10 Things You Didn't Know About Pixar's 'Cars'
Available on DVD Nov. 7, 2006

Is This Heaven? No, It's Emeryville

This summer's 'Cars' marked the return of Pixar guru John Lasseter, who had taken a seven-year hiatus from directing after helming 'Toy Story,' 'Toy Story 2' and 'A Bug's Life.' He clearly hadn't missed a step, as 'Cars' exploded out of the gate to glowing reviews and huge box-office returns. In anticipation of the Nov. 7 DVD release, the folks at Pixar invited us into their Emeryville headquarters to talk to Lasseter and his creative team -- and in between marveling at the cool offices, the swimming pool and the volleyball court, we learned some fairly surprising things.

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1. There's a Real Mater -- and He's the Mayor

The tow truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) wasn't just dreamed up out of Lasseter's imagination. The director met the "real Mater" at Lowe's Motor Speedway in North Carolina. "In the middle of [the infield]," Lasseter says, "there's a rise. And they call it Redneck Hill. And they took us to this one campsite, and [there's] the self-appointed mayor of Redneck Hill. His name was Mater. And it's this guy and his best friend Larry, and they've been camping there for over 20 years. I just fell in love with this guy. I learned a lot about what being a NASCAR fan was from Mater and Larry."

2. Route 66 Can Make You a Little Loopy

Prior to starting the real production work of the film, Lasseter and some of his crew bonded on an exploratory road trip. "We went on Route 66 in '01," recalls production designer Bob Pauley. "Nine days, ten people, three Cadillacs." Production designer Bill Cone chimes in that they ended up looking like "this weird road show in these towns, because we had this hood ornament sculpture contest where we were picking up roadkill and leaves and feathers and wiring them onto the hoods." Unfortunately, we forgot to ask them who won -- and with what.

3. In a World Without Hands, Guido Is King

Talk to enough Pixar people, and you'll figure out the biggest obstacle in animating cars: no hands. DVD creative director Roger Gould reveals, "For a long time there was an important scene where they were going to look at a map. But it's like ... how do they hold a map? There was sort of this running gag on the film which when the story artists felt trapped, like, 'Oh I wish they had hands,' they would stick a monkey arm out of one of the windows." Bob Pauley adds, "We used to joke that if this was true, he [pointing to Guido] would be king because he's actually got limbs."

4. John Ratzenberger's a Chip Off the Old Mack

Pixar's "good luck charm" John Ratzenberger was first cast as Ham the piggy bank in 'Toy Story,' Lasseter explains, "because of his role as Cliff the mailman from 'Cheers.' I loved that idea of the piggy bank sitting on the top shelf looking out the window and kind of knowing everything that's going on." With his role as Mack in 'Cars,' the actor has maintained his streak of appearing in every Pixar film. "And what was so appropriate," Lasseter says, "[was] we cast him without even realizing that his father was a truck driver all his life, and he drove Mack trucks."

5. Look Out for License Plates

Pixar films are famous for their inside jokes, and there are plenty in 'Cars.' Fillmore's license plate, for example, is George Carlin's birthday (May 12, 1937), and the license plate for Ferrari fan Luigi (Tony Shalhoub) is the latitude and longitude of Ferrari's headquarters in Italy. Mater's license plate, A113, is a classroom number at CalArts, the alma mater of many Pixar employees; and as you'll see in the next slide, Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) uses Lightyear tires, in honor of Buzz in 'Toy Story.' The "95" on Lightning's door is the year that 'Toy Story' was released.

6. Beware the Wrath of Carl

A few plot points from the original 'Cars' storyline didn't make the final cut. Before it was decided that McQueen was his own worst enemy, says Roger Gould, "his 'spotter' was actually a rival who wanted to take Lightning McQueen's place, [and he] intentionally got McQueen lost. You get a little bit of sense of that in 'Community Service' [a deleted scene on the DVD]. We don't explain it in the context of the deleted scene, but you'll see that other character show up with Mack. And it's like, well, who's that other guy? Well, that actually is Carl, the evil inciter of the whole film."

7. It's Their Universe, We're Just Living In It

Part of the goal of Lasseter's Route 66 road trip was to get a sense of what the film should look like. Bill Cone says he created cliffs shaped like car fins based on "the idea that this is a car universe. As humans see themselves in nature, cars would see themselves in nature. So I got the idea of using car forms as geologic symbols in the film. We'd go to cliffs -- oh, that's kind of looking like a car! You'd start imposing your thinking on the world." Along those lines, Sally's (Bonnie Hunt) road-cone motel is based on teepee motels along Route 66 such as this one.

8. John Lasseter Was a Teen Speedster

While 'Cars' urges us to stop and smell the roses, Lasseter, a car junkie, has spent plenty of time in the fast lane. The car he learned to drive in was a 1969 Chevelle wood-grained station wagon with a "towing package" attached for a trailer. "Well, it so happened," Lasseter says, "that the '69 Chevelle with the towing package [had] this really hot 350 four-barrel carburetor [and] I could lay a patch of rubber from one end of the block to the other ... So my dad didn't realize he was giving us the keys to one of the hottest cars in Whittier, California. But it didn't look like it."

9. Even Cars Have Ghost Stories

Every Pixar DVD includes at least one original short film. On 'Cars,' one of those is 'Mater and the Ghostlight,' co-directed by storyboard artist Dan Scanlon. While on Route 66, the Pixar creative crew heard the legend of "a glowing white ball of light that appeared on the road at night," according to Scanlon. "It was definitely something that we wished we could've played with," he continues. "So when the idea came of what should we do for a short, this was pretty much the first on the list, because we thought, it would be so fun to do kind of a fun, spooky thing."

10. John Lasseter's an Easy Guy to Shop For

Lasseter is known for many things: directing, running Pixar -- and wearing Hawaiian shirts. While filming 'Cars,' he got obsessed with wearing a specific type of Hawaiian shirt. "My wife always says, it's not about just wearing a Hawaiian shirt everywhere you go, you have to match the subject matter of your shirt to what you're doing. So I started collecting car shirts and I wore them all the time. In fact, in the calendar year of 2003, when I was first working on 'Cars,' I went every single work day wearing a different shirt. In the entire year." Um, that's ... a lotta shirts.

Want More Family Films?

'Cars' was this summer's big family hit, but there are plenty more movies yet to come out that are sure to please bored kids and desperate adults
-- just in time for the holidays.
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