Cars is a 2006 American animated sports comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Joe Ranft, produced by Darla K. Anderson, written by Lasseter, Ranft, Dan Fogelman, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, and Jorgen Klubien based on a story by Lasseter, Ranft, and Klubien, and stars an ensemble voice cast of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman (in his final voice acting theatrical film role), Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, Guido Quaroni, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger and Richard Petty, while race car drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr. (as "Junior"), Mario Andretti, Michael Schumacher and car enthusiast Jay Leno (as "Jay Limo") voice themselves.
Cars is set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic vehicles. The film follows a selfish and arrogant young racecar named Lightning McQueen who, on the way to the most important race of his life, becomes stranded in a forgotten town along U.S. Route 66 called Radiator Springs, where he learns about friendship and begins to reevaluate his priorities.
Development for Cars started in 1998, after finishing the production of A Bug's Life, with a new script titled The Yellow Car, which was about an electric car living in a gas-guzzling world with Klubien writing. It was announced that the producers agreed that it could be the next Pixar film after A Bug's Life, scheduled for a 1999 release, particularly around June 4; the idea was later scrapped in favor of Toy Story 2. Shortly after, production was resumed with major script changes. The film was inspired by Lasseter's experiences on a cross-country road trip. Randy Newman composed the film's score, while artists such as Sheryl Crow, Rascal Flatts, John Mayer and Brad Paisley contributed to the film's soundtrack. Cars ultimately served as the final film independently produced by Pixar after its purchase by Disney in January 2006.
Cars premiered on May 26, 2006, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and was theatrically released in the United States on June 9, to generally positive reviews and commercial success, grossing $462 million worldwide against a budget of $120 million, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2006. The film received two nominations at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature, but lost to Happy Feet (but won both the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film). The film was released on DVD on November 7, 2006, on VHS in limited quantities on February 19, 2007, and on Blu-ray on November 6, 2007. The film was accompanied by the short One Man Band for its theatrical and home media releases. The film was dedicated to Ranft, who died in a car crash during the film's production.
In a world populated by anthropomorphic vehicles, the Dinoco 400 race marks the conclusion of the Piston Cup season. The event intensifies a rivalry between the retiring seven-time champion, Strip "The King" Weathers, the cunning Chick Hicks, and the talented but arrogant rookie Lightning McQueen, all tied on points heading into the race. Struggling with teamwork due to his self-centered attitude, Lightning is desperate to win the Piston Cup and gain sponsorship from the prestigious Dinoco team. He resents his current "small-time" sponsor, Rust-Eze Bumper Ointment, and the "rusty old cars" who use it. During the high-stakes race, Lightning avoids a major collision instigated by Chick but refuses to take a pit stop in order to preserve his lead, causing his rear tires to blow out on the final lap. The race ends in a three-way tie, setting the stage for a decisive tiebreaker race at the Los Angeles International Speedway in one week.
After the race, Lightning rushes through the night on Interstate 40 to reach California inside his transport truck, Mack. A group of delinquent teenage tuner cars causes Mack to fall asleep and push him onto the rumble strips on the interstate shoulder, with an ensuing mishap leading to Lightning being stranded alone in the rundown desert town of Radiator Springs, where he inadvertently damages the main road. Lightning is sentenced to a community service assignment: repaving the road under the supervision of the town's judge Doc Hudson, a Hudson Hornet who is prejudiced against Lightning for being a race car.
Lightning shoddily repaves the road in a rush to leave, so Doc challenges him to a race. If he wins, he can leave, but otherwise, he will start over from scratch. The overconfident Lightning, having never raced on a dirt track before, slides off an unbanked turn and crashes, forcing him to pave the road again. Over time, Lightning warms up to the town and befriends its residents, especially Mater, a rusty tow truck, and Sally, a Porsche 911 who dreams of reviving Radiator Springs. As he bonds with the locals, Lightning discovers the town was once a bustling attraction for drivers on Route 66 before the construction of the interstate caused them to lose all of their business traffic. Lightning also discovers that the bitter Doc, reticent about his past, used to race as the legendary "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" until a disastrous wreck ended his career. Lightning is dumbfounded that not only does Doc consider his three Piston Cups worthless, but nobody in Radiator Springs knows of his racing career.
Lightning finishes repaving the road and decides to stay in Radiator Springs and help the local businesses. He buys tires from Luigi's store, gets a new paint job from Ramone, tries Filmore's organic fuel, and wears Sarge's military gear. However, Doc alerts the media to Lightning's location, leading them and Mack to descend on the town to retrieve him. Doc immediately regrets his decision after Lightning's departure leaves the residents disheartened.
At the race, Lightning initially struggles and contemplates quitting, but is buoyed by the sudden arrival of his friends from Radiator Springs, who come to his aid in the pit. With Doc now acting as his crew chief, Lightning stages a remarkable comeback and takes the lead. As Lightning closes in on the finish line, Chick employs a PIT maneuver that intentionally wrecks The King, rendering him unable to continue. Reminded of Doc's career-ending wreck, Lightning screeches to a halt just before the finish line and allows Chick to win the Piston Cup while ensuring The King finishes the race in second by pushing him forward.
The fans and media furiously condemn Chick's Piston Cup victory while praising Lightning's integrity and sportsmanship. Although offered a Dinoco sponsorship, Lightning decides to remain with Rust-eze. Returning to Radiator Springs, he reunites with Sally, Mater, and the other cars and declares his intention to establish his racing headquarters there, revitalizing the town and officially putting it back on the map, as well as training under Doc's mentorship.
Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Dave Foley and John Ratzenberger reprise their vocal roles from previous Pixar films during an end-credits sequence featuring automobile spoofs of Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and A Bug's Life.[6] Cars was the final Pixar film worked on by Joe Ranft who died in a crash a year before the film's release, aged 45.[7] The film was the second to be dedicated to his memory, after Corpse Bride. The memorial showed the roles he had done in the other films directed by John Lasseter during the credits.[8] This is also the last (non-documentary) movie for Paul Newman before his retirement in 2007 and his death in 2008.[9] It turned out to be the highest-grossing film of his career.[9]
The development of Cars began in 1998, when Pixar finished production of A Bug's Life. At that time, Jorgen Klubien began writing a new script called The Yellow Car, which was about an electric car living in a gas-guzzling world inspired by The Ugly Duckling, an idea triggered by the poor reception his fellow countrymen gave the Mini-El car.[10] Some of the original drawings and characters were developed in 1998 and the producers agreed that Cars could be the next Pixar film after A Bug's Life and be released in early 1999, particularly around June 4.[10] However, the idea was scrapped in favor of Toy Story 2.[10] Later, production resumed with major script changes, like giving Mater, Doc and a few other characters bigger parts.[10]
John Lasseter said that inspiration for the film's story came after he took a cross-country road trip with his wife and five sons in 2000.[11] When he returned to the studio after vacation, he contacted Michael Wallis, a Route 66 historian. Wallis then led eleven Pixar animators in rented white Cadillacs on two different road trips across the route to research the film.[12][13][14] In 2001, the film's working title was Route 66 (after U.S. Route 66), but the title was changed to Cars in order to avoid confusion with the 1960s television series of the same name.[15] In addition, Lightning McQueen's racing number was originally going to be 57 (a reference to 1957, Lasseter's birth year), but was changed to 95 (a reference to 1995, the year Pixar's first feature film Toy Story was released).[15]
Years later in 2013, Klubien said the film was both his best and most bitter experience because he was fired before it premiered and because he feels Lasseter wrote him out of the story of how the film got made.[16]
In 2006, Lasseter spoke about how they worked hard to make the animation believable, saying: "It took many months of trial and error, and practicing test animation, to figure out how each car moves and how their world works. Our supervising animators, Doug Sweetland and Scott Clark, and the directing animators, Bobby Podesta and James Ford Murphy, did an amazing job working with the animation team to determine the unique movements for each character based on its age and the type of car it was. Some cars are like sports cars and they're much tighter in their suspension. Others are older '50s cars that are a lot looser and have more bounce to them. We wanted to get that authenticity in there but also to make sure each car had a unique personality. We also wanted each animator to be able to put some of themself in the character and give it their own spin. Every day in dailies, it was so much fun because we would see things that we had never seen in our lives. The world of cars came alive in a believable and unexpected way."[11]
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