It's been more than a decade since hot-shot rookie racer Lightning McQueen burst on to
the big screen in the first Cars movie.
Now, he's back in Cars 3 with a cast of new characters, as well as old favourites, to
get his life back on track.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here and in this video I'm going to uncover some
amazing secrets and facts about the making of Pixar's latest animated movie.
I'm also running my special Cars 3 giveaway on this video as well.
For a chance to be one of two lucky people who'll win this very cool The Art of Cars
3 hardback book featuring Pixar's fabulous concept art, storyboards, and insights into
the movie, all you need to do is subscribe and leave a comment about the film, and also
answer the question I'll be asking later in the video.
Many years of work go into each of Pixar's animated features, and, naturally, over the
course of those years, screenplays and character designs go through numerous changes.
In fact, during the production of Cars 3, artists created over 80,000 storyboards for
the film, however, only around 10,000 of those made it into the final movie.
But thankfully, sometimes the animators on a new movie can make use of the good work
done by their colleagues on a previous Pixar film.
For example, when you look at the sky in Cars 3, 85% of those clouds you see actually came
from the cloud library for The Good Dinosaur.
Although, sadly, screen legend Paul Newman died back in 2008, his Cars character Doc
Hudson still plays a crucial part in the new movie.
And Doc is voiced once again by Newman himself thanks to many hours of conversations between
the renowned actor and Cars director John Lasseter that were caught on tape during voice
recording sessions for the first movie.
A lot of what Newman and Lasseter talked about between takes was racing-related, so when
the filmmakers trawled through those recordings looking for material that would work for Cars
3, they had a veritable treasure-trove of dialogue to choose from.
When the animators were working out how Lightning McQueen's face should move, they looked to
Owen Wilson, the voice actor behind the car, for inspiration.
Which means that the way Lightning moves his mouth in the movie is based on the shape of
Owen Wilson's mouth when he talks, including the way the actor curls and purses his lips.
The movie's design team wanted the look of next-gen racer Jackson Storm to be in complete
contrast to the look of Lightning McQueen.
So, they went for a sharp, angular design for Jackson which stands out compared to Lightning's
more rounded, flowing look.
In fact, Jackson Storm is actually how the Pixar team think a stock-car racer will look
20 years from now.
As for the "S" symbol on Jackson's side, that's based on the international hurricane symbol
which has been tweaked, stretched and colour matched to give him a sleek and bold look,
and to contrast with the lightning bolt on number 95.
For the appearance of school bus Miss Fritter, the filmmakers took a subtle style cue from
Orange Is The New Black star Lea DeLaria who voices the demolition derby champ.
Yes, just look at Miss Fritter's face and you'll notice that the animators increased
the thick rubber trim around her windshield in a hat tip to DeLaria's trademark thick-rimmed
glasses.
On top of that, Miss Fritter's smokestacks are another cool easter egg as their design
is based on the horns of the classic Disney character Maleficent, who featured in the
1959 animation Sleeping Beauty as well as the 2014 live-action movie starring Angelina
Jolie.
By the way, for more awesome easter eggs in Cars 3, tap the top right of the screen to
check out my video on that.
When it came to bringing to life the movie's crazy demolition derby, with all its mud and
dust flying everywhere, the filmmakers discovered how difficult it was to make computer-animated
mud that was the right consistency so it looked realistic but didn't totally cover up the
characters.
To give you an idea of just how big a task this was for the artists and technicians working
on Cars 3, there are actually 616 shots in the movie that feature mud, splatters, sand,
dust, and dirt.
One of the things the filmmakers did to ensure they got the right design and feel for the
scene overall was to visit a night race on a dirt track.
After that, it was a matter of trial and error to get the mud looking less like either cake
icing or liquid chocolate, which is how it looked in early tests, and more like the combination
of chunky oatmeal and soup that director Brian Fee wanted.
When Cars 3 production designer Jay Shuster joined Pixar back in the early 2000s, one
of the first things he had to do was design a pay phone that could function for a large
mechanical object that had no hands like a car.
Shuster's pay phone design ended up being cut from the first Cars movie, however, in
a little nod to the production designer, the pay phone has been re-introduced in Cars 3,
so look out for it during the scene at Flo's V8 Café.
A chance encounter with a Vintage Car rally during a meeting the Cars 3 team had away
from their Pixar offices gave the filmmakers the idea to pay tribute to the history of
racing and early NASCAR racers in their movie.
Among the characters in the film based on real-life NASCAR legends is Louise "Barnstormer"
Nash who is named after the 'first lady of racing', Louise Smith, who won 38 races in
the 1940s and 50s, and whose Nash Ambassador car lends its number, 94, to her Cars 3 counterpart.
NASCAR legend Wendell Scott, who was the first African-American to win in the Grand National
Series, also inspired the Cars 3 team to create a new character called River Scott, who races
under number 34, just like Wendell Scott did.
Also, Doc Hudson's old coach and friend, Smokey, who Lightning McQueen turns to for help in
his own career, is based on real-life racing legend, the innovative mechanic Henry "Smokey"
Yunick, who, just like his name-sake in the movie, ran an automobile repair shop that
he dubbed 'the Best Damn Garage in Town'.
Oh, and to emphasise the bond in the movie between Smokey and Doc Hudson, who was a Hudson
Hornet, the animators based Smokey's design on a Hudson pick-up truck.
Now, what was your favourite moment in Cars 3?
And who's your favourite character in the Cars movies?
For a chance to win this awesome The Art of Cars 3 hardback book, be sure to subscribe,
and leave a comment about the movie, and also answer the following question:
Which Disney character is Miss Fritter's design a reference to?
Make sure you turn on your notifications to get all my new Cars 3 and Pixar videos and
I'll be announcing the winners for the giveaway on an upcoming video.
Congratulations to these 2 winners of my recent Alien: Covenant giveaway!
If you're one of them, send me a message on YouTube or via my email which you can find
on my About page so I can get your details to send you the prize.
If you enjoyed this, I really appreciate you hitting that thumbs-up button and check out
some more of my Pixar and movie secrets videos right here.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers!