Cars 3 [Blu-Ray]

Director: Brian Fee

Cast: Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper (VOICES)

Release Date: November 7, 2017

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

Synopsis:

From Disney•Pixar, creators of FINDING DORY and Academy Award winner INSIDE OUT (Best Animated Feature Film, 2015), comes an epic adventure packed with heart, hilarity and full-throttle FUN!

Blindsided by a new generation of blazing-fast racers led by arrogant hotshot Jackson Storm, the legendary Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is suddenly sidelined and pushed from the sport he loves. To get back on track, he’ll need the help of eager young racing technician Cruz Ramirez, inspiration from the late Fabulous Hudson Hornet and a few unexpected twists and turns of fate. Bring home the high-octane hit that’s fully loaded with unforgettable characters, spectacular animation and turbocharged bonus extras!

Everyone’s favorite racer is back in the third installment of Disney-Pixar’s delightfully entertaining ‘Cars’ franchise. ‘Cars 3’ reunites viewers with the infamous Lightning McQueen (Wilson) as he is forced to adapt or fade away when his career’s future is threatened by a mass of enhanced cars arriving on the racing circuit, forcing McQueen to either up his game or fade into retirement like so many of his fellow competitors. Unwilling to leave the sport behind, he joins forces with a wealthy new sponsor and with the help of a clever young racing technician named Cruz Ramirez, they take his training to new levels in his fight to remain relevant amidst the evolving sport of racing. So gather up the entire family and get ready for another high octane adventure with Disney-Pixar’s ‘Cars 3’.

‘Cars 3’ delivers another satisfying helping of humorous and heartwarming fun with all of your favorite living automobiles, along with some relatively surprising moves and a clever story that all comes together into a thoroughly enjoyable ride that is also quite likely the best installment in the ‘Cars’ franchise yet. Retaining the G rating of its predecessors (not something we see very often these days) in order to guarantee that the fun remains entirely family-friendly and suitable for kids of all ages, while also offering up some new challenges and obstacles for our heroes to tackle along the way. On top of everything else, Pixar appears to have once again upped the ante when it comes to the animation, with many of the landscapes and activity looking breathtakingly realistic and just downright gorgeous around every turn. Fans of the franchise who enjoyed the previous two films in the series will definitely want to make a point of giving ‘Cars 3’ a watch when you have the time, and households with little ones that enjoy the antics of Lightning McQueen and his faithful friends may just want to drop the funds on a blind purchase (if you haven’t already gone ahead and done so). It’s a sweet, heartwarming and consistently amusing third entry and probably the finest installment yet.

Overall, ‘Cars 3’ is another enjoyable animated adventure with the whole gang, loaded with plenty of full throttle laughs, excitement and some breathtaking animation that once again takes things to another level. It’s another heartwarming tale with Lightning McQueen, Mater and the rest of your favorites that should have no trouble providing ample fun for the entire family. ‘Cars 3’ is highly recommended, particularly for fans of the franchise as well as diehard Disney (and/or Pixar) fans both young and old. Brimming with laughs, excitement and heart, ‘Cars 3’ just might also be the best entry in the series yet.  It should certainly have no trouble proving itself more than worth the time and cost of a rental at the absolute least for any fan of the franchise, and those who already own the first two films but haven’t yet a chance to check out the third should have no regrets coughing up the money on a blind purchase of the Blu-ray release which provides fantastic high definition video and audio presentations, along with a noteworthy collection of bonus content that should offer something for everyone.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Cars 3’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks magnificent  all around and provides a sharp, detailed and truly gorgeous presentation from start to finish with no noticeable faults to be uncovered along the way. It holds up splendidly even during the heavily populated and fast moving sequences, never allowing anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected, let alone rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is another wonderful high definition video presentation from Disney that should easily satisfy the fans.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a lossless 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio Soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack delivers a crisp, clean and immersive audio presentation throughout. It constantly takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send vehicles whipping past the viewer, along with some action effects, crowd activity and plenty more regularly making its way throughout the various speakers, and never causing any dialogue or other simultaneously occurring audio elements to become distorted or rendered inaudible in the process. Overall, this is a fantastic 7.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that contributes plenty of extra fun to the movie and shouldn’t disappoint in the slightest.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Cars 3’ includes an impressive collection of bonus content spread between the two Blu-ray discs. In order to keep things as simple as possible and to make sure you know where to find the extras you’re searching for, I’ve broken down the special features by disc immediately below.

Disc One (aka the Feature Disc) includes an ‘Audio Commentary with the Filmmakers’, in addition to the Pixar Animated Short “Lou” (running approximately 7 minutes in length) and a new Cars Mini-Movie: “Miss Fritter’s Racing School” (running approximately 3 minutes). Also included are a couple Behind the Scenes Featurettes: ‘Ready For the Race’ (approximately 6 minutes) which explores real life racing inspiration, and ‘Cruz Ramirez: The Yellow Car That Could’ which takes a closer look at one of the film’s new stars (8 minutes).

Disc Two (aka the Bonus Disc) offers up an additional disc entirely dedicated to more extras, which is largely broken down into sections within for a more user friendly experience. The first section is ‘Behind the Scenes’ which includes a collection of Featurettes exploring different aspects of the film: ‘Generations: The Story of Cars 3’ (running approximately 11 minutes), ‘Let’s Get Crazy’ (approximately 8 minutes), ‘Cars to Die (cast) For’ (5 minutes), ‘Legendary’ (11 minutes) and ‘World’s Fastest Billboard’ (5 minutes). The next section is ‘Fly Throughs’ and offers a more in-depth look at many of the film’s locations and unique structures, the included ‘Fly Throughs’ are: ‘Thomasville’, ‘Florida International Speedway’ and ‘Rust-Eze Racing Center’ (approximately one minute apiece). The third section featured is ‘My First Car’ which features the stories of a few individuals’ experience with their first cars accompanied by animation; the ‘My First Car’ segments included are: ‘A Green Car on the Red Carpet with Kerry Washington’, ‘Old Blue’ and ‘Still in the Family’ (approximately 1-2 minutes each). Also included on the disc are a number of ‘Deleted Scenes with Introduction’ (running approximately 26 minutes altogether), ‘5 Theatrical Trailers’ for the movie from across the globe (approximately 1-3 minutes each) and a some animated ‘Promos’: ‘Cars O’Deuvres’ (approximately 4 minutes) and ‘Car Reveals’ for some of the film’s main stars (under 1 minute each).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

 ‘Cars 3’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Pixar & Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

You can purchase ‘Cars 3’ today by clicking on the Amazon Cart icon immediately below!