Owen Wilson - A Tribute

Cast: Owen Wilson as the voice of  Lightning McQueen and Paul Newman as the voice of  Doc Hudson.
Directors: John Lasseter and Joe Ranft .
Screenwriters: John Lasseter and Joe Ranft.
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On his way from a race for the Piston Cup, Lightning McQeen finds himself trapped in an impound in the small town of Radiator Springs after having fallen off his truck.

There the judge sentence McQueen to community service and repair the damage to the road. Witch he does after becoming friends with the cars in Radiator Springs and then he is able to  return to the tracks. Where he takes the first price.

Lightning McQeen returns back to Radiator Springs a hero and brings with him all the media and puts the small town of Radiator Springs back on the map.

Wiew The Trailer Here:

Trivia from the internet movie database:

• “Cars” has a lot of repeated character names from the Isaac Asimov short story “Sally” where robotic sentient cars are the main subject.
• Additionally, when seen from “above”, the hills around Radiator Springs resemble the hoods and fenders (complete with ornaments) of classic cars.
• After the credits there is a short sequence showing the tourists Van and Mini still lost. A small blue car/fly is flying beside them. It runs into the camera and leaves a blue “nose-print” on the lens.
• Also during the drive-in cinema epilogue, Mack, voiced by John Ratzenberger, quips “Wait a minute here! They’re just using the same actor over and over. What kind of a cut-rate production is this?” The actor he’s referring to is, of course, himself.
• Among the cities closed for race day is the city of Emeryville, California, the home of Pixar.
• At the beginning, after the first race, when Mack and McQueen travel to California, and they pass some power poles you hear and see some birds (just for the blink of an eye) which are from Pixar’s fun short For the Birds (2000).
• Cars seen at the drive-in movie theater during the closing credits: left to right: front row–Mater, Sally, Lightning, Sarge, Fillmore; second row–one of the the Ferraris, Doc, Sheriff, Flo, Ramone, Guido, Luigi, and Lizzie; rows further back–Mack, Junior, Red, Mr. and Mrs. The King, and the Twins. And if you look closely, in the very back behind the fence, you see Frank and the tractors; note that more tractors appear each time they switch to an audience shot.
• Chick Hick’s car number is 86. 86 is a slang for ‘thrown out’. He got thrown out of the team at the end of the film. 86 is also a reference to Luxo Jr. (1986), the first short film produced under the Pixar name
• Chick Hicks’s sponsor is Hostile Takeover Bank (htB).
• Designs of the cars: - Ramone is a 1959 Chevrolet Impala or Bel Air two door hardtop, a very popular car with the low riders. - Luigi is a 1959 Fiat 500. - Guido is an ISO Isetta, a “bubble car” originally designed and built in Italy by ISO; the design was later licensed to BMW and to manufacturers in France and Brazil. - Mater is a 1951 International Harvester L-170. - Sally is a 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera (Type 996).
• Dinoco, the big sponsor Lightning McQueen is pursuing, is also the name of the gas station in Toy Story (1995) where Buzz Lightyear and Woody are stranded.
• During the epilogue, the films shown at the drive-in cinema are amusing “car-world” parodies of earlier Pixar productions: - Toy Car Story (Toy Story (1995)). - Monster Trucks, Inc. (Monsters, Inc. (2001)). - A (VW) Bug’s Life (A Bug’s Life (1998)).
• Even with a farm of computers that ran four times faster than the ones on The Incredibles (2004) each frame of Cars (2006) took an average of 17 processor hours to render.
• Ach In Banking list 36.0pt”>Every third blink of the stoplight in Radiator Springs really is slower by 1/2 second, confirming Fillmore’s observation.
• Fillmore is a late-1960s Volkswagen Type 2, otherwise known as the Transporter, or “Microbus.” It was a very popular vehicle among hippies in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and even made its way into popular culture. It is heavily referenced in the Arlo Guthrie song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.”
• Fillmore is named after the famous Fillmore Auditorium or Fillmore West, a highly popular music venue from the 1960s and 1970s. It was the focal point of music and arts for the counterculture, or “hippie” movement.
• Fillmore, the VW Microbus voiced by George Carlin, has license plate ‘51237′. This is Carlin’s birth date; May 12, 1937. It’s entirely coincidental, but 51237 is also the ZIP code for George, Iowa.
• Flo isn’t based on any single car but shares elements of the 1951 Buick LeSabre, the 1951 Buick XP-300, and the 1957 Chrysler Dart - all actual show cars.
• Guido is an Italian name. But it is also the Italian for “I drive”.
• If you look at any sky scenes, all the jet contrails are tire marks.
• If you look closely at one of the racing cars, it’s white, has the Apple logo, and the number is 84. 1984 was the year Apple released the Macintosh, the computer that revolutionized Apple as a company. Pixar was previously owned by Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple.
• In the Danish edition “The King” is renamed “Tom Kilerem” and is voiced by 7-time Le Mans champion Tom Kristensen.
• In the very first shot of The Hustler (1961), Fast Eddie Felson and his partner Charlie Burns arrive at a small bar/pool hall to pull their first “hustle” of the film - the car in which they arrive is a Hudson, exactly like the one Paul Newman voices in “Cars”.
• Instead of making the cars’ headlights the eyes, as is done on most cartoons, the Pixar artists decided to put the eyes up on the windshield, because that made the characters more expressive. This idea was largely influenced by the Disney cartoon Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952), one of director John Lasseter’s favorite cartoons.
• Joe Ranft’s final film.
• John Lasseter came out with the premise of the story after his soul-searching trip in 2000 along Route 66.
• Lightning McQueen’s original number was to be 57, director John Lasseter’s birth year. It was later changed to 95 to represent the year that Toy Story (1995) was released. The car in the final film who has the number 57 (who wins the race in the first teaser) vaguely resembles McQueen, and is probably an earlier production design for that character.
• Mater’s license plate reads “A113″, yet another reference to the animation room at California Institute of the Arts, where many Pixar animators studied. Also, the lights on the train that almost hit Lightning say “A113″ (See trivia for Toy Story (1995))
• Mia and Tia are modeled after the first-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata.
• Michael Schumacher is one of the speakers in the German version, as well as Giancarlo Fisichella in the Italian and Fernando Alonso in the Spanish version.
• Near the end of the film the Sheriff arrests four cars for speeding. These are the same four cars that tried to lull Mack to sleep near the start of the movie. Mack’s almost running off the road because of this resulted in Lightning McQueen being lost.
• On the DVD, in the Bonus Features section, the background graphics are postcards from route 66. The icon to return to the main menu uses the Canada Post logo.
• One of the bumper stickers on Fillmore reads ‘Save 2D Animation.’ Another reads, “I brake for Jackalopes”, a reference to Pixar’s short, Boundin’ (2003) (paired with the film The Incredibles (2004)), which features the legendary animal.
• Radiator Spring’s surrounding rock formations, shaped as recognizable hood ornaments from over the years, are labeled “Ornament Valley” on the road map. This is a reference to “Monument Valley”, an expanse of grand, natural rock formations spanning Arizona and Utah, though not actually near Route 66.
• Ramone’s comment about “Von Dutch style” pin-striping to Minnie and Van is a reference to Kenny Howard, the man who revived the art of pin-striping on motorcycles and vehicles in the 50s under the name Von Dutch.
• Sally the Porsche’s profession as an attorney is a reference to Portia, a nickname for female lawyers, named after the character in Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”.
• Scenes from the movie are used in a 2008 road safety ad on US television. Oddly, the last scene in the ad has been flipped, so that the word “Lightyear” on The King’s tires appears back-to-front. This was done because the scene takes place behind a curtain bearing the Piston Cup logo seen from behind, i.e. reversed. Viewers seeing the scene out of context would have been more likely to notice the reversed Piston Cup on the curtain than the reversed Lightyear on the tires.
• Since the movie has lines in Italian, the Italian release (where foreign movies are mostly dubbed) was handled with a twist. Luigi was dubbed with a slight Modena accent (the home town of Ferrari) and Guido was dubbed with a thick Modenese dialect. The Ferrari in the end of the movie has been dubbed by Michael Schumacher as in the original version (but of course in Italian, with some German accent). A nice coincidence: Marco Della Noce, who dubs Luigi, is an Italian comedian whose trademark act (several years before the release of “Cars”) was indeed a pretend of the head mechanic of Ferrari; actually in the dubbing he managed to slip some half lines from his routine.
• The car used for Mario Andretti’s cameo is the Holman-Moody Ford Fairlane Andretti drove to victory in the 1967 Daytona 500 - a race in which Richard Petty was one of the favorites to win. Petty dropped out of the race due to a blown engine.
• The character “Fillmore” was at one time to be named “Waldmire” after Bob Waldmire, a self-proclaimed hippie artist known to Rt. 66 fans for his detailed pen-and-ink maps and postcards of the route. Though Waldmire’s family owns the Cozy Dog Drive-In in Springfield, IL, Bob, now a vegan, preferred not have his name put on a character that would become a Happy Meal toy.
• The character “Mack”, Lightning McQueen’s transport driver, is based on a Mack Superliner semi-truck.
• The character Lightning McQueen is a reference to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar animator who died in 2002.
• The character of Fillmore, voiced by George Carlin, is a version of Al Sleet, the hippie-dippy weatherman, a popular skit that Carlin performed in the 60’s and 70’s.
• The character of Mack was originally going to be a Peterbuilt, but was changed because John Ratzenberger’s father drove a Mack in Chicago.
• The city Mack is seen driving through after leaving the track seems to be Nashville, TN, considering most of the roads on the signs pass through Nashville. It’s also probable Mack would drive through Nashville on Interstate 40 after leaving Bristol (which MSS is based on.)
• The code title for this film, used during production, was “Surgery”.
• The Cozy Cone Motel’s design is based on the two Wigwam Motels along Rt. 66; in Holbrook Arizona and Rialto, California. These were once two out of seven motels, with individual cabins shaped like tepees. Another motel from the chain survives in Cave City, KY. The name “Cozy Cone” was inspired by the Cozy Dog Drive-In of Springfield, IL, which lays claim to being birthplace of the corn dog.
• The design of “Los Angeles International Speedway” is based on 3 venues located in southern California. The outer facade is similar to the LA Memorial Coliseum, the speedway’s seating bowl and interior architecture is much like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and the track layout is reminiscent of California Speedway in Fontana.
• The Doc Hudson character is based on real-life NASCAR pioneer Herb Thomas, who drove Hudson Hornets to Grand National championships in 1951 and 1953. He was beaten out for the title in 1954 by Lee Petty, father of Richard “The King” Petty. Crashes in 1955 and 1956 effectively ended Thomas’s career.
• The DOT regulations that Mack begins to quote to Lightning McQueen require drivers of property-carrying commercial motor vehicles to stop driving after reaching the end of their 14th consecutive hour after first coming on duty. The 14-hour limit was specifically designed to reduce fatigue-related accidents on the nation’s highways.
• The fictional town of Radiator Springs was inspired by several real life locations along historic Route 66. In 2001, a creative team from Pixar, including directors John Lasseter and Joe Ranft, toured parts of Route 66 in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Their guide along the way was author and Route 66 historian Michael Wallis. Wallis went on to provide the voice of the Sheriff car in the film.
• The fictional track Motorspeedway of the South (MSS) is based on Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR holds races for its premier series.
• The film’s animators drew up over 43,000 sketches for designs of the cars.
• The hill at Radiator Springs (with the white letters RS for Radiator Springs) resembles the top of a radiator with a cap.
• The Italian name for “tire” is “gomma” (rubber), and there are actually a widespread number of tire shops in Italy called “Casa della gomma” (House of the tire).
• The King is a 1970 Plymouth Superbird, one of Richard Petty’s most famous rides. The Superbird was created to get him back into a Plymouth for the 1970 racing season and Petty himself provides the voice. The King’s paint scheme is exactly as King Richard’s was in the 1970 NASCAR season.
• The King’s wife is voiced by Lynda Petty, who is Richard Petty’s real-life wife. Mrs. “The King” is a 1974 Chrysler Town and Country station wagon, modeled after the car in which the Pettys drove themselves and their children to the races during the 1970s.
• The make of the white wall tires Lightning McQueen gets from Guido and Luigi is “Fettuccini Alfredo.”
• The Michael Schumacher Ferrari, voiced by Michael Schumacher, speaks Italian to Guido, saying, “Spero che il tuo amico si riprenda. Mi dicono che siete fantastici.” This translates to “I hope your friend recovers. I was told that you are fantastic.”
• The model for Ramone’s shop is an actual old time Conoca Service Station in Shamrock, Texas. Shamrock is on the old Route 66.
• The morning show crew from www.RadioAlice.com (a local favorite radio station) lend their voices to a number of ancillary characters in the film (like Kori Turbowitz, Not Chuck, Traffic Copter and Reporter #9).
• The mountain range behind Radiator Springs resembles the Cadillac Ranch. This is an installation of a row of half-buried, nose-down Cadillacs, near Amarillo, TX. The map in “Cars” refers to the Cadillac Range.
• The music that opens the teaser trailer of this movie is the main theme to A Bug’s Life (1998).
• The neon lights on Flo’s V8 Cafe in the movie flash in the proper firing order for a Ford flathead V8.
• The number on the train that Lightning out runs is A113, a reference to California Institute of the Arts, where many Pixar animators studied.
• The original idea was about an electric car living in a gas-guzzling world.
• The other song in the teaser trailer is Green Day’s “Westbound Sign” from their 1995 album “Insomniac”.
• The piston cup is an obvious reference to the famous NASCAR race, The Winston Cup.
• The red-and-white metal-flake paint job that Ramon does for McQueen duplicates that of the Corvette used in “Route 66″ (1960).
• The rotating sign on Flo’s V8 Cafe briefly forms a “hidden Mickey” as the sign rotates.
• The Rust-eze sponsors each send Lightning off with a warning: “Don’t drive like my brother!” This is the sign-off phrase for the popular NPR radio show “Car Talk”, hosted by Tom Magliozzi and Ray Magliozzi, who also voice the sponsors.
• The tires of Lightning McQueen are Buzzard models manufactured by Lightyear, a reference both to the real Goodyear “Eagle” tires used in NASCAR and character Buzz Lightyear from John Lasseter’s Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999).
• The two tourist cars mention a trip to Shakopee to go to Crazy Days. Shakopee is a real city in Minnesota famous for the amusement park Valley Fair, and the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Shakopee does not have a Crazy Days as stated in the film however.
• The voice of Lightning McQueen’s agent Harv, is provided by Jeremy Piven who also plays Vincent Chase’s agent in the TV-series “Entourage” (2004). The UK release featured the outspoken “Top Gear” (1978) host Jeremy Clarkson as the voice of Harv.
• This movie was originally titled “Route 66″. The name was changed to “Cars” so as not to imply a connection with the TV show “Route 66″ (1960).
• This was the last feature film for Paul Newman before his death of lung cancer in 2008. It also turned out to be the highest-grossing movie of his career.
• Though not credited as such, Michael Keaton is the voice of the security guard who yells “Hey, no press!” during the instant replay sequence after the first race.
• Wait until the end of the credits to see whatever happened to the two tourists that drove into Radiator Springs looking for the highway.
• When Chick’s pit crew taunts Luigi at the big race, Luigi retorts in Italian: “Con chi credi di parlare? Ma, con chi stai parlando?” This roughly translates to English as: “Who do you think you’re talking to? Who are you talking to?” Coincidently, these lines resemble the infamous “You talkin’ to me?” quote from Robert De Niro’s character in Taxi Driver (1976).
• When Lighting McQueen finally gets pulled over by the sheriff after destroying the road, the Sheriff says, “You’re in a heap o’ trouble, boy.” This is a direct reference to Dodge commercials featuring ‘Joe Higgins’ as the sheriff which aired in the early 70’s.
• When Mater and Lightning McQueen tip over the cow tractors, as the tractors are upended, they give off an electronic “Moo!” sound. The electronic “Moo!” is taken from Milky the Marvelous Milking Cow, a Kenner toy introduced in 1978. Milky the Marvelous Milking Cow would raise her head and give off an electronic “Moo!” sound when you moved her tail like a pump handle.
• When Red sprays water on Lightning McQueen, he’s blowing off bits of prickly pear cactus still stuck on McQueen from when he drove into the cactus patch for the second time. When Red sprays even more on McQueen’s hood & windshield, after Sally says “You missed a spot”, it’s to get off one more bit of prickly pear still stuck to McQueen.
• When Sarge and Fillmore are talking during their introduction, Fillmore waxes about the blinking pattern of a street light. Sarge notes “The sixties weren’t good to you.” This is the exact same line that George Carlin (who voices Fillmore) gave to Bette Midler in the movie Outrageous Fortune (1987).
• When the Sheriff backfires and Lightning thinks he’s being shot at, he says “Serpentine, serpentine.” This is a reference to a scene from The In-Laws (1979) where Vincent (Peter Falk) instructs Sheldon (Alan Arkin) to run serpentine style to avoid being hit by bullets.
• WILHELM SCREAM: Used by one of the cars in Lightning’s dream sequence.