Cars is an animated feature film presented by Walt Disney Pictures, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Its release date was June 9, 2006 in the US, and will be released on July 28, 2006 in the UK. This movie is the seventh Disney/Pixar feature film.
Directed by John Lasseter (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2), the film is set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphized cars and other vehicles, and features the voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, George Carlin, Larry the Cable Guy, Richard Petty, and Darrell Waltrip. The film was rated G by the MPAA.
The film premiered on May 26, 2006 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.
Lightning McQueen is a red race car who has dreamed all his life of winning the Piston Cup Championship. Arrogant and overconfident, McQueen believes he is a "one man show", and ignores the advice of his pit crew. McQueen has an enormous lead in the final lap of the Piston Cup Championship and is about to become the first rookie to win it, until his rear tires (which he hadn't let his pit crew take the time to change) blow out. McQueen barely finishes the race and ends up in a three-way tie with the cheater Chick Hicks and the veteran champion, "The King" Strip Weathers.
After the race, McQueen and his transport truck buddy Mack (seemingly his only real friend) begin a journey across the country from North Carolina to California where the tie-breaker race will be held. Lightning wants to get to California first and refuses to let Mack stop for the night at a nearby truck stop. With each mile down Interstate 40 Mack gets even more tired, eventually dozing off on the road completely. Four tricked-out street racers have fun with the sleeping rig, and a bump in the road causes a sleeping McQueen to roll onto the interstate highway. After narrowly avoiding collisions, McQueen attempts to find Mack, but instead mistakenly chases a similar looking trailer, and finds himself lost on Route 66. He speeds past the Sheriff of Radiator Springs, who gives chase; McQueen mistakes the Sheriff's back-fires for gunshots and speeds away through the darkness, tearing up the main street of Radiator Springs until he becomes caught in some telephone wires.
Next morning, McQueen awakens to find himself impounded. After talking with Mater the tow truck, he is taken to court. Local judge and doctor Doc Hudson initially orders the race car out of town immediately, but Sally, the town's attorney, arrives and convinces the Doc to make the race car stay and repair the road. With Doc's mind changed for him, he hooks McQueen up to Bessie, the large, dirty asphalt machine. McQueen is told that it should take him three days to finish repaving the stretch he damaged.
McQueen remains interested only in leaving the town to make it to his race. McQueen makes an escape attempt and a botched rush job at fixing the road, Doc Hudson challenges McQueen to a desert race: if McQueen wins, he leaves town and Doc fixes the road. If Doc wins, Lightning fixes the road Doc's way. At the race, Doc is left in McQueen's dust as the hot rod roars off at the start of the race. Doc remains at the starting line, before requesting Mater's help as they slowly go down the road. As Doc expected, McQueen overshoots a tight turn in the dirt, and winds up over a cliff in a cactus patch. Doc wins the race as Mater fishes McQueen out of the patch.
After the race, McQueen fixes half the road, amazing the townsfolk with its paved smoothness. Since he had ran out of asphalt, the Sheriff allows him to try to make the turn again, but he continues to fail. Doc hints that he is to use the opposite lock steering, but McQueen ignores his elder. After a time, he finds out Doc's biggest secret: he was the famous Piston Cup racer, the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, and the winner of three consecutive trophies. Angered, Doc forces him out of the clinic's garage. He also reveals that his career ended prematurely because of a devastating crash. When he was fixed back up, no one wanted him anymore. Sally finally decides to take McQueen for a drive through Route 66, ending at the Wheel Well Motel, an old hotel located at the top of a bluff overlooking the entire town and valley. At the top, McQueen learns that the town once thrived, before being bypassed after the construction of Interstate 40 decades ago. As time goes on, McQueen understands their troubles, and becomes friends with all of the residents. Doc tips off the media that McQueen is in their town after McQueen helps everyone out, and he is whisked away with Mack and a mob of reporters to the big race.
At the race in California, Lightning is distracted by thoughts of Sally and Radiator Springs. Lagging behind, McQueen finally revitalizes after half of Radiator Springs townsfolk arrive to become his pit crew, making it to the race, with Doc as the crew chief. This encouragement enables McQueen to catch up to the leaders and make a run for the race. On the last lap, Chick Hicks takes a desperate resort to avoid coming in last place, and rear-ends The King, sending him into the air, ending in a horrific end-over-end flip. Lightning, almost about to win, sees the screen and the wreck. Remembering how Doc's crash ended his career, he hits his brakes, stopping just short of the finishing line. He sits there until Chick passes, before going back and pushing The King to the line to finish his career with dignity, knowing that he didn't want the fate that Doc suffered to happen to The King as well. Chick wins the Piston Cup, but is completely booed; everyone admires The King and McQueen. McQueen is offered the Dinoco endorsement, but turns it down to remain with his original sponsor, Rust-eze, saying that "they gave me my big break." But he does ask that Tex, the president of Dinoco, do him a favor and give Mater a ride in Dinoco's helicopter, to follow through on a promise he'd made. He then decides to move to Radiator Springs and build his racing headquarters there, along with a Doc Hudson Museum. Thanks to McQueen, Radiator Springs gets a boost of tourism again, revitalizing the town, and the once abandoned Route 66 becomes a major traffic roadway once more, having officially been reclassified as "Historic Route 66".
Unlike most animated cars, the film's cars' eyes were placed on the windshield. According to production designer Bob Pauley, “From the very beginning of this project, John * had it in his mind to have the eyes be in the windshield. For one thing, it separates our characters from the more common approach where you have little cartoon eyes in the headlights. For another, he thought that having the eyes down near the mouth at the front end of the car made the character feel more like a snake. With the eyes set in the windshield, the point of view is more human-like, and made it feel like the whole car could be involved in the animation of the character.”Cars Production Information
The original script was written in 1998 and the producers agreed that Cars would be the next movie after A Bugs Life, and would be released in early 1999. However, that movie was scrapped and the production of Toy Story 2 took place. Later, production resumed with major script changes.
In 2001, the movie's working title was Route 66 (after U.S. Route 66), but in 2002, the title was changed to prevent people from thinking it was related to the 1960 television show with the same name.
Cars is the last film made by the late Joe Ranft; the film was dedicated to his memory.
Cars was originally going to be released on November 4, 2005, but soon after the trailer's release in January 2005, the movie's release date was changed to June 9, 2006. Not only wouldn't it receive a summer release, one of the complex shots in the movie crashed Pixar's server. Chicken Little was instead released on November 4.
Domestic (US + Canada) Box Office:
| Weekend | Gross | Rank | % Drop | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $60,119,509 | 1 | N/A | $60,119,509 |
| 2 | $33,731,634 | 1 | 43.9% | $117,055,283 |
| 3 | $23,285,367 | 2 | 31% | $156,664,916 |
| 4 | $14,569,356 | 4 | 37.4% | $182,591,139 |
| 5 | $10,734,082 | 5 | 26.3% | $205,908,484 |
| 6 | $7,840,985 | 6 | 27% | $220,001,446 |
Total Box Office:
| Source | Gross | % Total |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic | $220,001,446 | 73.0% |
| Foreign | $81,450,000 | 27.0% |
| Worldwide | $301,451,446 | 100.0% |
The movie opened up strongly, continuing Pixar's streak of #1 debuts for each of the company's feature films. It earned as much in its first weekend as the total domestic gross of Disney's earlier NASCAR movie Fully Loaded. However, the film's performance was less than the previous two Pixar movies, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo which both managed to make over $70 million each their opening weekends, and this caused Disney's stock price to drop slightly.
Cars would face competition from several heavy-hitting movies released in the 2006 summer season, including Nacho Libre, Click, Superman Returns and Dead Man's Chest. Despite this, Cars managed to perform well, achieving domestic blockbuster status after crossing $200M domestic on July 8th, 2006.
Cars spent 13 days (non-consecutive) as the #1 movie in the domestic box office and lasted five weeks in the top five.
The vehicle characters seen throughout the movie and the actors that were used for their voices are:
The Cars video game features a story written by Pixar (with the late Joe Ranft as the Script/Story Lead) and the return of the majority of the voice cast. The game was developed by Rainbow Studios, THQ and Buena Vista Games with heavy involvement by Pixar, as it continues the story set forth in the movie through Lightning McQueen's second Piston Cup season. Despite heavy interference from Chick Hicks, McQueen wins the Piston Cup at the end of his second season after a grand prix is held in Radiator Springs. He leaves Radiator Springs on a celebratory cross-country trip with Sally and Mater, leaving his Piston Cup trophy alongside Doc Hudson's three trophies.
In addition to the above-mentioned console and PC versions, a mobile game was developed by mDisney and Capybara Games. This game takes place after the movie, as Lightning McQueen prepares for the next season.
Fisher-Price released Shake 'n Go Racers that were meant to be characters from the movie. Lightning, The King, Mater, and Doc are available.
Furthermore, in the weeks before the movie's opening, there were also promotional tie-ins with AT&T SBC Communications (using four cars to promote the diversity of its AT&T services), State Farm Insurance, The Hertz Corporation, and McDonald's.
The Mattel-produced die-cast cars are some of the most popular toys of the summer. Several stores are having trouble keeping the toys in stock, and some characters, such as Lizzie and Sarge, are difficult to find due to being shipped in lower numbers than other, more prominent characters. Some online Disney enthusiasts are comparing it to the same shortage that Mattel faced with its Toy Story line in 1995. Because of these shortages, some of the die-cast cars are only readily available on Ebay.
On June 22, 2006 Disney Consumer Products announced that Cars merchandise broke records for retail sales based on a Disney-Pixar product, recording 10-to-1 more volume than Finding Nemo" Disney Shows Muscle with Boys Properties" press release at Disney Consumer Products, June 22, 2006. DCP reports that product expansion will take place in the fall alongside the DVD release of the film.
Estimates from the New York Daily News indicate that sales of Cars merchandise two weeks out from the release of the film amassed to $600 million USD.
Kelley Blue Book, the de facto resource for appraising values of vehicles, has humorously "appraised" four of the cars, Lightning McQueen, Mater, Sally Carrera, and Doc Hudson according to their make/model and personalities.
The United States Department of Transportation has used scenes from the movie in a commercial regarding the Click It or Ticket campaign.
In conjunction with the film's release, a chocolate ice cream on a stick resembling a car tire was released in Australia. These ice creams were called 'Burnouts'. The naming of the particular product sparked controversy as the name 'Burnouts' was believed to have encouraged street racing and committing burnouts. These acts are illegal and heavy fines and convictions are issued to those committing these acts in Australia. It is unknown as to whether the products have been discontinued or not.
Lightning McQueen is no car in particular, but has elements of many sports cars. His headlights are stickers, like in NASCAR, and he also has many sponsor decals on his sides, once again similar to NASCAR. Pixar was shown a Corvette by GM, which is what influenced his design. His overall profile was inspired, says Pixar, by the Ford GT40. His tail looks like a Viper, while the tail lenses and roof are consistent with a Ford Mustang. The full size tour car is based on a Firebird. His custom two-tone paint and tires are from a 50s Corvette. Overall, his appearance can be considered as something between a stock car and various other sports cars, but titled slightly towards the stock car style.
McQueen's wheels are the same color as his body, which resembles several NASCAR racecars of the past.
Many cars only call Lighting by his last name, McQueen, although Sally calls him "Stickers" on account of his having no headlights, but stickers in their place.
Sally, the romantic interest is a stock Porsche Carrera. A Carrera's tail will pop up at highway speeds, but it can also be raised by the driver manually, and it was raised when she showed the custom pin striping. Pixar originally wanted a classic model, but Porsche persuaded them to use a 2002 model. A Carrera would be a typical car for a high profile Los Angeles lawyer.
The King, voiced by Richard Petty, is Petty's 1970 Plymouth Superbird, in "Petty Blue" with his number 43. The Superbird was a stock Plymouth Roadrunner with added aerodynamic features designed by Chrysler engineers from NASA projects (American Muscle Car TV series). The goalpost wing and shark nose were so fast that they were effectively banned in 1971, starting a trend of slowing cars down to speeds below 200 MPH. The King's crash in the film is a recreation of either Petty's crash in the 1988 Daytona 500 or Rusty Wallace's 1993 flip at Talladega Superspeedway. Petty was known as the King on the NASCAR Winston Cup Circuit. When John Lasseter asked Petty if he wanted to be in a movie he initially refused saying "I want to drive a race car." He said yes when told it was an animated film.*
Villain Chick Hicks is 86, a reference to Luxo Jr., released in 1986, and possibly also to the slang for killing or getting rid of someone, as parodied in the code "number" for Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 on Mel Brooks's comedy television series Get Smart. Chick's body closely resembles the Quaker State Buick Regal that Ricky Rudd drove in the 1980s, though Pixar animators have said the character is a generic 1980's stock car. Michael Keaton was also in Herbie Fully Loaded, another NASCAR-themed Disney movie.
Rusty & Dusty Rust-eze (the cars seen in front of McQueen's trailer after the race) are direct parodies of Click & Clack, The Tappet Brothers from the radio show Car Talk. They even say their trademark phrase used to end their show, "Don't drive like my brother!" as Mack is leaving the track. They are also voiced by the Tappet Brothers themselves: Ray & Tom Magliozzi. The characters were also originally named Clink and Clunk. Dusty, the character voiced by Ray Magliozzi, is a 1963 Dodge Dart, a car Ray often reminisces about semi-fondly on Car Talk.
Former champion Doc Hudson's plate is "51HHMD," which stands for "1951 Hudson Hornet, M.D." His record of 27 wins in a single season is the same as that of the 1952 Fabulous Hudson Hornet racing team,"Hudson Hornet" by Jack Nerad, Driving Today, June 5, 2000 and his championships are the same years as the Hudson team."NASCAR champ Hudson Hornet now star of film" by Dan Jedlicka, Chicago Sun-Times, June 12, 2006
The sheriff is voiced by Michael Wallis, renowned author of The Mother Road series of books about historic Route 66. Sheriff has curb feelers on both sides which were used in older cars to detect proximity to a curb.
Fillmore, the VW Bus voiced by George Carlin, has license plate "51237" representing Carlin's birth date: May 12, 1937. His license plate dangles below his front bumper, forming a goatee typical of the 1960s hippies which the car represents. He lives in a geodesic dome with blacklight paint. Asian Week noted that Fillmore's character is actually an impression of half-Chinese Tommy Chong's hippie of the Cheech and Chong comedy record duo. The name Fillmore is a reference to Fillmore East and West - the concert hall where many artists during the 1960's and 1970's performed. The Fillmore is located in San Francisco which was considered a hippy haven in the 60's. Pixar missed an opportunity to get Cheech and Chong together, but Cheech in a recent review said he didn't want to do that team again.
Darrell Cartrip is played by Darrell Waltrip, a retired race car driver who does race commentary for the FOX network. He raced a 1976 Chevy Monte Carlo with stacked headlights. He often raced with the number 17. Darrell is fond of colorful flame paint schemes. "Boogity boogity boogity!" is what Waltrip utters at the start of every NASCAR race and during some restarts.
The #58 "Octane Gain" racecar in the film's first race (look for it during the big wreck) appears to be a Toyota Camry, which NASCAR will start using in 2007.
The character Sarge is a possible reference to Sarge, the commander of the army men in Toy Story, or simply a generic veteran. He lives in a Quonset hut.
A van with a black and pink camper-trailer resembling Elvis Presley appears twice in the movie, in the RV park at the beginning, and behind the announcers at the Piston Cup Finale. On its side is "Elvis RV Cab". Next to the van at the Piston Cup is the Pizza Planet delivery truck, which is a reference to Toy story.
Flo could be a possible reference to the fish Deb sees in the reflection in Finding Nemo or Al McWhiggin's Car in Toy Story 2.
Red could be a reference to the Pixar short film Red's Dream.
Minny and Van are, of course, a pun on the word minivan. Minny could also be a reference to Minnie Mouse.
The character Mater at different points in the movie says "Git R Done" and "I don't care who you are, that's funny right there," both catchphrases of Larry the Cable Guy, who voices the character in the stereotypical drawl of an American Hillbilly. Mater is named after Douglas "Mater" Keever, whom John Lasseter met at Lowe's Motor Speedway."Speedway guy gains fame at Pixar" by Joe Marusak, The Charlotte Observer, March 9, 2006 His character is comparable to Gilligan—not bright enough to pass any government-administered proficiency test, but possesses a heart of gold.
Den mother Flo appears to be inspired by three early- to mid-fifties show cars: the 1951 Buick LeSabre (front-end lines, the basic hood shape, lights mounted near the corners, and front-quarter trim), the 1951 Buick XP-300 (side trim), and the 1956 Dodge Dart (cockpit, deck lid, and tailfins). Flo is subtly played by Jenifer Lewis who is often cast as an African American mother figure.
Ramone is voiced by Cheech Marin. He is a lowrider; a creation popular among Latinos. He is Pixar's first Latino character.
Luigi is a Fiat 500 with an Italian accent provided by Tony Shalhoub. Shalhoub uses the same accent he used for the lead character, Primo, in the 1996 film Big Night. By coincidence, the Fiat 500 is the same kind of car used by Lupin III, the protagonist of the Lupin III series and movies. Hayao Miyazaki, a good friend of John Lasseter, worked on two of the Lupin TV series and directed the Lupin III movie The Castle of Cagliostro. Lasseter said in an interview he did not intend for the reference to be there, although Cagliostro is still one of his favorite films. "Red Carpet interview with John Lasseter" by Michael Howe, Jim Hill Media, May 29, 2006
Mario Andretti voices a 1967 Ford Fairlane 500 stock car, painted blue and gold with the number #11. Mario Andretti won the 1967 Daytona 500 with a car of the same appearance prepared by Holman-Moody.
Three of the Import scene cars are Japanese and the groupie twins are Miatas. Orange is the color of Japanese tractor maker Kubota. While there is a Japanese woman on the world news, Asian Week("Steamed at Cars") notes that there are no Asian American cast voices, prominent or otherwise.
The Flo's V8 Cafe logo is similar to that used by the '32 Ford V8, the first V8 for mass marketed cars. This retro logo also appears on late model Ford Explorers (and other Ford trucks whose owners get the part and put it on their vehicles). Flathead also refers to this Ford V8, and was popular with hot rods. The neon spark plugs on the canopy flash in the right firing order.
The name of the Piston Cup racing series is a spoof of the Winston Cup, the premiere series in NASCAR (now known as the Nextel Cup).
The track that the opening race (Motor Speedway of the South) takes place on is actually based on and an enlarged version of the real life Bristol Motor Speedway. The track used for the Piston Cup Championship race is a clever knock-off of the Pasadena Rose Bowl as well as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and (possibly) the Daytona International Speedway, the track that hosts season-opening races in several racing series. The dome on top of the entrance to the track appears to be a replica of Renaissance architect Filippo Brunelleschi's famous dome atop the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy.
The film features mostly American cars from the 1950s and 1960s, but also some Japanese tuner and American muscle cars from the 1970s, K's from the 1980s, and minivans and Miatas from the 90s.
At one point in the movie, when many places are shutting down in anticipation of a big race, a sign can be read for a brief moment that reads: "City of Emeryville - Closed." This is a reference to Emeryville, California, where the Pixar studio is located.
To quote the Pixar crew:
The soundtrack had the classic blues piece "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" twice, once by Chuck Berry and a new version recorded specifically for the film's credits performed by John Mayer.
Main article: One Man Band
The theatrical and video/DVD releases of this film include the academy award nominated One Man Band, a Pixar short made in 2005, a year before this film was released.
Main article: Mater and the Ghostlight
The video/DVD release of this film will also include an additional short called Mater and the Ghostlight, starring one of the film's characters, Mater, with Larry The Cable Guy reprising his role.
=References=
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