewers once the cars roar onto screen – especially cream-of-the-crop, Jackson Storm. In designing their two newcomers, the animation team visited raceways, derbies, auto shows, the Daytona 500, and even carparks.
Everything about Storm’s design was implemented to make him look cooler than McQueen, from his low suspension to his ‘‘S’’ logo, developed from the international symbol for ‘‘hurricane’’ and rivalling McQueen’s iconic lightning bolt.
The Social Network’s Armie Hammer brought the final design to life. ‘‘Storm only cares about himself and winning and doesn’t have much regard for his opponents or the history of racing,’’ says directing animator Jude Brownbill. ‘‘Armie provided a wonderfully rich voice, which helped us push on these traits of confidence, arrogance and egotism.’’
Cruz, who was initially a male character, was inspired largely by comedian Cristela Alonzo, who turned out to have a parallel story as someone from ‘‘modest beginnings seeking success in an unconventional field’’.
‘‘Cristela talked to us about trying to break into comedy and