Disney has released a teaser for the new Cars 3 trailer, which will arrive tomorrow. Cars has always been Pixar's most child-focused franchise; although the Emeryville titans output has always been family focused, the likes of Toy Story and Up crossed generations to appeal to adults as much as kids. With their cartoonishly semi-anthropomorphised vehicles skewing the target age downwards, the two Cars films have been less overtly adult and unsurprisingly led to the studio's biggest merchandising brand by far.
The third film in the series arrives in June and looks to be aging things up, representative of how many of the original's fans will now be in their teens. The first teaser was a joke-less, photo-realistic tease of a dangerous car crash for hero Lightning McQueen and while subsequent trailers added more levity, the film altogether appears to be more mature. A new trailer tomorrow will give an even better taste of what Pixar's going for.
Disney has released a short teaser featuring Owen Wilson's Lightning McQueen and new characters Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer) and Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) speeding off a cliff that promises a "New Trailer Tomorrow" before John Ratzenberger's truck Mac reverses in saying "trailer coming through", a cheeky pun fans of the series will be used to by now. You can check it out above.
Unlike most modern trailer teases, this one isn't made of footage from the film but simply advertises the launch of a new look. Its tone is noticeably lighter than what we've seen from the film thus far, suggesting that it will be aimed more directly at the child target audience. That wouldn't be a bad marketing tactic by any stretch - the early footage gets adults attention before the later teases do the heavy lifting of appealing to the main demographic.
The crash that made up the first teaser looks to be in the early stretch of the movie, with McQueen - who's gone from rookie in the original to an experienced competitor - injured in a race with Storm and gradually having to build himself back up with the help of Ramirez. From very early on in the movie's development, Pixar's made clear it will deal heavily with the memory of Paul Newman's Doc Hudson, so the parallels between McQueen's predicament and the old race car will likely be played up heavily.
Despite its financial success, Cars is widely regarded as being on the lower end of the Pixar spectrum, putting a lot of pressure on the film to turn that expectation around. The trailers so far have been suitably intriguing, so hopefully this fresh look can continue the trend.
Source: Disney
