Did You Know? - Fun Facts About "Cars"

Welcome to another edition of a series that I like to call Did You Know?. Inspired a little by the Nostalgia Critic's "What You Never Knew" series, this series will allow me to share with you some interesting tidbits, behind-the-scenes information, and fun facts about an animated movie or TV series. Because I like sharing new information with people.

Cars is without a doubt PIXAR's most overhated franchise. I can understand why the second movie isn't very too well-liked, but I've never understood why the first movie gets so much flack. Sure, kids love it, but go online and you'll find lots and lots of hatred for the franchise. But y'know what? I like the first film. So there.

It's been TWENTY YEARS since the first film was released, can you believe it? I remember first finding out about the film when I saw a picture of Lightning and Mater in a magazine (that Nick Jr. magazine that started up in 1999, I think?) and, for some reason, being reminded of Bob and Larry from VeggieTales. Since then, Cars has found a parking spot in the history of animated movies whether animation snobs like it or not. And so, I shall be sharing with you today several fun facts about the film and its history. Did you know any of these things?

A storyboard for the film featuring Lightning, Mater, and Doc Hudson.

1) The film began development as a movie called The Yellow Car or Little Yellow Car, about an electric car who is looked down upon by his gas-guzzling neighbors. Jorgen Klubien came up with the idea while PIXAR was working on A Bug's Life. "In Denmark there has never been car production because the country is too small. Yet in the 1980s some enthusiastic folks got the idea of making a three-wheeled one-person car that ran on electricity," he says in the book The Art of Cars, which also includes concept art for the film. "They put it into production and it worked great in the city, but out on the highway it was too slow. People also thought the car was ugly. I thought the electric car was ahead of its time, and it struck me as odd that my fellow Danes didn't agree. It reminded me of The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen. This famous Danish character wasn't accepted at first, but in the end it proved to be right on the money."

The reason why this version didn't get made is because the story was considered too slim to base a movie around, but it remained an inspiration for the Cars that we got. You can find the original story treatment for "The Yellow Car" on Jorgen Klubien's website.

Concept art by Jorgen for The Yellow Car.

2) While developing the movie, the crew went on a research trip on the actual Route 66. Their tour guide? Michael Wallis, a journalist and historian who has written several books about Route 66 - and who voices the Sheriff in the film. A lot of the people they met and places they visited inspired characters and locations in the film. For example...

3) Fillmore is based on a real person - Bob Waldmire, a self-proclaimed hippie artist famous on Route 66 for his pen-and-ink maps and postcards of the route. In fact, Fillmore was originally going to be named "Waldmire", but when Disney asked him for his permission, he told them that, since he was a vegan, he didn't want them to stick toys of a van named after him in Happy Meal boxes.

An early version of Fillmore was featured in The Yellow Car, too.

4) Would you believe that Mater is based on a real person too? He's named after NASCAR superfan Douglas "Mater" Keever. The filmmakers met him at the Lowe's Speedway while in North Carolina (there's a rise in the infield at Lowe's called "Redneck Hill", where fans stay in tents and pop-up campers. Douglas is the "self-appointed mayor" there). He greeted John Lasseter by saying, "My name's Mater! Like 'tuh-mater', but without the 'tuh'." Y'know, the exact same thing that Mater says to Lightning in the film. Douglas got the nickname because he often chucked tomatoes around a farm owned by his grandparents.

On top of that, Douglas actually voices Albert Hinkley, a minor character in the film (he's the motor home who says "Well, dip me in axle grease and call me slick." Here's a bonus fun fact for you - that was ad-libbed. He originally ad-libbed, "Well, call me lubrication." but producer Darla Anderson made him change it).

Incidentally, Mater was originally going to be a flatbed named Zeb, not a tow truck. But according to John Lasseter, it "wasn't landing" and then he got the idea to make Mater a tow truck and call him "Tow Mater". Physically, Mater is based on a 1951 Harvester International Tow Truck parked outside a gas station in Kansas. Since the film's release, the truck has been repainted to look like Mater and was originally called "Tow Mater", but Disney made them change the name (he's "Tow Tater" now). By 2019, a more screen-accurate Mater was added next to the original.

A photo of Tow Tater.

5) Sally is based on Dawn Welch, the owner of a cafe in Stroud, Oklahoma called Rock Cafe (called that because it was initially built with rocks gathered from the construction of Route 66). The film's poster and a picture of Sally are now hanging up on the walls inside the cafe.

There's also a poster featuring Mickey Mouse, if you look closely.

6) The film's animators drew up over 43,000 sketches for the designs of the cars. "When you try to think of them as living creatures, you kind of question, well, how does this work?" production designer William Lone admitted. "You'll notice there's a lot of buttons in our movie. Buttons that release the gas pump handles and things like that. The animators completely overcame all of those apparent limitations."

"We determined pretty early on that cars are much more interesting when they're driving," Jeremy Lasky, the director of photography camera for the film, said. "So, when we were staging these characters, it was important to figure out ways that they could have their conversations, the scenes could play out as the cars were moving."

7) The mountain range that surrounds Radiator Springs was inspired by an outdoor art installation called Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. It's not an actual mountain range (or a ranch, despite the name), but rather a series of colorful Cadillacs sticking out of the ground. See for yourself:

8) Usually, in animation, when you have a sentient car, its eyes are located in its headlights (see, for example, the talking cars in the Chevron ads). Bob Pauley, the film's production designer, explained that John Lassenter insisted on having the eyes of the characters in Cars be located in their windshields. Why? Well, "For one thing, it seperates 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 it made it feel like the whole car could be involved in the animation of the character."

One inspiration for the film was a 1952 Disney cartoon called Susie the Little Blue Coupe - specifically, when it came to designing the cars. It starred a car named Susie who, much like Lightning and Mater, had her eyes in her windshield.

A screencap from Susie the Little Blue Coupe.

9) John Lassenter said these words the designers, modelers, and animators: "truth to materials". According to characters department manager Jay Ward, "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."

Directing animator James Ford Murphy concurs. "Originally, the car models were built so they could basically do anything," he said. "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."

10) Story artist Matthew Luhn shared some early storyboards for the film on Instagram. According to him, at some point Lightning was to be painted purple and green by the cars in Radiator Springs, his racing number was #58 as opposed to #95 (which is a reference to the year that the first Toy Story was released... whereas Chick Hicks' number, #86, is a reference to the year PIXAR was founded), and his name was Monte. Chick Hicks was originally a red backup car - NASCAR teams typically have a backup car just in case their usual car is damaged during practice - who had turned on Lightning... er, Monte. This, it would seem, was "way too specific" and didn't fit the story they wanted to tell.

Matthew also posted some sketches of characters cut from the film - other vehicles who could be friends for Mater, like a mail truck named Cliff or another pickup truck. Eventually, they decided that it would be better for Mater not to have a best friend yet, so Lightning could fill that role.

Concept art for... I want to say Ramone and Lizzie?

11) Lizzie is a Ford Model T. Some people use "Tin Lizzie" as a nickname for Ford Model Ts. Hence the name they gave their Ford Model T character in the movie.

12) There are several references to Toy Story in the movie. Of course there's the scene during the credits where Mack watches Toy Car Story at a drive-thru, but there's also the fact that Dinoco, the company that Lightning really really wants as a sponsor, is also the gas station where Woody and Buzz get stranded.

On the left is the Dinoco logo as it appears in Toy Story, on the right is the Dinoco logo as it
appears in Cars. Dunno why they swapped out the apatosaurus for a T-Rex.

In addition, some of the cars, including Lightning, wear "Lightyear" tires, an obvious reference to Buzz. Look closely at one of the tires and you'll see that they're listed as being from "Sector 4, Gamma Quadrant" - which is also where Buzz said he was stationed.

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the Pizza Planet Truck is, it's seen in the background as Bob Cutlass is talking about how big the race during the climax is. His name is Todd.

Say "hello" to Todd.

13) There are references to some of PIXAR's short films, too. For example, the birds from For the Birds can briefly be seen on a telephone wire during the "Life is a Highway" sequence.

They appear for a split second.

A bit easier to spot is the Jackalope from Boundin', whose likeness is seen on the back of a camper.

And the snowman from Knick Knack is featured inside a snowglobe in Lizzie's shop.

14) The race at the beginning features 60,000 seated cars and an additional 700 cars in the infield and aisles. That's a lot of cars to design, model, and animate.

What's more, a whopping forty-four different monitors are featured in the televison studio covering the Piston Cup race. This means that they had to do forty-four versions of the same shot! Those animators deserve a lot of credit...

15) A scene was storyboarded featuring Lightning having a dream in which his engine (which apparently acted as the car equivalent of a brain) was taken out and put in a bulldozer. While he's freaking out over this, Mater takes his body for a joyride and then proceeds to steal his identity. It was just as disturbing as it sounds.

16) From what I've heard, the film was originally going to be called Route 66, but they didn't want people to confuse it with the 1960s television show of the same name. Incidentally, DreamWorks was planning to do an animated movie called Route 66 at one point too, and it was announced in 2005 (you can read more about it here). I wonder if that had anything to do with PIXAR's deciding to rename the film as well...

Concept art for the mountain range that surrounds Radiator Springs.

17) The name of the whitewall tires that Lightning buys from Luigi and Guido are "Fettuccini Alfredo". It's funny because "Alfredo" is a type of white sauce. And now I'm hungry for pasta.

18) Luigi's license plate reads "445-108". That's the latitude and longitude for the main Ferrari factory in Modena, Italy.

19) As a tip of the hat to PIXAR founder Steve Jobs, one of the cars during the race at the beginning has the Apple logo on its hood. His name is Mac iCar and his number, 84, is a reference to the year that Apple released the Macintosh personal computer, 1984.

20) During the scene where Lightning and Doc race, look up in the sky - you can see clouds in the sky that look like tire tracks.

21) Fillmore is correct - every third blink of the traffic light's yellow light IS slower than the first two. And if you go to Cars Land at Disney's California Adventure and look up at the traffic light, pay attention to the yellow light... every third blink is slower there too!

22) Larry the Cable Guy ad-libbed many of Mater's lines (for example, "Dad-gum!"). Owen Wilson also ad-libbed Lightning's iconic "Ka-chow!" catchphrase - the filmmakers asked him what he thought a lightning strike sounded like, and that was Owen's response.

Concept art for Luigi and Guido.

23) Above the door in the courtroom, there is a Latin phrase written that translates to "The road of justice is paved by truth".

24) One of the places we see closed for the big race in the third act is Emeryville - y'know, where PIXAR is located. On top of that, we also see planes flying over a replica of PIXAR Studios.

Not sure where, specifically, in this screencap PIXAR Studios is.

25) As you probably already know, Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze are voiced by Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the hosts of NPR's Car Talk. Rusty was modeled after Tom's green 1963 Dart, which he called "The Dartre". Meanwhile, The King is modeled after Richard Petty (who, for those unaware, does his voice)'s 1970 Plymouth Superbird (they're the exact same shade of blue), and Dale Earnhardt Jr. voices an animated version of his Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

26) John Ratzenberger, PIXAR's "good luck charm", voices a red Mack truck named Mack. Unlike the previously-mentioned voices in the film, John has never driven a red Mack truck - but his father did, and John Lasseter knew this.

27) Look closely at the top of the arena during the big race between Lightning, Chick, and the King - there are two cars spitting off it!

28) Are you familiar with Eddie Paul? He has provided hundreds of cars for television shows and movies - some just modified, some built by hand (among the movies he's supplied cars for are Grease, Back to the Future, and Cobra). He actually built real versions of Lightning, Mater, and Sally that PIXAR took to various cities around the country to promote the film. No, they did not talk.

Mr. Paul with Lightning and Mater.

29) The "moo" sound that the tractors make when they're tipped over originates from a toy introduced in 1978 called Milky the Marvelous Milking Cow.

Did you have this toy? I didn't.

30) In the credits, we find out what the name of that one member of Lightning's pit crew who shouts "AND MY NAME IS NOT CHUCK!" is. Turns out, it actually IS "Not Chuck". I have a book called Pixarpedia (that I think was first released in 2009 or 2010) and in that book the character is called "Not Chuck" as well.

31) Cars was the first PIXAR film to utilize a technique called "ray tracing", which properly renders the way light passes through and collides with surfaces. In other words, it lets artists accurately paint reflections without having to go through and "paint" them individually.

32) There's a reference to Lady and the Tramp in the film - when Mater stretches out his kinks after waking up, he moves almost exactly like Tramp does when audiences first see him beside a railroad car.

More concept art.

33) According to storyboard artist Rob Gibbs, the scene at the end of the film where Lightning tells Sally that Radiator Springs is "back on the map" was originally going to show him actually producing a map and holding it up for Sally to see. The problem was, since the cars have no hands, nobody knew how they could have Lightning hold up a map. He couldn't use his doors because that's where his "brains" are. Rob figured that maybe he could use his trunk, and drew a bunch of storyboards where he's holding a rolled-up map on his trunk, then he kicks it off and it lands on the ground. THEN he drew storyboards where Lightning opens up his trunk (would that be the car equivalent of taking off your underwear in front of somebody?) and revealing a map that unfolds.

Then some of the other storyboard artists got involved. Somebody suggested having The King arrive, holding the map with his antennae, and saying that he found it. Somebody else suggested having Lightning draw a map in the ground with his wheels. Another idea was to have the map appear in Lightning's windshield eyelids. From there, things went completely off the rails. Ideas included having Lightning stand up on his two back tires and show the map on his "stomach", having it be on his tounge, a projector from his eye that shows a hologram of the world, having the map come out of his tailpipe, and Steve Purcell's idea - a monkey pops out of Lightning and produces the map. Eventually, they decided they didn't need to have Lightning actually show Sally a physical map, they can just have him say that Radiator Springs was back on the map.

Big Idea never had this problem with VeggieTales. They just have the characters magically levitate things in front of them when they need to hold up something.

34) Recently, Lightning McQueen made an appearance at the Italian Grand Prix! This was in honor of the film's 20th anniversary.

35) You don't have to go to Disney's California Adventure to meet the characters from Cars - there are real versions of Lightning, Mater etc. all over the country!

For example, at the edge of a private lot in front of what appears to be an Esso gas station in Cleveland, Tennessee, there's a beat-up tow truck that bears a striking resemblance to Mater (complete with buck teeth).

Another Mater lookalike is parked outside of JW's Tire Station in Cottageville, South Carolina.

Honestly, it looks more like some sort of vampire car than Mater to me.

If you go to Blacey's U-Pick Auto Parts and Junkyard in Wrightstown, New Jersey, you can find Mater towing Doc Hudson.

There's a farm in Platteville, Colorado called Miller Farms that has - among other things - cars that could be Doc Hudson, Mater, and Lightning's twins.

A more morbid example can be found in Kanab, Utah. It's not based on a specific character from the film, but it's a broken-down jalopy with eyes painted on its windshield to make it look like it's from Cars. And there's a skeleton in the driver's seat, waving.

Well, that's ONE way to get some use out of your Halloween decorations...

And to top it off, outside Gearhead Curios in Galena, Kansas is a replica of Doc Hudson. The owner of the place, Aaron Perry, already owned a 1951 Hudson and had to be talked into repainting it to look like Doc. "I love Cars, I love what it's done, but Route 66 is so much more," he said.

Sources:
- https://madeinatlantis.com/movies_central/2006/cars.htm
- https://ew.com/article/2006/06/19/cars-man-who-inspired-mater/
- https://www.wdwradio.com/2018/10/the-inspiration-behind-fillmore-the-george-carlin-voiced-vw-van-from-cars/
- https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/the-making-of-tow-mater/
- https://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137343916/cars-fans-get-their-rusty-kicks-on-route-66
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/14681
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/38842
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/32437
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/79132
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/28689
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/85033
- https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/87013
- https://jimhillmedia.com/on-the-red-carpet-at-the-cars-premiere/
- https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/49813101/lightning-mcqueen-make-f1-debut-italian-gp-safety-car-gets-cars-makeover