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This article is about the animated movie. For other uses, see Car (disambiguation).
| Cars | |
|---|---|
| |
| Directed by | John Lasseter Joe 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 Wilson Bonnie Hunt Paul Newman Cheech Marin Tony Shalhoub John Ratzenberger George Carlin Larry the Cable Guy |
| Music by | Randy Newman |
| Cinematography | Jeremy Lasky Jean Claude Kalache |
| Editing by | Ken Schretzmann |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  June 9, 2006 July 28, 2006
|
| Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | United States
|
| Language | English |
| Budget | $120 millionBoxoffice Mojo Profile for Cars |
| Gross revenue | $244,082,982 (USA) $217,898,622(Overseas)
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| 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.AppleInsider | Disney sells 5 million copies of Pixar\'s Cars in two days
Contents |
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 car accident, and built a large lead over the cup\'s defending (and soon retiring) nine-time champion, Strip "The King" Weathers, and perennial runner-up and cheater Chick Hicks. 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. Doc effortlessly cruises to the finish line, remarking that McQueen races as badly as he fixes roads. McQueen is forced to scrape off the botched pavement and start paving again.
As the ensuing days pass, McQueen 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 intended 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 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 yet again, 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." While pushing The King on the track, The King tells Lightning how that doing so made him lose his victory to earning the Pisten Cup, but Lightning with using his wisdom tells him that this grumpy old car (referring to Doc) once told him that it was just an empty cup. 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."
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."Cars Production Information The characters also use their tires as hands and feet, 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."Pixar-Disney delay Cars release", BBC News, 2004-12-08. Retrieved on 2007-06-30. 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."Steve Jobs\'s Sharp Turn with Cars", Business Week, 2004-12-09. Retrieved on 2007-06-30. 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.
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.
Nine of the songs on the soundtrack are by popular artists, as the last 11 ones are instrumentals by Randy Newman. The album was released 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. |
| Character | Vehicle Likeness | Gender | Eye Color | Color | Chief Sponsor | Number | Voice Actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning McQueen | LA Times: "A hybrid between a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer.""A grease geek will guide you: \'Cars\' decoded" by Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times as carried by The Journal News online, June 9, 2006 accessed 2006-11-01 (e.g.: Lolas and the Ford GT40) | Male | Blue | Red | Rust-Eze Medicated Bumper Ointment | 95 | Owen Wilson |
| Chick Hicks | Pixar: "a generic 1980s stock car." 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 |
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",\'Cars\' is a joyous ride and Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly called it "a work of American art as classic as it is modern." Cars | Movie Review | Entertainment Weekly
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.":: rogerebert.com :: Reviews :: Cars (xhtml) 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."Reeling: the Movie Review Show\'s review of Cars
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.Cars (2006)
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.
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.AppleInsider | Disney sells 5 million copies of Pixar\'s Cars in two days
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,Video Business Online report about Cars DVD by Jennifer Netherby of videobusiness.com although additional extras not seen on the DVD have been released on the official DVD website.Official Cars DVD Website
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.Amazon.com: Cars [Blu-ray]: Movies & TV: Mario Andretti,Jack Angel,Michael Patrick Bell,Susan Blu,Rodger Bumpass,George Carlin,Bob Costas,Jennifer Darling,Paul Dooley,Paul Eiding,Dave Foley,Teresa Ganzel,John Goodman,Katherine Helmond,Bonnie Hunt,Michael Keaton,Richard Kind,Jay Leno,Jenifer Lewis,Sherry Lynn,Jean-Claude J. Kalache,Jeremy Lasky
The Mattel-produced 1/55 scale Toy Cars were some of the most popular toys of the 2006 Summer Season. Dozens of characters are represented, with some having multiple versions available. Several stores had trouble keeping the toys in stock, and some models are still difficult to find because of being shipped in lower numbers than other characters. Some online Disney enthusiasts are comparing it to the same shortage that Mattel faced with its Toy Story line in 1995. Some of the die-cast cars are only readily available on eBay. On August 14, 2007, the die-cast Sarge car, made between May and July 2007, was recalled due to "impermissible levels of lead" used in the paint.Mattel Consumer Relations Answer Center - Recall On December 10, 2007, a new line of cars called Cars Mini Adventures. These are smaller models and playsets, with cars with unique deco. The sets are under $10 US money and $20 Australian money.
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. Mattel has announced that Cars toys will continue through 2008 with the release of at least 80 new vehicles. A 36 car pack called "Speedway of the South" will feature most of the race cars seen during the opening race sequence 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. Estimates put out in November by the Walt Disney Company peg total sales for the brand at around $1 billion.
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. [1]
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.
In Norway, the candy company Nidar produced candy with the characters on the outer packaging and pictures of the characters on the packaging of the assorted candy on the inside. These bags also came with Cars themed tattoos.
In the U.S., an animated Wal-Mart truck can be seen on a Wal-Mart ad and Wal-Mart TV commercial for Cars. In the Wal-Mart TV commercial the Wal-Mart truck was talking to Mater.
In South Africa, Italy, and several other countries where Opel is present (or with Opel models under Chevrolet and Vauxhall brand), GM has a campaign featuring an General Motors Astra, a Opel Meriva, and a General Motors Zafira as characters in the world of Cars, including TV ads made by Pixar, with the Opel models interacting with Lightning McQueen, Mater and Ramone." Pixar\'s Cars - Opel" hot site of the campaign The first ad involved the Opels coming to Radiator Springs as tourists. The second involved their failed attempts at auditoning for Mater. In the end the Opels lost the part to the real Mater.
In July 2006, greeting card giant Hallmark unveiled its line of 2006 Keepsake Christmas ornaments. Among the collection was an ornament featuring Lightning McQueen and Mater.
There is also a Cars clothing line, which produces various t-shirts and shorts; however, these are generally only found in children\'s sizes.
In May 2007, the Cars video game was announced to be a "Platinum Hit" on the Xbox, "Greatest Hit" on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, and "Player\'s Choice" on the Nintendo GameCube. A sequel is on its way to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii consoles.Article Detail - PlayStation 3 News - QJ.NET
A Cars-based attraction opened at Walt Disney Studios Paris in 2007 and scheduled to open in Disney\'s California Adventure in 2010.
The track on which the opening race (Motor Speedway of the South) takes place is actually based on an enlarged version of the real life Bristol Motor Speedway. The venue for the Piston Cup tiebreaker race (the Los Angeles International Speedway) is a conglomeration of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena where the Rose Bowl is located, as well as the California Speedway in Fontana. The landscape in the background behind Radiator Springs is made up of rock formations intentionally reminiscent of Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. The road map shown in the montage history of the town calls the area "Cadillac Range." Some of the mountain peaks in Cadillac Range, shown during the movie, resemble the quarter panels of late-50\'s Cadillacs, with their distinctive tailfins.
The setting for the fictional town of Radiator Springs is situated between Gallup, New Mexico and Kingman, Arizona. A landmark, called Radiator Cap, overlooks the town, and has two white letters ("R" and "S") written upon it, similar to the white "T" painted on Tucumcari Mountain Old postcard of Tucumcari Mountain.. The style and relative positioning of these letters on the landmark closely resemble the "RS" badge used on the first-generation "Rally Sport" Camaros.
Willy\'s Butte resembles the landmark of Mexican Hat, Utah.
Radiator Springs is loosely based on Amboy, California in the Mojave Desert -- a town that showed a decline in almost all traffic when I-40 opened in 1972. Sally references this in the film.
Nearby "Ornament Valley" (a reference to Monument Valley) is made of rock formations that project from the valley walls or rise from the valley floor and resemble the front ends of late 1930s to early 1940s American automobiles.
The Flo\'s V8 Cafe logo is similar to that used by the \'32 Ford V8, the first V8 for mass marketed cars. This logo also appeared on Ford V8 in the sixties as well as Third-Generation Ford Explorers.
Many characters and places in the movie are directly inspired on real Route 66 places and people.
To quote the Pixar crew:
The Cars soundtrack has two versions of the classic Nat King Cole jazz standard "Route 66", one by Chuck Berry and a new version recorded specifically for the film\'s credits performed by John Mayer.
Among the many references to Route 66 landmarks and personalities:
Marcus Aurelius Canônico of Folha de S. Paulo described The Little Cars series (Os Carrinhos in Portuguese), a Brazilian computer graphics film series, as a derivative of Cars. Canônico discussed whether lawsuits from Pixar would appear. The Brazilian Ministry of Culture posted Marcus Aurelius Canônico\'s article on its website.Vídeo Brinquedo faz sucesso com desenhos como “Os Carrinhos” e “Ratatoing”," Ministry of Culture (Brazil)
It has also been noted that the plot of Cars bears a striking resemblance to that of Doc Hollywood, the 1991 comedy which stars Michael J. Fox as a hotshot young doctor who, after causing a traffic accident in a small town, is sentenced to work at the town hospital, falls in love with a local law student and eventually acquires an appreciation for small town values.\'Cars\' beautifully steals \'Doc Hollywood\' plot\'Cars\' rolls along like an animated Doc Hollywood
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New award | Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film 2006 | Succeeded by Ratatouille |
| Preceded by The Break-Up | Box office number-one films of 2006 (USA) June 11, 2006 – June 18, 2006 | Succeeded by Click |
| Cars | |
|---|---|
| Video game | Cars • Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures • Cars Mater-National |
| See also | Mater and the Ghostlight • Soundtrack • Characters |
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