Cars (2006) - 13 questions

Question: I saw a great similarity with various parts of the movie Herbie: Fully Loaded. There was an exploitation of ideas between the two films?

Answer: There's no particular reason to suggest that there was any plagiarism or idea-sharing going on. Both films simply take the idea of an underdog coming to the fore in a particular field, doing well and learning some truths about themselves in the process. Very much an archetypal story and one that many, many films share. While a few factors can be considered similar, none of them are unique to these two films and thus the suggestion that ideas were either shared or "stolen" cannot be realistically accepted.

Question: When Chick's pit crew insults Guido, he yells back something in Italian. Can someone translate to English?

Answer: Guido says something like "Who do you think you're talking to? Who are you talking to?"

Question: What is the name of the song during the teaser trailer, during the race?

Answer: The song I think you're referring to is Westbound Sign by Green Day.

Question: The trivia for Toy Story 2 said that Andrew Stanton has a voice in every computer animated film. Who does he voice in this movie?

Answer: He voices Fred, the incredibly rusty car that appears at both races, in both cases being very happy that somebody famous knows his name (having in fact read it from his licence plate).

Question: Many people have observed this has virtually the same plot as the 1991 film Doc Hollywood. Did Warner Bros. ever have any comment on that?

Answer: Nope, nothing official was ever said. There are very few truly original film storylines these days; a close examination of most films would allow one to swiftly note plot similarities to any one of a number of preceding movies. Both Cars and Doc Hollywood fit neatly in a very standard storyline of an outsider coming into an unfamiliar cultural group, which they learn to appreciate and benefit from, while their presence likewise benefits the group they encounter. While the two are unusually similar, no comment on the subject was ever made.

Question: After the opening race, Lightening has to make the obligatory appearance in the Rusteeze tent. When the spotlight comes up on him, there is about 5sec of silence and then you hear one of the cars yell something out that sounds like "free bird". What is he actually saying?

Answer: "Freebird" is exactly what he is saying. "Freebird" is the name of a song by the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, that was recorded on their first album in the early '70s. By the mid-'70s that song title took on a life of its own, and since then people began shouting "Freebird" at not only the Skynyrd concerts, but also at other concerts, sporting events and any other live performances.

Question: Does anybody know if the "Our Town" song was written just for this movie, or was it a pre-existing song? Who performs it as well? Thanks.

Answer: The original song 'Our Town' was created for Cars by Randy Newman and sung by James Taylor. It was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for the best Original Song.

Question: In the trivia section it says, one of the cars leaving during the "Our Town" song is the one and only Christine. Who is Christine? I don't remember anyone mentioning any Christine in the movie.

Answer: Christine was a 1957 Plymouth Fury from the movie "Christine" based on the book with the same name by Steven King.

Question: On IMDb, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are listed in the credits, having voiced Woody Car and Buzz Lightyear Car. I don't remember them, where in the film did they appear?

Answer: During the closing credits they do "car" versions of other Pixar films. This includes "Toy Car Story" (which is where the Hanks and Allen credits come in), "Monster Trucks, Inc." (Billy Crystal and John Goodman), and "A VW Bug's Life" (Dave Foley). The joke here is that Mack (John Ratzenburger) is watching the movies and commenting about the voice talent of certain characters and that it is the same person doing all the voices. John has provided voices for all Pixar Features to date (including the upcoming Ratatouille).

Question: During the credits, we see Mater finds his hood, saying he hadn't seen it for 20 years, and when he puts it on, he talks like a human would if they pinched their nose shut. Why is this? All other cars have hoods and talk fine with them. Certainly Mater's "nose" wouldn't just reject the hood from being separated for that long. Could someone explain this because it makes no sense to me.

Answer: The movie is implying that the "pinched nose" voice is his real voice, and that the voice we hear throughout the film is what he sounds like without a hood. It's more of an inside joke than anything, since Larry the Cable Guy voiced Mater for the film. To get to hear him speak in a normal tone of voice of sorts is what makes this so funny, since his southern drawl is largely exaggerated for his stand-up performances, and he is capable of talking without it, as heard in the movie.

Question: Does anyone know where I can get a hi-res pic of Filmore's bumper? I want to see if I can read all the funny in-joke bumper stickers and the pic I have can't zoom in that far without going to pixel boxes. Thanks.

Answer: This is a list of the Bumper stickers: "Recycle Your Oil", Three "Flo's V-8 Café" stickers, "Free Mother Road", "Groovy and Love", "Portland Concrete on My Mind", "Please Recycle", "No Interstate", "Go Natural, Drink Organic Fuels", "Certified Organic Oil", "Home Sweet Road", "I'm an Eco-Bus", Six "Peace"signs, "Stop the Superslab", "Your Mother Road Loves You", A flower, A heart with 66 in it, Oval RS, "Ornament Valley", "Open Road U.", A rainbow, "Peace on the Open Road", A rainbow butterfly, Recycling emblem, A Route 66 shield, "Turn On to Recycling", "Life Begins at the Offramp", "My Inner Car is Electric", A sticker that has a 66 shield on it with a tire track over that says "Tread on Me", "Recycling: It's a Gas", "Save Mother Road", "Flower Power", "I (heart) Recycled Oil", "Drink Organic Oil", "Free Mother Road", "Question Interstate", Recycling symbol with "Take a Drive on the Wild Side", "100% Organic Fool", "Fillmore Organic Fuels", Recycling emblem, "Pardon My Backfire, I Eat Veggie Fuels", "Save 2-D Animation", "One Way"(recycling symbol), "Interstate"inside a stop sign, "I Brake for Jackalopes", "Support Organic Refiners", "I (heart) 2 Recycle", "Recycle Your Oil"with a yin-yang symbol, An oil derrick with a slash through it, "It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Road", "100% Organic", A bigger 66 shield and a heart, "Got Solar?", "Oil"with a recycling symbol in the "O", "Born to Recycle", "I (heart) Recycled Oil", "Certified Organic Oil", "Go Natural – Drink Organic Fuels", A sun with a recycling symbol in the center, A flower, "Drink Organic Oil"with flower in it, "100 Percent Organic Oil", "Interstate"with a slash through it, 66 shield with a rainbow, 51237 is the license plate, which is George Carlin's date of birth.

Question: In the end of the movie, when the Ferrari comes into Luigi's tire shop, he says something in what I assume to be Italian to the little forklift after Luigi faints. Does anyone know what it was the Ferrari said?

Answer: He says: "Spero che il tuo amico si riprenda, mi dicono che siete fantastici" which more or less translates to: "I hope your friend will feel better soon, I'm told you are fantastic"

Question: Disney and Pixar both said that "The Incredibles" would be their last film together. Why have they decided to team up again for this film and others?

Answer: The situation was that, at the time, the head of Disney was not offering Pixar the sort of deal that enticed them to keep going with their association with Disney. As such, Pixar announced their intention to depart once their contract with Disney was fulfilled. In the interim, Disney's chief executive was ousted and a new one appointed who saw, quite correctly, that their association with Pixar was a highly valuable one and began to take steps to woo them back. Eventually, Disney actually chose to buy Pixar, so all future Pixar films will be released under the Disney banner.