CARs

Cars (film)
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This article is about the animated movie. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation).
Cars

Directed by
John LasseterJoe Ranft (co-director)
Produced by
Darla K. Anderson
Written by
story by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Jorgen Klubien, Brenda Chapman screenplay by: John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Jorgen Klubien, Dan Fogelman, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin additional screenplay material: Robert L. Baird, Daniel Gerson, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Steve Purcell, Dan Scanlon
Starring
Owen WilsonBonnie HuntPaul NewmanCheech MarinTony ShalhoubJohn RatzenbergerGeorge CarlinLarry the Cable Guy
Music by
Randy Newman
Cinematography
Jeremy LaskyJean Claude Kalache
Editing by
Ken Schretzmann
Distributed by
Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)
June 9, 2006July 28, 2006
Running time
116 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$120 million[1]
Gross revenue
$244,082,982 (USA)$217,898,622(Overseas)[2]
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
Cars is a 2006 animated feature film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter and the late Joe Ranft. It was the seventh Disney/Pixar feature film, and the final film by Pixar before it was bought by Disney. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic cars and other vehicles, it features the voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, George Carlin, and Larry the Cable Guy, as well as cameos by several celebrities.
Cars premiered on May 26, 2006 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and was released on June 9, 2006 to generally favorable reviews. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It was released on DVD in late 2006 and on Blu-ray Disc in late 2007. Related merchandise, including scale models of several of the cars, broke records for retail sales of merchandise based on a Disney/Pixar film, with an estimated $1 billion in sales.[3]
Contents[hide]
1 Plot
2 Production
3 Soundtrack
4 Vehicles and voice cast
4.1 Race cars
4.2 Route 66 cars
5 Reception
6 Awards
7 DVD and Blu-ray release
8 Merchandising
9 Cultural diversity
10 Setting
10.1 Route 66
11 Similar films
12 See also
13 References
14 External links
//

Plot

From left to right: Chick Hicks, Lightning McQueen, and The King.
Cars opens in the final race of the 2005 Piston Cup stock car racing season and championship in the Motor Speedway of the South, where a skilled but arrogant rookie racecar, Lightning McQueen, has overtaken his opponents, avoided a huge wreck, and built up a huge lead over the cup's defending (but soon retiring) nine-time champion, Strip "The King" Weathers, and perennial runner-up and cheater Chick Hicks. However, because of his refusal to make regular pit stops for new tires opting only to refill his gas tank, his worn rear tires burst into flames on the final lap, causing him to skid and ultimately crawl to the finish line, barely managing to tie The King and Chick Hicks in a photo finish. Race officials announce that, because the three racers are also tied in overall season points, they will compete in one final tiebreaker race to be held at the Los Angeles International Speedway, and gave them one week to prepare.
While traveling down Interstate 40 to California, McQueen becomes separated from Mack, his transport truck, and while trying to catch up he becomes lost on U.S. Route 66, catching the attention of the local sheriff in the process. A chase ensues, during which McQueen crashes and gets tangled in wires, damaging part of the main street of a town called Radiator Springs. McQueen is taken to traffic court, where the town's attorney Sally Carerra pleads against McQueen. He is sentenced to repave the road using "Bessie", a non-anthropomorphic asphalt-laying machine. McQueen attempts to escape to California, only to find that his gas tank is drained to a minimum, much to his dismay.
McQueen rushes through his first day of paving; as a result, the new road surface is so bumpy, uneven, and unusable that he is ordered to scrape it off and start again. The town's judge and doctor, Doc Hudson, offers McQueen the chance to leave, provided that he outrace Doc in a race around Willy's Butte. McQueen eagerly accepts, and later leaves Doc in the dust at the starting line, but loses control on a sharp turn in loose dirt and crashes into a cactus patch. While the town's tow truck, Mater, hauls McQueen out of the cactus patch, Doc effortlessly cruises to the finish line, remarking that McQueen races as badly as he fixes roads. McQueen is compelled to scrape off the botched pavement and start paving again.
As the ensuing days pass, McQueen is disturbed by nightmares of Chick Hicks winning the Piston Cup and landing the Dinoco sponsorship currently held by The King. However, he starts to befriend the town's residents, from whom he learns that Radiator Springs was once a thriving town until the completion of the nearby interstate which bypassed the town, depriving it of its business traffic and visitors and ironically, depriving those passing visitors of the natural beauty found in the scenery along the old highway. He also learns how Sally left behind her rich but unhappy life as an urban lawyer and that Doc Hudson was once a famous racecar (the "Hudson Hornet") and a three-time Piston Cup champion. When the Doc catches him looking around his garage, McQueen asks why he left in the first place. Doc, suddenly offended by this, shows McQueen a newspaper article and states that a crash in 1954 ended his racing career. Doc bitterly refuses to reveal much about his past, dismissing his old trophies as "a bunch of empty cups". McQueen comes to realize that the same racing world that brought Doc fame eventually destroyed him.
By the time McQueen finishes repaving Radiator Springs' main road, he has formed a friendly bond with the town and its residents. Rather than immediately leaving for California (as he had initially been eager to do), he spends the day touring the town's businesses, receiving a fresh coat of paint and new tires in the process. When the town throws a cruise party that night, he is suddenly found by a multitude of journalists, then whisked away in his truck, Mack, without even a chance to bid farewell to Radiator Springs. The town's residents are sad to see him leave, while Sally, who has fallen in love with McQueen, is angry to learn that it was Doc who ultimately informed the media of McQueen's whereabouts.
The final race between McQueen, The King, and Chick Hicks is described by commentators as the "biggest race in history." McQueen is distracted by his memories of Radiator Springs, losing time to the other racers, but to his surprise, Doc arrives at the race with Mater and others from Radiator Springs to serve as his pit crew. With Doc's coaching, a record-breakingly fast and efficient pit stop for new tires and a few tricks learned from the small town's inhabitants, McQueen is not only able to overtake his opponents, but builds a considerable lead by the final lap.
As McQueen approaches the finish line, Chick sideswipes The King in a desperate attempt to avoid finishing behind him, sending The King into a terrible rollover crash. McQueen sees this on the Jumbotron and fears that The King's racing career will end in the same way as Doc's. McQueen comes to a full stop before the finish line, allowing Chick to cross. He later backtracks to push The King across the finish line ahead of him, saying that "I think The King should finish his last race." Chick's official victory is hollow, as he is jeered and despised for taking out The King, while McQueen is cheered as a hero for his good sportsmanship. Dinoco offers to sponsor McQueen, but he respectfully declines, saying that his current sponsor Rust-Eze gave him his big break and he wants to continue with them.
Two days after the race, McQueen returns to Radiator Springs, announcing that he will establish his racing headquarters there, helping to revitalize the town, with the once-abandoned Route 66 being reclassified as "Historic Route 66." The film ends with McQueen and Sally about to kiss, until Mater interrupts them in the Dinoco helicopter.

Production

Like all Pixar productions, the animation is computer generated. This is a work-in-progress screenshot.
Unlike most anthropomorphic cars, the eyes of the cars in this film were placed on the windshield (which resembles the Tonka Talking Trucks, as well as the characters from Tex Avery's One Cab's Family short and Disney's own Susie the Little Blue Coupe), rather than within the headlights. According to production designer Bob Pauley, "From the very beginning of this project, John Lasseter 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."[4] The characters also use their tires as hands, the exceptions being the various tow truck characters who sometimes uses their tow hooks, and the various forklift characters, who use their forks.
The original script (called The Yellow Car, about an electric car living in a gas-guzzling world) and some of the original drawings and characters were produced in 1998 and the producers agreed that Cars would be the next movie after A Bug's Life, and would be released in early 1999, particularly around June 4. However, that movie was eventually scrapped in favor of Toy Story 2. 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. Also, Lightning McQueen's number was originally going to be 57 (Lasseter's birth year), but was changed to 95 (the year Toy Story was released), the number seen in the movie today.
Cars was originally going to be released on Friday, November 4, 2005, but on December 7, 2004 the movie's release date was changed to Friday, June 9, 2006.[5] Analysts looked at the release date change as a sign from Pixar that they were preparing for the pending end of the Disney distribution contract by either preparing non-Disney materials to present to other studios, or they were buying time to see what happened with Michael Eisner's situation at Disney.[6] When Jobs made the release date announcement, he stated that the reasoning was due to wanting to put all Pixar films on a summer release schedule, with DVD sales occurring during the holiday shopping season.[5]
Cars is the last film worked on by Joe Ranft, who died in a car crash in 2005. The film was the second to be dedicated to his memory, after Corpse Bride. This is also Paul Newman's last movie before he retired in 2007.
The international versions of the film have some English text replaced by text in the local language. For the DVD it becomes the language that you choose upon inserting the disc. It's the first Walt Disney Animated Feature dubbed to Ukrainian language. The replaced text includes for instance the "Cars" movie logo, Doc's newspaper clippings, the "Closed" signs in Los Angeles and the "Lead lap" text during the last race. The Russian title of the film is "Тачки" (TAh-chki), which translates to "wheelbarrows," and is in common usage as a slang term for cars.

Soundtrack
Main article: Cars (soundtrack)
Nine of the songs on the soundtrack are by popular artists, as the last 11 ones are instrumentals by Randy Newman. The album was realesed June 6, 2006, by Disney Records.
#
Title
Artist
Information
1
Real Gone
Sheryl Crow
Opening scene, during the Piston Cup race. Original version.
2
Route 66
Chuck Berry
Original version by Nat King Cole.
3
Life Is a Highway
Rascal Flatts
The trip to California. Original version by Tom Cochrane.
4
Behind the Clouds
Brad Paisley
Original version.
5
Our Town
James Taylor
Original version.
6
Sh-Boom
The Chords (US)
Original version.
7
Route 66
John Mayer
The Ending Credits. New version.
8
Find Yourself
Brad Paisley
Original version
9
Opening Race
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
10
McQueen's Lost
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
11
My Heart Would Know
Hank Williams
Original version.
12
Bessie
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
13
Dirt Is Different
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
14
New Road
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
15
Tractor Tipping
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
16
McQueen and Sally
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
17
Goodbye
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
18
Pre-Race Pageantry
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
19
The Piston Cup
Randy Newman
Instrumental.
20
The Big Race
Randy Newman
Instrumental.

Vehicles and voice cast
Main article: List of Cars characters.

Race cars
Character
Vehicle Likeness
Gender
Eye Color
Color
Chief Sponsor
Number
Voice Actor
Lightning McQueen
LA Times: "[A] mix of a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance Auto racing"[7]
Male
Blue
Red
Rust-Eze Medicated Bumper Ointment
95
Owen Wilson
Chick Hicks
Pixar: "a generic 1980s stock car."[8] Strongly resembles a 78-88 General Motors G-Body such as Buick Regal or Grand National.
Male
Brown
Green
Hostile Takeover Bank (HTB)
86
Michael Keaton
The King
Richard Petty's 1970 Plymouth Superbird
Male
Brown
Blue
Dinoco
43
Richard Petty
Route 66 cars
Name
Vehicle Likeness
Gender
Eye Color
Color
License Plate #
Voice Actor
Doc Hudson
1951 Hudson Hornet, later revealed to be the Fabulous Hudson Hornet
Male
Blue
Navy Blue
51HHMD
Paul Newman
Mater
1951 International Harvester L-170 "boom" truck[9] with elements of a mid-1950s Chevrolet[8] One-Ton Wrecker Tow Truck.
Male
Hazel
Originally blue, but is now rusty.
A113
Larry the Cable Guy
Sally Carrera
2002 996-series Porsche 911 Carrera
Female
Green
Light Blue
301 PCE
Bonnie Hunt
Ramone
1959 Chevy Impala Lowrider
Male
Green
Various colors (purple with flames at the start of the movie, burnt orange and white in flashback, yellow by the end, dark blue in the "Mater and the Ghostlight" short)
LOWNSLO
Cheech Marin
Luigi
1959 Fiat 500
Male
Brown
Yellow
445 108
Tony Shalhoub
Sheriff
1949 Mercury Club Coupe (police package)
Male
Blue
Black and white
001
Michael Wallis
Fillmore
1960 VW Bus
Male
Brown
Light Green
51237
George Carlin
Sarge
A Willys model jeep, in the style used by the US Military.
Male
Brown
Military Green
41WW2
Paul Dooley
Flo
1957 Motorama show car
Female
Green
Minty Green
SHO GRL
Jenifer Lewis
Guido
Custom forklift, possibly an Isetta model
Male
Reddish Brown
Sky blue and white.
(none)
Guido Quaroni
Mack
1985 Mack Super-Liner
Male
Green
Red
RUSTEZ3
John Ratzenberger
Lizzie
1923 Ford Model T
Female
Grey
Black
MT23
Katherine Helmond
Red
1960s style fire truck (most closely resembles a mid-1960s Pirsch pumper but also resembles American LaFrance models)
Male
Brown
Red
002
Joe Ranft
Reception
Cars opened on June 9, 2006 to generally favorable reviews. William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised it as "one of Pixar's most imaginative and thoroughly appealing movies ever",[10] and Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called it "a work of American art as classic as it is modern." [11]
However, some critics expressed that Cars did not hold up to the standard of other Pixar films, especially after the acclaim received by The Incredibles, Pixar's previous film. "The movie is great to look at and a lot of fun," wrote critic Roger Ebert, "but somehow lacks the extra push of the other Pixar films."[12] Laura Clifford of website Reeling Reviews wrote that the film's "only real drawback is its failure to inspire awe with its visuals and to thoroughly transport with its storytelling."[13]
Rotten Tomatoes gave Cars a fresh 76% (with an average of 6.9) and it earned a 73/100 on Metacritic. In its opening weekend, Cars grossed $60.1 million, lower than previous Pixar films such as The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. In the United States, the film held onto the #1 spot for two weeks before being surpassed by Click and then by Superman Returns the following weekend. It went on to gross US$461,981,604 worldwide (ranking #6 in 2006 films) and $244,082,982 in the U.S. (the third highest-grossing film of 2006 in the country, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Night at the Museum). It was the highest-grossing animated film of 2006 in the U.S., but lost to Ice Age: The Meltdown in worldwide totals.[14]
Awards
Cars had a highly successful run during the 2006 awards season. Many Film Critic Associations such as the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review named it the best Animated Feature Film of 2006. Cars also received the title of Best Reviewed Animated Feature of 2006 from Rotten Tomatoes. Randy Newman and James Taylor received a Grammy Award for the song "Our Town," which later went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song (an award it lost to "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth). The film also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Happy Feet. Cars was also selected as the Favorite Family Movie at the 33rd People's Choice Awards. Perhaps the most prestigious award that Cars received was the inaugural Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Cars also won the highest award for animation in 2006, the Best Animated Feature Annie Award.
DVD and Blu-ray release
Cars was released on DVD in both wide-screen and full-screen editions on October 25, 2006 in Australia and New Zealand, on November 7, 2006 in the United States and Canada and on November 27, 2006 in the United Kingdom. It includes the short films Mater and the Ghostlight and One Man Band, as well as Inspiration for Cars, a 16 minute long documentary about Cars featuring John Lasseter, the director. According to the Walt Disney Company, five million copies of the DVD were sold in the first two days it was available.[15]
Unlike previous Pixar DVD releases, there is no two-disc special edition, and no plans to release one in the future. According to Sara Maher, DVD Production Manager at Pixar, this is because of John Lasseter and Pixar being busy with upcoming productions like Ratatouille,[16] although additional extras not seen on the DVD have been released on the official DVD website.[17]
In the US and Canada, there were bonus discs available with the purchase of Cars at either Wal-Mart or Target. Wal-Mart featured a Geared-Up Bonus DVD Disc that focused on the music of the film, including the "Life Is A Highway" video, The Making of "Life Is A Highway", Cars: The Making of the Music and Under The Hood, a special that originally aired on the ABC Family cable channel. Target's bonus was a Rev'd Up DVD Disc that featured material that was mostly already released as part of the official Cars podcast and focused on the inspiration and production of the movie. A two-disc edition was available from Australian retailer EzyDVD, but the second disc did not contain any animation information.
On November 6, 2007, Cars was released on Blu-ray.[18]