Written by Jon Williams
Cars 3 is
out this week on
DVD,
Blu-ray,
and
4K
UHD. No doubt your young patrons have already cultivated quite a hold list
for the latest installment in the adventures of Lightning McQueen. The series
began in 2006 with
Cars,
which introduced Owen Wilson as the voice of the race car who learns about
friendship during an unintended pit stop. The movie also featured voice work
from Bonnie Hunt and Larry the Cable Guy, not to mention Paul Newman (in his final
role), George Carlin, and, of course, John Ratzenberger.
Cars
2 followed in 2011, and in 2013 the series spun off into
Planes
(which got its own sequel,
Planes:
Fire & Rescue, in 2014).
Cars 3
is just the latest in a long line of high-quality, very popular animated films
from Disney-Pixar. Pixar began as a division of Lucasfilm before breaking off
into its own company in 1986, with Steve Jobs as chairman. In 1991, the company
agreed to produce three feature-length animated movies for Disney. That
resulted in the first fully computer-animated film, 1995’s classic
Toy
Story, and the rest is history. They finished out the 1990s with
A Bug’s
Life (1998) and
Toy
Story 2 (1999).
Pixar had a contentious relationship with Disney
during the first half of the 2000s, but you wouldn’t know it from the quality
of their output. They began the decade in 2001 with
Monsters,
Inc., starring Billy Crystal and John Goodman. That was followed in
2003 by
Finding
Nemo, an underwater adventure that is currently Pixar’s
highest-grossing non-sequel with over $380 million at the domestic box office,
good for #30 of all time. Then in 2004 came
The
Incredibles, about a family who (some more reluctantly than others)
must use their superpowers to save each other and their city.
In 2006, Disney cemented their partnership with
Pixar by purchasing the company. The first
Cars
movie was the first released after the sale, although it was developed and made
independently. Going forward together, the two companies finished out the 2000s
with
Ratatouille
(about a rat who learns how to be a chef),
WALL-E
(about a robot who finds love), and
Up
(about a man who attaches balloons to his house to go on a wonderful adventure).
Up to that point, Pixar had traditionally not
produced sequels, with
Toy Story 2
being the lone exception. That changed in 2010 with a third installment,
Toy
Story 3, and then
Cars 2 the
year after. They’ve since followed up both
Monsters,
Inc. (with
Monsters
University in 2013) and
Finding
Nemo (with 2016’s
Finding
Dory, the #9 highest-grossing film of all time with over $486 million).
They’ve also continued to make quality original films, with
Brave
in 2012 and both
Inside
Out and
The
Good Dinosaur in 2015.
Pixar makes wonderful, timeless movies that will
continue to be popular with young patrons, and that their parents will enjoy
just as well. With Cars 3 now
available, and with their next movie, Coco,
releasing in theaters on November 22, now is a great time to make sure your
Pixar collection is complete.