Don’t get me wrong, I love the “Cars” franchise. I binge the series every chance I get. But “Cars 3” missed the mark in so many ways. This will contain spoilers, but it has to be said. “Cars 3” has been something I’ve gone back and forth on liking and disliking for a while. So I’ve had a lot of time to sit back and figure out if I truly liked it or not, and I concluded that I didn’t like the closing of the series.
“We were always trying to tell a story of mentorship,” Brain Fee, the creator of the “Cars” franchise, stated in an article called “‘Cars 3’ Ending: Brain Fee Reveals The Film’s Alternate Conclusions.” The point of “Cars 3” was to show that everything comes full circle. In the first movie Lightning McQueen meets Doc Hudson, then Hudson became McQueen’s mentor. In the third movie, McQueen met Cruz Ramirez, and McQueen became Cruz’s mentor. Full circle. McQueen had some more character development in the third movie in the form of mentoring Cruz, which he found joy in. I can’t deny, it can be a great twist if done correctly. But in “Cars 3” it wasn’t done properly.
Two things in “Cars 3” didn’t sit right with me. Everyone was looking down on McQueen, and they built the whole story up to show that the old can beat the new. This is why they showed Hudson’s past so much, and how he was able to beat the newer cars in his races.
“I couldn’t care less about the climax,” TheCinemaholic writer, Mohamed Uzair, stated. “I think that the filmmakers intended for a twist ending that would surprise anyone but this was just downright ridiculous. It’s definitely not something you’d want to see after watching McQueen train hard for 90 minutes and try to make a career-defining comeback.” I quite frankly agree. The whole movie, I was excited to see McQueen beat Jackson Storm. Because Storm was constantly belittling McQueen for his age and racing ability. Cruz had taken away the impact McQueen could have had in winning the race.
The whole movie was almost a rewrite of Hudson’s life. Hudson performed his flip on the last lap of his race at the Thomasville 400 in 1954, which was when Hudson was 24 years old. The newer cars in Hudson’s time were pretty hard to beat, but he performed the flip and won that race. In the first movie McQueen is in his early 20s. The movie shows him maneuvering and jumping over piles of cars.
In Hudson’s flashbacks, you see him young doing these amazing things just as McQueen was doing in his prime. Hudson’s flip was very obviously a foreshadowing for the ending race in “Cars 3.” You have this major build-up showing McQueen training. It made me think he was going to do that flip.That would have been so perfect. Instead, Cruz did that flip and it wasn’t as impactful as I wanted it to be. It was a wreck!
I have never had so many emotions in one movie. How was Mcqueen able to go wheel to wheel with Francisco from “Cars 2” but not beat Storm from “Cars 3”? Yes, he aged, and cars tend to go out of style after a while. But McQueen was only in his early forties in “Cars 3.” According to Tom Meisfjord, a writer for WGTC (We Got This Covered), “‘Lightning’ McQueen was in his 20s during Cars, his 30s during Cars 2, and was approaching the age of retirement from professional sports in his 40s during Cars 3.” Which gives insight to why McQueen may have stepped down from the last race and let Cruz take over.
In the movie, it was mentioned that McQueen just had to be smarter than Storm. If he didn’t let Storm get into his head he could have won. Not to mention McQueen’s top speed hit at least 230 miles per hour in “Cars 2,” while he was in his thirties.
McQueen’s main description from “Cars 2” was stated in AutoBlog as, “Lightning McQueen Hometown: Radiator Springs, Carburetor County Top speed: 200 mph Zero-60 mph: 3.2 seconds Engine type: V-8 Horsepower: 750” and in the movie he reached around 230 miles per hour as well. If he was this fast in his 30s, I doubt it would drop so quickly, especially with all the training from the old-timers in “Cars 3.”
Storm’s top speed is 214 miles per hour in “Cars 3.” McQueen would still be fast enough to beat Storm. I mean Francisco was able to reach 220 miles per hour, and McQueen almost beat him. McQueen was only in second place in “Cars 2” because he broke off to talk with Mater, his best friend.
“We originally had McQueen winning that race,” Fee said in ‘Cars 3’ Ending: Brain Fee Reveals The Film’s Alternate Conclusions. “And then his idea to mentor Cruz was a little bit of an epilogue.” Fee gives us the fact that it was supposed to end differently. What pushed it over the edge for me was Cruz. Cruz could have proved she could race many different times. It would have had a stronger impact on Storm if McQueen would have won that race. There would have been so much more impact if McQueen won. In the deleted scene of “Cars 3” called “The Storm Is Over,” McQueen beats Storm and gets into Storm’s head. The win would have been so sweet, especially with how much the others in the movie were throwing his age into his face.
“And so we tried McQueen and Cruz both racing. We tried McQueen just beating her. We tried her just beating him. Nothing,” Fee claimed. Storm wasn’t threatened by Cruz he was threatened by McQueen that’s why he was constantly getting in McQueen’s head. Fee admitted to going over so many different endings for the movie. Of course, those endings wouldn’t have helped in the closing of the franchise either. I find that most of the movies had huge impacts because of McQueen. Sure the handoff at the end of the movie makes sense, but it doesn’t have the same emotional impact as the original ending. Storm would have eaten his words and McQueen would have seen it’s not just about age it’s about how smart you play. Think smarter, not harder.
The biggest takeaways from “Cars 3” and the whole franchise are to dream big, you’re never too old to do what you love and have fun, it’s never too late to follow your dreams, embrace your differences and always stay positive. Though I love the whole series I wish they would have given McQueen the ending he deserves. I know that many people thought it was a great way to end it.
“Overall I really like ‘Cars 3’ a ton,” Julian Lytle said in a review on Rotten Tomatoes. “It has a lot of heart and deals with age, sports and even women in athletics, especially racing very well. I think it’s a solid release and hopefully families really enjoy it.” There are many people who enjoy the movie. I don’t deny that in any way.
And yes. He gets to keep racing. But to me winning that race would have been perfect for him. It would have shown his fight to keep going, the training he went through, the legacy he was finishing and the satisfaction of showing that old cars can still race. They missed the mark on this last movie and it shows because among all the good reviews is a bunch of bad ones.
McQueen couldn’t get his last great ka-chow. You know what have been a great way to fully end the series? If McQueen won and told Storm one of Hudson’s inspiring lines, “I’m a racecar, you’re… a much older racecar. But under the hood, you and I are the same,” and that would have ended the movie great. We would get the epilogue of him becoming the mentor after he won the race. I wanted something more, and “Cars 3” didn’t give that.
