Shifting to High Gear: ‘Cars 3’ in theaters this weekend
Get ready to shift into high gear when “Cars 3” hits the race track in theaters this weekend.
In the third installment of this Disney/Pixar franchise, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson, “Midnight in Paris” and “Wedding Crashers”) experiences a setback that forces him out of the spotlight only to be replaced by a new generation of race cars.
But with the help of a young race technician, Cruz Ramirez (voiced by Cristela Alonzo, “The Angry Birds Movie” and “Cristela”) McQueen fights to secure a win at one of the Piston Cup Racing’s biggest stage.
With the promotion of female animator Jude Brownbill to directing animator of the film, Indie Wire says the character of Ramirez is the strongest female character in the “Cars” franchise.
According to Indie Wire’s Bill Desowitz’s article about the film, Brownbill said she can identify with some of the struggles that face Ramirez.
“It does sometimes feel like the female voices aren’t as loud as the men’s (in animation), and one could describe it as a man’s world,” said Brownbille according to Desowitz’s article. “It is hard as a female to know that your opinion is valid, and you should speak it loud and it will be heard and respected. And it will. But it’s taking that step. Going into that leadership role for me personally has meant engaging in a lot of meetings and giving my opinion about acting choices, all those things I didn’t know I was capable of. It was a big learning curve for me and had parallels with Cruz’s story.”
While the first two films were fairly light hearted, the third film seems to run a shade darker in dealing with McQueen’s crash and his fight to stay relevant as an aging race car.
However, the familiar faces/voices of Mater (Larry the Cable Guy), Sally (Bonnie Hunt) and Ramone (Cheech Marin) will help lighten the mood and make the film seem more like home to fans of the previous films.
“Cars 3” is rated G.
Other films arriving in theaters this weekend include:
n “Rough Night:” starring Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Kravitz and Kate McKinnon and directed by Lucia Aniello in this comedy about a group of girlfriends who end up with a dead male stripper during a wild bachelorette party in Miami.
The film is rated R.
n “All Eyez on Me” starring Demetrius Shipp Jr., Danai Gurira and Kat Graham and directed by Benny Boom in this biopic about the late rapper, actor and activist Tupac Shakur.
The film is rated R for language and drug use throughout, violence, some nudity and sexuality.
n “47 Meters Down” starring Mandy Moore, Claire Holt and Matthew Modine and directed by Johannes Roberts in this thriller about two sisters who are trapped in a shark cage at the bottom of the ocean during their trip to Mexico. They must fight to survive with just one hour of oxygen left in their tanks and a sharks circling.
The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense peril, bloody images and brief strong language.