Cars

This article is about the 2006 Pixar film. For the franchise, see Cars (franchise).

### **Screenplay by**

Dan Fogelman
John Lasseter
Joe Ranft
Kiel Murray
Phil Lorin
Jorgen Klubien

### **Story by**

John Lasseter
Joe Ranft
Jorgen Klubien

### **Starring**

Owen Wilson
Paul Newman
Bonnie Hunt
Larry the Cable Guy

### **Cinematography**

Jeremy Lasky
Jean Claude Kalache

### **Production company**

Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios

### **Release date**

02006-05-26-0000May 26, 2006 (Lowe's Motor Speedway)
02006-06-09-0000June 9, 2006 (United States)

### **Box office**

$462 million

***Cars*** is a 2006 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by John Lasseter from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman, Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin, and Jorgen Klubien and a story by Lasseter, Ranft, and Klubien, and was the final film independently produced by Pixar after its purchase by Disney in January 2006. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic talking cars and other vehicles, the film stars the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman (in his final acting 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.

*On* May 26, 2006, *Cars* premiered at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and was theatrically released in the United States on June 9, 2006, to generally positive reviews and received commercial success, grossing $462 million worldwide against a budget of $120 million. It was nominated for two 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). Disney released the film on DVD on November 7, 2006, and Blu-ray in 2007. The short *One Man Band* accompanied the film for its theatrical and home media releases. Merchandise based on the film (including scale models of several cars) broke records for retail sales of merchandise based on a Disney/Pixar film, bringing an estimated $10 billion for five years after its release. Disney and Pixar dedicated the film to Joe Ranft, the film's co-director and co-writer, who died in a car crash during the film's production.

Disney released a sequel titled *Cars 2* on June 24, 2011, and a spin-off film titled *Planes*, produced by Disneytoon Studios, on August 9, 2013, followed by its sequel *Planes: Fire & Rescue* on July 18, 2014. A series of short animated films titled *Cars Toons* debuted in 2008 on Disney Channel and Disney XD. A second sequel, titled *Cars 3*, was released on June 16, 2017.

## Plot

In a world populated by anthropomorphic talking vehicles, the final race of the Piston Cup season ends in a three-way tie for first place between retiring veteran Strip "The King" Weathers, frequent runner-up Chick Hicks, and brash rookie sensation Lightning McQueen; the tiebreaker race is scheduled for one week later at the Los Angeles International Speedway. McQueen is desperate to win the race, not only to be the first rookie to win the Piston Cup, but also because it would allow him to leave the unglamorous sponsorship of Rust-Eze, a bumper ointment company, and take The King's place on the prestigious and lucrative Dinoco team. However, he struggles to work with others due to his selfishness, which has caused him to fire three crew chiefs and having his pit crew quit after the race. Eager to get to California as soon as possible, he pushes his big rig, Mack, to travel all night long. While McQueen is sleeping, Mack nods off and is startled awake, causing McQueen to fall out the trailer's back and onto the road. McQueen wakes up in the middle of traffic and speeds off the highway in search of Mack, but instead ends up in the rundown desert town of Radiator Springs, where he inadvertently damages the pavement of the main road.

The next day, the town judge and medical doctor, Doc Hudson, orders McQueen to leave town immediately, but the local lawyer, Sally, requests that McQueen should instead be assigned community service to repave the road, to which Doc reluctantly agrees. Still, in a rush to leave town, McQueen repaves the road shoddily and is ordered to start again. During this time, he begins to warm up to the town and befriends several of its residents. McQueen learns that Radiator Springs was once a popular stop along U.S. Route 66 until it was bypassed with Interstate 40 and mostly forgotten and that Doc was the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a three-time Piston Cup champion whose career ended from a devastating crash in 1954. He bonds with Sally, who found happiness when she gave up a fast life in Los Angeles to live in Radiator Springs, and now dreams of putting the town back on the map. McQueen finishes repaving the road, reinvigorating the town's residents, and decides to spend an extra day in Radiator Springs with his new friends, but his time there is cut short when Mack and the media descend on the town. McQueen reluctantly leaves to reach California in time for the race while Sally expresses her disappointment with Doc upon discovering that he was responsible for tipping off the media to McQueen's whereabouts.

At the race, McQueen races distractedly and soon falls into the last place. He is then surprised to discover that Doc, having a change of heart, has taken over as his crew chief, and several of his other friends from Radiator Springs are helping in the pit. Inspired and recalling tricks he learned from Doc and his friends, McQueen vaults into the lead. On the final lap, Chick sideswipes and sends The King into a dangerous crash. Recalling Doc's fate, McQueen stops just short of the finish line, handing Chick the victory, and drives back to push The King over the finish line. As a result, the angered crowd and media condemn Chick's accomplishment but praise McQueen's sportsmanship. McQueen is offered the Dinoco sponsorship but declines, insisting on staying with Rust-eze out of loyalty for their past support. Back at Radiator Springs, McQueen reunites with Sally and announces that he will be setting up his racing headquarters there, putting Radiator Springs back on the map.

In a post-credits scene, Minny and Van, a couple trying to find the Interstate, are shown lost in the middle of the desert.

## Voice cast

* Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen, described by John Lasseter in the *Los Angeles Times* as "A hybrid between a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance race car."
* Paul Newman as Doc Hudson, a 1951 Hudson Hornet who is later revealed to be the Fabulous Hudson Hornet and is Newman's last non-documentary role before retirement in 2007 and death in 2008.
* Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera, a 2002 996-series Porsche 911 Carrera.
* Larry the Cable Guy as Mater, a 1951 International Harvester L-170 "boom" truck with elements of a mid-1950s Chevrolet One-Ton Wrecker Tow Truck.
* Tony Shalhoub as Luigi, a 1959 Fiat 500.
* Cheech Marin as Ramone, a 1959 Chevrolet Impala Lowrider.
* Michael Wallis as Sheriff, a 1949 Mercury Club Coupe (police package).
* George Carlin as Fillmore, a 1960 VW Bus.
* Paul Dooley as Sarge, a 1941 Willys model jeep, in style used by the US Military.
* Jenifer Lewis as Flo, a 1957 General Motors Motorama show car.
* Guido Quaroni as Guido, a custom forklift, resembling an Isetta at the front who speaks only in Italian.
* Richard Petty as Strip "The King" Weathers, a 1970 Plymouth Superbird.
* Michael Keaton as Chick Hicks, described by Pixar as a generic 1980s stock car resembling a 1978–88 General Motors G-Body such as a Buick Regal or a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
* Katherine Helmond as Lizzie, a 1923 Ford Model T.
* John Ratzenberger as Mack, a 1985 Mack Super-Liner.
* Joe Ranft as Red, a 1960s style fire engine (most closely resembles a mid-1960s) and Jerry Recycled Batteries, the mean Peterbilt truck whom Lightning McQueen mistakes for Mack while lost. These were Ranft's last two voice roles before his death in August 2005.
* Jeremy Piven (US) / Jeremy Clarkson (UK) as Harv, Lightning McQueen's agent, never seen on-screen.
* Bob Costas as Bob Cutlass, a 1999 Oldsmobile Aurora, announcer for the Piston Cup races and Darrell Cartrip's friend.
* Darrell Waltrip as Darrell Cartrip, a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Piston Cup announcer and Bob Cutlass's friend.
* Humpy Wheeler as Tex Dinoco, a 1975 Cadillac Coupe de Ville and owner of Dinoco.
* Lynda Petty is Lynda Weathers, Strip Weathers' wife.
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. as "Junior" #8.
* Michael Schumacher as Michael Schumacher Ferrari.
* Tom and Ray Magliozzi as Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze, a 1963 Dodge Dart and a 1967 Dodge A100 are the respective owners of Rust-eze.
* Richard Kind and Edie McClurg as Van and Minny, a 2003 Ford Windstar and a 1996 Dodge Caravan.
* Lindsey Collins and Elissa Knight as Mia and Tia, the identical twin 1992 Mazda MX-5 ("Miata") sisters.
* Mario Andretti as Mario Andretti #11.
* Sarah Clark as Kori Turbowitz.
* Jay Leno as Jay Limo.
* Jess Harnell as Sven the Governator, a Humvee caricature of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Billy Crystal, John Goodman and Dave Foley 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*. *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. 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 movies directed by John Lasseter during the credits. It's also the last (non-documentary) movie for Paul Newman before his retirement in 2007 and his death in 2008. It turned out to be the highest-grossing film of his career.

## Production

### Development

The film's genesis came in 1998 as Pixar began wrapping up production on *A Bug's Life*. At that time, Jorgen Klubien started 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. Pixar developed some of the original drawings and characters in 1998, and the producers agreed that *Cars* could be the next Pixar film after *A Bug's Life* for an early 1999 release, particularly around June 4. However, Pixar scrapped the idea in favour of *Toy Story 2*. Later, production resumed with significant script changes, like giving Mater, Doc and a few other more substantial parts.

John Lasseter said that inspiration for the film's story came after taking a cross-country road trip with his wife and five sons in 2000. 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. In 2001, the film's working title was *Route 66* (after U.S. Route 66), but Pixar changed the title to *Cars* to avoid confusion with the same name's 1960s television series. Also, Lightning McQueen's racing number was originally going to be 57 (a reference to 1957, Lasseter's birth year), but they changed it to 95 (a reference to 1995, the year Pixar's first film *Toy Story* was released).

In 2006, Lasseter spoke about the film's inspiration, saying: "I have always loved cars. In one vein, I have Disney blood, and in the other, there's motor oil. The notion of combining these two great passions in my life—cars and animation—was irresistible. When Joe (Ranft) and I first started talking about this film in 1998, we knew we wanted to do something with cars as characters. Around that same time, we watched a documentary called 'Divided Highways,' which dealt with the interstate highway and how it affected the small towns along the way. We were so moved by it and began thinking about what it must have been like in these small towns that got bypassed. That's when we started really researching Route 66, but we still hadn't quite figured out what the story for the film was going to be. I used to travel that highway with my family as a child when we visited our family in St. Louis."

Years later, in 2013, Klubien said the film was both his best and most bitter experience because they fired him before it premiered and because he feels Lasseter wrote him out of the story of how the film got made.

### Animation

For the cars themselves, Lasseter also visited the Big Three Detroit automakers' design studios, particularly J Mays of Ford Motor Company. Lasseter learned how companies design real vehicles.

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."

Unlike most anthropomorphic cars, they placed the cars' eyes in this film on the windshield (which resembles the Tonka Talking Trucks, 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 having the eyes near the mouth at the front end of the car feels 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 vehicle could be involved in the animation of the character. Automotive blog Jalopnik heavily criticized this decision.

In 2006, the supervising animator on the film Scott Clark, spoke about the challenges of animating car characters, saying: "Getting a full range of performance and emotion from these characters and making them still seem like cars was a tough assignment, but that's what animation does best. You use your imagination, and you make the movements and gestures fit with the design. Our car characters may not have arms and legs, but we can lean the tires in or out to suggest hands opening up or closing in. We can use steering to point a certain direction. We also designed a special eyelid and an eyebrow for the windshield that lets us communicate an expressiveness that cars don't have." Doug Sweetland, who also served as supervising animator, also spoke about the challenges, saying: "It took a different kind of animator to really be able to interpret the *Cars* models, than it did to interpret something like *The Incredibles* models. With *The Incredibles*, the animator could get reference for the characters by shooting himself and watching the footage. But with *Cars*, it departs completely from any reference. Yes they're cars, but no car can do what our characters do. It's pure fantasy. It took a lot of trial and error to get them to look right."

Lasseter also explained that the film started with pencil and paper designs, saying: "Truth to materials. Starting with pencil-and-paper designs from production designer Bob Pauley, and continuing through the modeling, articulation, and shading of the characters, and finally into animation, the production team worked hard to have the car characters remain true to their origins." Character department manager Jay Ward also explained how they wanted the cars to look as realistic as possible, saying: "John didn't want the cars to seem clay-like or mushy. He insisted on truth to materials. This was a huge thing for him. He told us that steel needs to feel like steel. Glass should feel like glass. These cars need to feel heavy. They weigh three or four thousand pounds. When they move around, they need to have that feel. They shouldn't appear light or overly bouncy to the point where the audience might see them as rubber toys." According to directing animator James Ford Murphy, "Originally, the car models were built so they could basically do anything. John kept reminding us that these characters are made of metal and they weigh several thousand pounds. They can't stretch. He showed us examples of very loose animation to illustrate what not to do."

Character shading supervisor on the film Thomas Jordan explained that chrome and car paint were the main challenges in the movie, saying: "Chrome and car paint were our two main challenges on this film. We started out by learning as much as we could. At the local body shop, we watched them paint a car, and we saw the way they mixed the paint and applied the various coats. We tried to dissect what goes into the real paint and recreated it in the computer. We figured out that we needed a base paint, which is where the color comes from, and the clearcoat, which provides the reflection. We were then able to add in things like metallic flake to give it a glittery sparkle, a pearlescent quality that might change color depending on the angle, and even a layer of pin-striping for characters like Ramone." Eben Ostby explained that the technical team's biggest challenge was creating the car's metallic and painted surfaces and the reflections they generate, saying: "Given that the stars of our film are made of metal, John had a real desire to see realistic reflections, and more beautiful lighting than we've seen in any of our previous films. In the past, we've mostly used environment maps and other matte-based technology to cheat reflections, but for *Cars* we added a ray-tracing capability to our existing Renderman program to raise the bar for Pixar."

Rendering's lead Jessica McMackin spoke about the use of ray tracing in the film, saying: "In addition to creating accurate reflections, we used ray tracing to achieve other effects. We were able to use this approach to create accurate shadows, like when there are multiple light sources and you want to get a feathering of shadows at the edges. Or occlusion, which is the absence of ambient light between two surfaces, like a crease in a shirt. A fourth use is irradiance. An example of this would be if you had a piece of red paper and held it up to a white wall, the light would be colored by the paper and cast a red glow on the wall." Character supervisor Tim Milliron explained that the film uses a ground–locking system that kept the cars firmly planted on the road, saying: "The ground-locking system is one of the things I'm most proud of on this film. In the past, characters have never known about their environment in any way. A simulation pass was required if you wanted to make something like that happen. On *Cars*, this system is built into the models themselves, and as you move the car around, the vehicle sticks to the ground. It was one of those things that we do at Pixar where we knew going in that it had to be done, but we had no idea how to do it."

Technical director Lisa Forsell explained that to enhance the richness and beauty of the desert landscapes surrounding Radiator Springs, the filmmakers created a department responsible for matte paintings and sky flats, saying: "Digital matte paintings are a way to get a lot of visual complexity without necessarily having to build complex geometry, and write complex shaders. We spent a lot time working on the clouds and their different formations. They tend to be on several layers and they move relative to each other. The clouds do in fact have some character and personality. The notion was that just as people see themselves in the clouds, cars see various car-shaped clouds. It's subtle, but there are definitely some that are shaped like a sedan. And if you look closely, you'll see some that look like tire treads. The fact that so much attention is put on the skies speaks to the visual level of the film. Is there a story point? Not really. There is no pixel on the screen that does not have an extraordinary level of scrutiny and care applied to it. There is nothing that is just throw-away."

Computers used in the film's development were four times faster than those used in *The Incredibles* and 1,000 times faster than those used in *Toy Story*. To build cars, the animators used computer platforms similar to those used in the design of real-world automobiles.

## Soundtrack

Main article: Cars/Soundtrack
Walt Disney Records released the *Cars* soundtrack on June 6, 2006. Nine tracks on the soundtrack are by famous artists, while the remaining eleven are score cues by Randy Newman. It has two versions of the classic Bobby Troup jazz standard "Route 66" (popularized by Nat King Cole), one by Chuck Berry and a new version recorded specifically for the film's credits performed by John Mayer. Brad Paisley contributed two of the nine tracks to the album, one being "Find Yourself" used for the end credits.

## Release

Disney initially scheduled *Cars* for November 4, 2005, but on December 7, 2004, its release date was moved to June 9, 2006. 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 preparing non-Disney materials to present to other studios or buying time to see what happened with Michael Eisner's situation at Disney. When Pixar's chief executive Steve Jobs made the release date announcement, he stated that the reasoning was to put all Pixar films on a summer release schedule with DVD sales occurring during the holiday shopping season.

### Home media

Main article: Cars/Home media
Disney released *Cars* on DVD, in widescreen and full-screen editions, on November 7, 2006, in the United States and Canada. They also released the DVD on October 25, 2006, in Australia and New Zealand and on November 27, 2006, in the United Kingdom. The release includes the DVD-exclusive short film *Mater and the Ghostlight* and the film's theatrical short *One Man Band* and a 16-minute-long documentary about the film entitled *Inspiration for Cars*, which features director John Lasseter. Disney released a VHS on February 19, 2007, to members of Disney's home video clubs.

According to the Walt Disney Company, they sold five million copies of the DVD in the first two days it was available. The first week, it sold 6,250,856 units and 15,370,791 in total ($246,198,859). 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, John Lasseter and Pixar were busy producing films like *Ratatouille*.

There were bonus discs available with the film's purchase at Wal-Mart and Target in the US and Canada. The former featured a *Geared-Up Bonus DVD Disc* that focused on the music of the film, including the music video to "Life Is A Highway," *The Making of "Life Is A Highway,"* *Cars: The Making of the Music*, and *Under The Hood*, a special that initially aired on the ABC Family cable channel. The latter's bonus was a *Rev'd Up DVD Disc* that featured material mostly already released as part of the official *Cars* podcast and focused on the movie's inspiration and production.

Disney also released *Cars* on Blu-ray on November 6, 2007, one year after the DVD release. It was the first Pixar film to be released on Blu-ray (alongside *Ratatouille* and *Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1*), and later released as a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. Disney also released a DVD only edition of the combo pack in April 2011. The film was released for the first time in 3D on October 29, 2013, as part of *Cars: Ultimate Collector's Edition*, which included the releases on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, and DVD.

Disney released *Cars* on 4K Blu-ray on September 10, 2019.

## Reception

### Box office

*Cars* earned $60,119,509 in 3,985 theatres in the United States in its opening weekend, ranking number one at the box office. In the United States, the film held onto the number one spot for two weeks before being surpassed by *Click* and then by *Superman Returns* the following weekend. It went on to gross $462,216,280 worldwide (ranking number six in 2006 films) and $244,082,982 in the United States (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 second-highest-grossing film released by Walt Disney Pictures, behind *Dead Man's Chest* and was the second-highest-grossing computer-animated film of 2006 in the United States after *Ice Age: The Meltdown*.

### Critical response

The film has an approval rating of 75% based on 202 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and an average of 6.91/10. The site's critics' consensus reads, "*Cars* offers visual treats that more than compensate for its somewhat thinly written story, adding up to a satisfying diversion for younger viewers." On Metacritic, the film has a 73 out of 100 based on 39 critic reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

William Arnold of the *Seattle Post-Intelligencer* praised it as "one of Pixar's most imaginative and thoroughly appealing movies ever" and Lisa Schwarzbaum of *Entertainment Weekly* called it "a work of American art as classic as it is modern." Roger Ebert of the *Chicago Sun-Times* gave the film three out of four stars, saying that it "tells a bright and cheery story, and then has a little something profound lurking around the edges. In this case, it's a sense of loss." Peter Travers of *Rolling Stone* gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "Fueled with plenty of humor, action, heartfelt drama, and amazing new technical feats, *Cars* is a high octane delight for moviegoers of all ages." Richard Corliss of *Time* gave the film a positive review, saying, "Existing both in turbo-charged today and the gentler '50s, straddling the realms of Pixar styling and old Disney heart, this new-model *Cars* is an instant classic." Brian Lowry of *Variety* gave the film a negative review, saying, "Despite representing another impressive technical achievement, it's the least visually interesting of the computer-animation boutique's movies, and -- in an ironic twist for a story about auto racing -- drifts slowly through its semi-arid midsection." Robert Wilonsky of *The Village Voice* gave the film a positive review, saying, "What ultimately redeems *Cars* from turning out a total lemon is its soul. Lasseter loves these animated inanimate objects as though they were kin, and it shows in every beautifully rendered frame." Ella Taylor of *L.A. Weekly* gave the film a positive review, saying, "*Cars* cheerfully hitches cutting-edge animation to a folksy narrative plugging friendship, community and a Luddite mistrust of high tech."

Gene Seymour of *Newsday* gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "And as pop flies go, *Cars* is pretty to watch, even as it loops, drifts and, at times, looks as if it's just hanging in midair." Colin Covert of the *Star Tribune* gave the film a positive review, saying, "It takes everything that's made Pixar shorthand for animation excellence -- strong characters, tight pacing, spot-on voice casting, a warm sense of humor and visuals that are pure, pixilated bliss -- and carries them to the next stage." Bill Muller of *The Arizona Republic* gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "The truest measure of the movie is that eventually we forget we're watching a bunch of vehicles with faces and start to think of them as individual characters. It's quite an accomplishment, and perhaps one only possible by Pixar." Kenneth Turan of the *Los Angeles Times* gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "What's surprising about this supremely engaging film is the source of its curb appeal: It has heart." Stephen Hunter of *The Washington Post* gave the film a positive review, saying, "It's the latest concoction from the geniuses at Pixar, probably the most inventive of the Computer Generated Imagery shop -- and the film's great fun, if well under the level of the first *Toy Story*." Jessica Reaves of the *Chicago Tribune* gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying, "While it's a technically perfect movie, its tone is too manic, its characters too jaded and, in the end, its story too empty to stand up to expectations." James Berardinelli of *ReelViews* gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "While *Cars* may cross the finish line ahead of any of 2006's other animated films, it's several laps behind its Pixar siblings."

Joe Williams of the *St. Louis Post-Dispatch* gave the film an A-, saying, "It's powered by a human heart through a roadway of natural wonders and cultural signposts en route to the checkered flag." Lisa Kennedy of *The Denver Post* gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "*Cars* idles at times. And it's not until its final laps that the movie gains the emotional traction we've come to expect from the *Toy Story* and Nemo crews." Tom Long of *The Detroit News* gave the film a B+, saying, "It's touching, it's funny, it offers cautions about the modern pace of life, and it depends on a sense of rural Americana for its soul." Rick Groen of *The Globe and Mail* gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, saying, "For parents out there whose future holds the certain prospect of the DVD version blaring repeatedly from family-room screens, let this be your advisory. Warning: *Cars* comes unequipped with two essential options -- charm and a good muffler." Amy Biancolli of the *Houston Chronicle* gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "It thunders ahead with breezy abandon, scoring big grins on its way." Elizabeth Weitzman of the *New York Daily News* gave the film four out of four stars, saying, "It achieves the near impossible, turning cars, trucks, tractors, and farm harvesters into cute Disney characters whose fates you'll care about." Lou Lumenick of the *New York Post* gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "*Cars* somewhat self-indulgently runs nearly two hours -- but overall, it's well worth the trip." Lisa Rose of the *Newark Star-Ledger* gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "It's another innovative piece of entertainment from the animation studio, taking the audience on a kinetic trip into a world populated only by automobiles."

Claudia Puig of *USA Today* gave the film a positive review, saying, "The animation is stunningly rendered. But the story is always the critical element in Pixar movies, and Cars' story is heartfelt with a clear and unabashed moral." David Edelstein of *New York Magazine* gave the film a positive review, saying, "Like the *Toy Story* films, *Cars* is a state-of-the-computer-art plea on behalf of outmoded, wholesome fifties technology, with a dash of Zen by way of George Lucas." Roger Moore of the *Orlando Sentinel* gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "It's beautiful to look at. The talking cars feel more alive than talking cars should." Peter Howell of the *Toronto Star* gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "*Cars* made me want to hop in my jalopy and to head out to Route 66, bypassing the boring interstate highways that made the Mother Road redundant." Moira MacDonald of *The Seattle Times* gave the film three and a half stars out of four, saying, "Though the central idea of nostalgia for a quieter, small-town life may well be lost on this movie's young audience -- *Cars* finds a pleasant and often sparkling groove." Mick LaSalle of the *San Francisco Chronicle* gave the film two out of five stars, saying, "*Cars* might get us into car world as a gimmick, but it doesn't get us into car world as a state of mind. Thus, the animation, rather than seeming like an expression of the movie's deeper truth, becomes an impediment to it." Derek Adams of *Time Out* gave the film a positive review, saying, "There are many other brilliant scenes, some just as funny but there are just as many occasions where you feel the film's struggling to fire on all cylinders. Still, it's a Pixar film, right? And they're always worth a gander no matter what anyone says."

### Accolades

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Cars
*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 alongside *Monster House*, but it lost to *Happy Feet*. *Cars* was also selected as the Favorite Family Movie at the 33rd People's Choice Awards. 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. In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Animation Films list.

## Video game

Main article: Cars (video game)
Disney released a video game of the same name on June 6, 2006, for Game Boy Advance, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Xbox. They also released it on October 23, 2006, for Xbox 360, November 17, 2006, for the PlayStation 3, and November 19, 2006, for Wii. Much like the film, the video game got mainly positive reviews. GameSpot gave 7.0/10 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii versions, for the PlayStation 2 version, 7.6/10 for the GameCube and Xbox versions, and 7.4/10 for the PSP version. Metacritic gave 65/100 for the Wii version, 54/100 for the DS version, 73/100 for the PC version, 71/100 for the PlayStation 2 version, and 70/100 for the PSP version.

## Similar films

Marco Aurélio Canônico of *Folha de S.Paulo* described *The Little Cars* series (*Os Carrinhos* in Portuguese), a Brazilian computer graphics film series, as a *Cars*' derivative. Canônico discussed whether lawsuits from Pixar would appear. The Brazilian Ministry of Culture posted Marcus Aurelius Canônico's article on its website.

They also note that the plot of *Cars* mirrors that of *Doc Hollywood*, a 1991 romantic comedy which stars Michael J. Fox as a hotshot young doctor who eventually acquires an appreciation for small-town values and falls in love with a local law student as a result of being sentenced to work at the town hospital after causing a traffic collision in a small town. Some have gone so far as to say that the makers of *Cars* plagiarized *Doc Hollywood*'s script.

## Literature

* 2006: CARS: *The Junior Novelization*, RH/Disney, ISBN 978-0736422918

## Sequels

Main articles: Cars 2 and Cars 3
A sequel to the film, titled *Cars 2*, was released on June 24, 2011. It was directed again by John Lasseter, who was inspired by the movie while travelling worldwide, promoting the first film. In the sequel, Lightning McQueen and Mater head to Japan and Europe to compete in the World Grand Prix, but Mater becomes sidetracked with international espionage. The film failed to meet or exceed its predecessor's critical success but was still a box office success.

A second sequel, titled *Cars 3*, was released on June 16, 2017. Lasseter didn't return to direct, so Brian Fee took over the director's chair (though Lasseter was still an executive producer). The film again concerns Lightning McQueen, now a veteran racer, who received instruction from a young race car, Cruz Ramirez, to help him cope with an increasingly high-tech world. The film also received positive reviews from critics, who praised it as an improvement on its predecessor.