Cars 2 is an action-packed, high-speed-thriller animated film done in 2011 by Pixar Animation Studios and is the sequel to their 2006 film, Cars. In this film, Lightning McQueen races internationally in a race called “The World Grand Prix”, a series of three races where the racing champions from around the world compete. This race was created by Miles Axlerod, a SUV that recently created an alternative fuel, Allinol, to show the globe what this alternative fuel can do. However, this race is actually a cover-up for what is actually occurring; the world’s worst engineered cars (i.e. Pacers, Gremlins, Trunkovs, Hugos, etc.), known as lemons, are exploiting Allinol by making it look bad. This is done by blowing up the racers using an electromagnetic pulsating gun that’s made to look like an official “World Grand Prix” video camera to ignite the Allinol fuel. Through a series of mistaken-identities and international espionage, it is found out that the reason that the lemons are doing this is because they have control of the largest oil reserve, which they would like to exploit. The physical world of Cars 2 is quite like our world; there are many similarities. However, being that our “actors” of this film are vehicles instead of people, the cars appear lighter than they actually are in order to give them more character. In this paper, I will be discussing the grounding and realism of the world through direction, rendering, and special effects, and the contrasting irregularities that make parts of the film unrealistic.
For this film, Pixar wanted a
grounding and realism of the world. They also wanted Cars 2 to be nothing that
you expected. In order to fulfill this, the film opened with Finn McMissile, an
old British spy car, out on the middle of the ocean on a small fishing boat. In
this scene, the ocean’s swells are so large, so large in fact that the fishing
boat is rocking back and forth, causing mist and overspray. The direction of
this scene puts you in the middle of the action, making you feel like you are
in the boat with Finn McMissile; this along with the realistic rendering of the
water enhances the realism and believability of the world.
The grounding and realism of the
world continues when the race goes to London. This scene was quite challenging
for the art department to complete because it was the film’s climax with many
action sequences and London is over twenty square miles long; this sequence “includes
a clockwork death trap, a gun battle by the Thames, chases through the city’s
streets, and a final confrontation at Buckingham Palace” (Queen, 130). Because
of all of this action that is occurring, the art department had to create
twenty square miles of London, with multiple architectural styles, that could
be seen from multiple eye-levels because parts of the sequence is filmed in the
air. Production designer Harley Jessup states, “We’re not only racing through
the city, but we’re flying above it. When the chase breaks out of the race
course, the whole city of London becomes the stage for this epic battle”
(Queen, 130). This scene opens with Mater, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell
(another British spy car) tied up in the gears of Big Bentley, a stylized
version of Big Ben constructed with car parts. Mater easily escapes and later
finds out that his air filter was replaced with a bomb. Finn McMissile and
Holley Shiftwell later escape and try to hunt down the bad guy. This chase goes
from the ground, into the race, then into the sky. The chase at the ends at the
front of Buckingham Palace, where they find the main villain that’s behind this
whole evil scheme and the bomb that’s planted on Mater is deactivated. With
that in mind, there’s a bunch of scenery that needs to be created. Plus, London
has multiple architectural styles, not just one, which add to the difficulty.
Harley Jessup states, “London was the toughest for us to create. We had to
design miles of complex city streets showing a huge variety of architectural
styles. There are antique Georgian, Victorian, Queen Anne, and Edwardian style
buildings that all have been given a Cars-world twist” (Queen, 130).
Porto Corsa is the only exception to
this grounding and realism of the physical world; it is not an actual place in
the world. Porto Corsa is a combination of Monte Carlo and the Italian Riviera.
Harley Jessup states, “We made up our own Italian town, attempting to merge the
classic look of the Monaco Grand Prix with the charm of Portofino. We used an
idealized Riviera palette of turquoise water, blue skies, lush green
vegetation, terra cotta rooftops, and brightly painted stucco buildings to
color Porto Corsa” (Queen, 94). Because the artists used familiar things from
multiple Italian cities and tied it all together, it convinces the viewer that
it’s an actual place, even though it’s actually fictitious one.
Much of this grounding and realism
of the physical world can be seen between the interactions of the characters,
more specifically in the high-speed chase scenes. At the beginning of the film,
after Finn McMissile makes it onto the oil platform, was spotted by
the lemons. Being that he has seen too much, the lemons want him dead; this
leads to a high-speed chase scene where McMissile is chased by the lemons and
McMissile dives off the highest point of the oil platform. The progression of this
chase is physically correct; the centrifugal force is physically and visually
correct. For example, during a part of this chase Finn McMissile is being
chased by a Gremlin. Finn McMissile makes a sharp turn screen right and the
Gremlin follows. Centrifugal force pulls the center of gravity towards the
outside of the curve and, combined with the weight, it tilts the car. Being
that they were turning this way, the centrifugal force is on the driver’s side
of the car, while the centripetal action is on the passenger’s side of the
vehicle, causing the driver’s side of the car to pull downward. The only thing
that doesn’t make sense is the fact that the Gremlin that is chasing Finn
McMissile falls off of the oil rig and smashes into pieces, while Finn
McMissile falls from a the highest point of the oil rig and is unscathed. This is done because
the Gremlin is a lemon, and because of this, he is poorly built compared to
Finn McMissile. However,
the Gremlin should not have shattered into pieces on impact of hitting the
ocean’s surface. Whatever the case, Finn McMissile should have received some
sort of injury after diving into the water, rather than just falling, being
that he fell from a much higher height than the Gremlin.
Another scene in the film that
correctly demonstrates centrifugal force is the scene where Finn McMissile is
on a high speed chase to get to the electromagnetic pulsating gun. In this
scene, Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell are trying to figure out what is
actually going on. Holley Shiftwell then picks up the electromagnetic signal
from the gun on her computer. Finn McMissile then races on the streets, jumps
off of rooftops, and slides into alleyways to get to the lemons with the
electromagnetic pulsating gun. The centrifugal force and the centripetal action
are on the correct sides of the vehicle; in most of these chase sequences in
this scene, McMissile is turning screen right, meaning that the centrifugal
force is on the driver’s side, while the centripetal action is on the passenger’s
side, causing the driver’s side of the car to pull downward. The only thing
that doesn’t feel physically correct with this scene is the fact that McMissile
appears to be driving too fast to make the sharp turns that he is making, so
fast, that I feel that he would crash into the wall. For example, near the end
of the chase, Finn McMissile makes a right turn, sliding into an alleyway. At
the speed that he is going, I feel that Finn McMissile would not be able to
brake fast enough and would hit the wall instead. Another thing that isn’t
physically correct is how Finn McMissile can jump off of rooftops with very
little momentum. I realize that Pixar is animating inanimate objects for this
film, but cars do not jump. And,
if a car does jump, it needs to gain speed and momentum in order to get across
to the other side.
Pixar loves telling great stories and Cars
2 is one of these stories. Through the travelling of different physical
environments, the story is interesting all while keeping the attention of the
audience. While Pixar created realistic scenery, they also added their own spin
to the world. If you look real close, you can see how the artists enhanced the
scenery with automobile related memorabilia; if you look closely in the
backgrounds of each environment you can see car parts etched into the facades
of buildings and vehicles and parts of them carved into the mountains. Though
there are a few things that aren’t physically correct that break the grounding
and realism of the film, the physics are broken to create a sense of thrill and
suspense in an action-packed film.
Works Cited
Queen,
Ben, and Karen Paik. The art of Cars 2. San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books,
2011. Print.
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