It’s been a good 11 years since the first Cars movies hit the theaters. With the debut film making a whopping $464.2 million, it seemed almost logical for the Pixar producers to make a sequel, Cars 2. The follow-up film, however, was not taken well by the audience; according to critics, the film was deemed as Pixar’s “first bad movie”, and flopped considerably in movie box offices. So the question remains: why did Pixar decide to make another Cars movie? Maybe it was to redeem themselves as one of the best animation producers in the industry, or maybe it just wanted to show that Cars was building up to the best next story. Either way, on June 16, Pixar officially released the third and possibly final film in the Cars series; and it was a childhood’s dream come true.

The trailer showed the painful crash of Lightning McQueen in the middle of the race, throwing the audience into a flashback when his mentor, Doc Hudson, had gotten himself in a similar accident during his final lap. While the crash was only the beginning of McQueen’s journey to self-reflection, it was certainly a good place to start. It created that need for rehabilitation, away from all the stress and constant popularity surrounding McQueen at every turn. Also in the trailer was McQueen being challenged by a new, more advanced racing car named Jackson Storm. Storm, initially, was McQueen as a rookie; they were both overly confident, cocky, and most importantly, lacked respect for other racing cars. One could say that Pixar intended to create a reflection of McQueen from the past in order to compare the two: the one that matured and the one that had still yet to mature.

Personally, I was never a big Cars fan; watching cars talk to one another and sit in stands to watch others race just didn’t sit with me. But as with Finding Dory, I couldn’t resist watching a movie that was closely associated with my childhood, and truth be told, it was pretty good. I was especially grateful that Pixar decided to incorporate more self-reflection into the third film than it did for the second. Cars 2 focused too much on the secret detectives and whatnot, and the heartfelt storyline was lost in the chaos. For the most recent movie, though, the producers made sure to not make the same mistake again. Another admirable aspect of the movie was the inclusion of another main character, trainer Cruz Ramirez, with struggles of her own. Her personal problems helped create the touching element which the audience, both young and old, had anticipated throughout the course of the film. Because of her, not only did McQueen understand himself better, but also that his legacy was no longer only his own.