I just saw Cars 3, A.K.A. Pixar does Rocky
My son is a huuge fan of the Cars movies. He doesn’t leave the house unless he is wearing Lightning McQueen and owns more than his fair share of Cars toys. As such, it was a foregone conclusion that we would be seeing Cars 3 on opening weekend. Having just returned from this, I was initially struck by the incredbile similarity with the single most awesome Rocky movie ever, Rocky IV. However, upon further examination, I am realizing more and more similarities with the significantly more terrible (but still oh, so awesome) Rocky III.
Let’s delve into this in a little more detail…
| Theme from Cars 3 | Rocky III | Rocky IV | Notes |
| Bad guy’s name is an obvious play on the good guy’s name | ✔ | Come on, Lightning/Storm, Rocky/Clubber | |
| Hero is motivated by the death of a coach | ✔ | ✔ | Rocky sure had a lot of coaches die. Seriously, the worst job in the world is a redshirt on the USS Enterprise and second is being a trainer for Rocky |
| Bad guy making inappropriate advances to the hero’s lady partner | ✔ | Well, as inappropriate as can get in a Pixar movie | |
| Hero has to recover confidence after being soundly defeated by a black man | ✔ | ||
| Training montage | ✔ | Honestly, Rocky 3 may have had one, but the montage in 4 really sets the bar for all time | |
| Bad guy is a product of technology while the hero is all heart | ✔ | ||
| Bad guy trains in a super modern facility while hero roughs it | ✔ | ||
| Running on the beach as training | ✔ | ||
| Babe who leers menacingly at the hero | ✔ | Granted the statician babe car is no Bridgette Fonda, but you get the idea | |
| Hero finally beating his trainer proving he’s ready to finally do battle with the bad guy | ✔ | Nice play on this in Cars | |
| Conquering age to be the champ again | Fine, this didn’t actually happen in either of these Rockys. However, considering they made at least 3 more Rocky movies (Rocky V, Rocky Balboa and Creed) after Stallone turned 80, I have to think that this theme must have been touched on at some point | ||
| Competition at the end between coach and student with outcome uncertain | ✔ |
Verdict: Clearly, the more memorable Rocky IV should not overshadow the influence that the terrible (but oh so awesome) Rocky III had on this movie.
Salim's World 