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For Cars 3, Newman employed an orchestral ensemble of 110 players and enjoyed a return by orchestrator and composer Don Davis (who was also concurrently scoring his first feature in a long time) to produce exactly the score you expect to hear from him. Absolutely no surprises await the listener in Cars 3, Newman's blend of brightly optimistic, major-key action and wistfully sorrowful passages of lamentation returning the franchise to its core musical identities despite once again battling song placements throughout. The Cars franchise of film scores has never enjoyed an overwhelming set of melodic identities; Newman's most memorable scores are often paired with the melodies of popular songs that accompany them, and such singing from Newman was absent in Cars. After Giacchino totally ignored Newman's material for the sequel, Cars 3 refreshingly reprises several recurring motifs from the original, though non-fans of the concept may miss them and instead latch onto the plainly obvious overall tone of similarity that Newman brings back to the table. Such casual listeners may (justifiably) hear as many references to Toy Story as Cars in this work, the parody applications of Western or luau personality, along with the requisite moments of tenderness, really not differing from that more acclaimed franchise's music very much. Newman retains his ability to take even the most melancholy of cues and maintain their major-key optimism, and Car 3 certainly utilizes an excess of these contemplative moments for McQueen. Genres are bent at will, light waltzes never seemingly far from Newman's mind. Thematically, the franchise still lacks a primary thematic identity, leaving the whole as something that perpetually reminds you of something else, whether it's the equivalent personality of Cars, the heroics of Williams' racing pageantry in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (this returns wholesale from the first score), the twist of melodic romanticism from Alan Silvestri's Back to the Future, or the occasional James Horner-like orchestrations in "Temple of Rust-Eze" and "The Fabulous Lightning McQueen" (certainly the Davis influence). That latter infusion is particularly interesting, especially in that it tends to provide a more robust bass region that Newman otherwise applies.

For concept enthusiasts, Newman supplies new themes for Cars 3 built around old ones and reprises some favorites in full fashion. In the second half of "Doc's Painful Demise" and opening of "Flashback & Pit Stop," you hear a generational theme (the aforementioned Back to the Future derivative) that is expanded upon in "A Career on a Wall" before the two variants of that same idea merge appropriately in "If This Track Could Talk," the most poignant dramatic cue in Cars 3 (though it ends badly as needed for comedic purposes). The most obvious returning thematic element from Cars is the victory theme from its finale, reprised shortly late in "Flashback & Pit Stop" before expressing itself in full several times at the end of "Victory Lane." This latter cue is the most satisfying bookending of the franchise's score music anyone could have expected, surrounding the victory identity with both the pageantry and generational themes in glorious fashion. The score concludes with a much tighter narrative than it begins, the quality of Newman's emotional connections improving as the work progresses. One has to remember that this music is all so familiar to veteran film score listeners that it may be difficult to become excited about its merely functional passages. An appreciation of Newman's continued mastery of his domain is required even if this music continues to seem like innocuous, inconsequential fluff. That said, this recording is extremely shallow, taking the 110 players and making them sound one-dimensional and distractingly dull, especially in prancing proclamations like "Smokey Starts Training/A Blaze of Glory." There is poor separation, for instance, between specialty layers like the percussion highlights, and the ensemble as a whole, the spread of instruments through the soundscape poorly assigned in the channels. As a result, this score deserves to sound much better than it does, the lack of vivaciously dynamic spread really damaging its allure. Someone needs to introduce Debbie Wiseman's recording team (think Wilde) to Newman so that the personality of his scores can excel both in warmth and breadth. Overall, Cars 3 is an affectionate return by Newman to his undeniably attractive and unique comfort zone. It may not be a stellar score by most measures, especially in its recording, but you simply cannot discount how delightful it is to continue hearing Newman grace the Pixar universe with his trademark style.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15 (in 20 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.11 (in 22,930 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 50:14