Cars 3

Lightning McQueen and the other veteran racers of the Piston Cup racing series suddenly find themselves struggling to win against next-generation rookies like Jackson Storm, who utilize advanced technology and modern training methods. As Storm's breakout success attracts other rookies to the series, most of the veterans either retire or are fired to make way for the new generation. In the final race of the season, McQueen desperately attempts to overtake Storm but loses control and suffers a violent crash, leaving him badly injured.

Four months later, McQueen is still recovering in Radiator Springs, isolating himself from his friends and spending his time watching footage of his late mentor, Doc Hudson. After receiving some encouragement from his girlfriend Sally, McQueen decides to return to racing and calls his sponsors from Rust-Eze, Rusty and Dusty, who reveal that they have sold the team to a new owner named Sterling. In a new state-of-the-art training center, Sterling assigns McQueen to train under racing trainer Cruz Ramirez. McQueen struggles to adapt to Cruz's modern methods and fails to improve, damaging an expensive simulator in the process, so Sterling tries to force him into retirement. McQueen offers a deal: if he can win the first race of the season, he can continue racing as long as he wants; otherwise, he will retire immediately. Sterling is worried about damaging McQueen's marketability, but accepts the deal, and assigns Cruz to join him.

McQueen tries to train on nearby Fireball Beach but ends up spending most of his time teaching Cruz how to drive on the sandy terrain. McQueen then attempts to join a race incognito at a famous dirt track called Thunder Hollow, but inadvertently enters a figure-8-style demolition derby with Cruz, which she wins. McQueen's identity is also discovered, adding to his humiliation. Distraught at the apparent waste of training time, McQueen rages at Cruz and in the process accidentally breaks her trophy. Cruz reveals that she had wanted to be a racer just like McQueen all her life, but never started a race due to her feeling intimidated and outclassed by the other racers. She resigns as McQueen's trainer and heads back to the training center.

Guilty and with no other options, McQueen calls his friend Mater for advice. He suggests that McQueen tracks down Doc's mentor Smokey, in Doc's hometown of Thomasville, so McQueen catches up to Cruz and convinces her to rejoin him. In Thomasville, McQueen meets up with Smokey, who reveals that despite the fact Doc never raced again, he found new happiness in training McQueen. After McQueen accepts that he will never be as fast as Storm, Smokey and his friends help McQueen learn new tricks to overcome his speed disadvantage, using Cruz as his sparring partner. However, during the final practice race, Cruz suddenly overtakes him and he suffers a flashback to his crash, shaking his confidence.

At the race in Florida, McQueen starts last, but with coaching from Smokey in the pits, manages to gradually push up the ranks. Sterling, who still believes McQueen can't win, orders Cruz back to the training center, despite her wanting to stay and watch the race. Overhearing the exchange and remembering Cruz's dream of racing, McQueen instead has his crew outfit her to take his place, which includes painting on her his #95. While shaky at first, Cruz is able to push up the ranks thanks to McQueen coaching her using a combination of what he taught her and her own training methods, and eventually ends up right behind Storm. Storm, feeling threatened, tries to intimidate Cruz, even to the point of ramming her against the wall in the final lap. Cruz, being pinned by her wheels to the wall of the track, flips out of it over Storm, overtaking him, and winning the race.

As Cruz celebrates her victory, Sterling offers her a role on his team, but she instead takes a counteroffer from legendary owner Tex Dinoco. Sterling reminds McQueen about his bet, but as McQueen started the race that Cruz finished using the same number, he gets a share of the win, thus winning his bet. Sometime later, McQueen and Cruz return to Radiator Springs, where McQueen reveals that Tex, after seeing Sterling's callousness, has bought Rust-eze from him, and McQueen, now decked in Doc's racing colors, decides to continue racing and become Cruz´ trainer, just like Doc Hudson was for him.

• Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen,[11] a legendary Piston Cup veteran.
• Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez,[11][8] Lightning McQueen's trainer.
• Chris Cooper as Smokey,[12] Doc Hudson's former mechanic and crew chief.
• Nathan Fillion as Sterling,[13] a rich business car and the new Rust-eze team owner.
• Larry the Cable Guy as Mater, a jolly tow truck and Lightning McQueen's best friend.
• Armie Hammer as Jackson Storm,[11][8] McQueen's new racing rival.
• Tom and Ray Magliozzi as Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze, respectively,[14] the owners of Rust-eze. Following Tom's death in 2014, unused archive recordings from the first film were used for Rusty's lines.
• Tony Shalhoub as Luigi, a Fiat 500.
• Guido Quaroni as Guido, a forklift who is Luigi's best friend and assistant.
• Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera, a Porsche 996, and Lightning McQueen's girlfriend.
• Lea DeLaria as Miss Fritter,[13] an intimidating monster school bus at the Thunder Hollow demolition derby.
• Kerry Washington as Natalie Certain,[13] a statistical analyst.
• Bob Costas as Bob Cutlass
• Margo Martindale as Louise "Barnstormer" Nash[15]
• Isiah Whitlock Jr. as River Scott[15]
• Bob Peterson as Chick Hicks/Dr. Damage
• John Ratzenberger as Mack[14]
• Lewis Hamilton as Hamilton[14]
• Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore
• Junior Johnson as Junior "Midnight" Moon[15]
• Cheech Marin as Ramone
• Katherine Helmond as Lizzie
• Paul Dooley as Sarge
• Jenifer Lewis as Flo
• Madeleine McGraw as Maddy McGear
• Michael Wallis as Sheriff
• Jerome Ranft as Red
• Angel Oquendo as Bobby Swift
• Diedrich Bader as Brick Yardley
• Andra Day as Sweet Tea

Additionally, several drivers and other racing-related personalities from NASCAR have cameos, including Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Darrell Wallace Jr., Shannon Spake, Daniel Suárez, Ray Evernham, Mike Joy, Kyle Petty and Richard Petty, Humpy Wheeler, Jeff Gordon, and Darrell Waltrip's return as Darrell Cartrip,[5] Tex Dinoco, Jeff Gorvette,[5] and Strip "The King" Weathers, who now acts as Cal Weathers' (his nephew) crew chief.[16] Doc Hudson appears in flashbacks with unused audio recordings of the late Paul Newman from the first film.[17]

Development on Cars 3 began in late 2011 after the release of Cars 2[7] and by March 2014, pre-production on the film was underway.[18] In October 2014, Pixar's former chief creative officer John Lasseter revealed at the Tokyo International Film Festival that the film would feature a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki's film The Castle of Cagliostro, in a form of an old Citroën 2CV.[6]

Prior to the film's release, John Lasseter, director of the previous Cars films, stated that the film had a "very emotional story", similar in tone to the first film.[19] Co-writer Kiel Murray, who also co-wrote the original Cars, said of the return to the series roots, "With these franchises you always want to know who it's about. The first movie was about McQueen, and the second movie was a sort of off-ramp to the Mater story. We wanted to get back to the McQueen story. When we looked at what would be next for him, we wondered what that would be like both as an athlete, and also for what he was dealing with in the rest of his life."[20]

According to director Brian Fee, the production team did a lot of research, and, while they "looked at athletes in other sports", the team mainly focused on NASCAR racers. Fee said that they "even talked to a sports psychoanalyst who explained that many of these drivers can't imagine themselves doing anything else", an idea that resonated with the team.[1] Mike Rich said that rookies taking over the sport is a "kind of endless story in sports", and compared McQueen to Wayne Gretzky and Misty May-Treanor as well as many others. Fee said that "being a parent became [his] main resource to find and understand the emotion" in the film's storyline.[1] Scott Morse, the film's story supervisor, said that he wanted to highlight the film's emotional core and the character's relationships, wanting the film to feel like a sports film while also focusing on McQueen realizing "what their relationship meant to Doc."[1]

On January 5, 2017, it was announced that Armie Hammer and Cristela Alonzo would voice Jackson Storm and Cruz Ramirez, respectively. Two months later, Nathan Fillion, Kerry Washington and Lea DeLaria joined the cast.[8]

The production utilized a new rendering system, RIS, which made scenes like the demolition derby race possible. The system was previously used on Pixar's Finding Dory.[21] In previous movies the animators had to first do the animation before the rendering, but RIS allowed animation and rendering to take place simultaneously in a process called "hardware shading", making it much easier for the animators to see what a completed scene would look like when finished.[22]

Fee said that the film's animation is "art directed realism" and stated that it causes the film's characters and sets to "feel more real and alive than ever before", while Bill Cone, the film's production designer, said that "The term [they] use is believability, which is the basis for everything [Pixar does]".[1] Global technology supervisor Sudeep Rangaswamy said that his team used an automatic process for the film's shots, which, in his words "allows a lot of flexibility" and that "It made shots that were previously impossible to render possible".[1] Director of photography-camera Jeremy Lasky and editor Jason Hudak researched NASCAR footage for the film's race scenes.[1]

Fee said that both the score and the soundtrack "really help support the story we are telling".[23] Both the soundtrack and the score were released on June 16, 2017.[23]

Regarding a possible Cars 4, Cars 3 producers Kevin Reher and Andrea Warren stated speaking to Cinema Blend that "If there's a good story to tell, I mean, our heads kinda break after having gotten this one done, like "Oh my god," what could you do the further adventures of? But like any sequel, from Toy Story 4 to Incredibles 2, as long as there's a good story to tell it's worth investing, we do love these characters, we love them as much as the public does."[62] Regarding which character would be the main protagonist in the film, Reher and Warren stated that "if Cruz is a breakout character, kind of like Mater was, she would be involved in a 4".[63] Owen Wilson stated at a Cars 3 press event that possible stories have been discussed for a Cars 4, though he would personally like for a fourth Cars film to delve into aspects of the thriller genre, akin to Cars 2.[64] In an interview with Screen Rant, Lea DeLaria expressed interest in reprising her role as Miss Fritter while promoting the release of the short film, Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool with the Cars 3 DVD and Blu-ray release.[65]

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• Official website
• Cars 3 on IMDb
• Cars 3 at AllMovie
• Cars 3 at Box Office Mojo
• Cars 3 at Metacritic
• Cars 3 at Rotten Tomatoes