Doug Sweetland, who also served as supervising animator, adds, “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.”
With his background in animation, and his love of the art form, Lasseter inspired his team to do some of their finest work.
Murphy observes, “John is the greatest collaborator of all time. And I think that’s what makes him so successful. He is tirelessly collaborative.”
Clark adds, “John is incredibly supportive of the animators. He understands the medium so well, and he knows the designs. He knows that if you can imagine something, you can animate it. And that’s what animation should be. It should be something you can’t do in live-action. He is an expert at creating a whole world that exists in and of itself. He gets excited about the littlest observations and he focuses in on things. He loves cars so much that he can make you excited about animating them. His way of directing is very encouraging. He really knows how to bring out the best in artists. He has a vision, he has ideas, but he also knows how to encourage us to do our very best work.”
LIGHTNING McQUEEN/OWEN WILSON: The character of Lightning McQueen is an original design that features the voice of Owen Wilson. Pauley notes, “We used a standard stock car as our starting point. John and I began thinking about our favorite cars and what made them so cool. We pared down all the ideas and did a bunch of drawings that we felt were good. From there, a clay sculpt was made just like they would do in Detroit, and our star modeler Andrew Schmidt took it from there. McQueen was a blast to do. It was also a major challenge to make a car that reads as a character and has a strong face on screen, yet doesn’t look derivative.”
Wilson observes, “John would walk me through the storyboards and sometimes show me some rough animation to get me up to speed. You get a good idea of what’s going on from the script, but a lot of times it involves going inside your head and using your imagination. It kind of felt like when you were a kid, and you would do funny animated voices. You’re dreaming the stuff up and creating a character. Working with the Pixar people was fun. I loved going up to their studio because it was such a great place to hang out. It’s a creative, fun atmosphere with people skateboarding around and playing ping-pong and foosball.
“My character is kind of obsessed with winning,” adds Wilson. “He isn’t a cheat or anything like that, but he doesn’t really care about much else beyond winning and the glory that comes with that. I think that’s how he measures himself. Over the course of the movie, he gets stuck in this small town and begins to appreciate some of the values and things this small town has to offer. He also falls in love with this really hot car named Sally. He tries his usual game on her and it doesn’t work, so he has to come up with a new approach.”
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