Cars 3 Commentary fun facts:
-The majority of the film takes place in the last two weeks of February.
-Bonnie Hunt improvised âStinkyâÂ
-Lightning IGNORES what the arrival of next gens imply until Cal retires
-When Chickâs trophy rises from the floor in his show, the mechanism operates incorrectly to show how ânothing ever goes right near Chickâ
-Materâs sneeze gag was improvised by an animator
-In LA when Lightning is the last analog racer left, none of the next-gens pay him any physical mind and almost run into him as they go about their business in the paddock. He has to wait to them to pass.
-The character designers really wanted Jackson Storm to be so low to the ground you could only âslip a credit card beneath himâ but animating car characters does not allow this.
-EACH shot of the Los Angeles race is progressively darker to represent the shroud of doom that has fallen over Lightingâs racing career. The sun has set on his days.
-The sound design for Lightningâs wreck was purposely designed to send an eerie shock through your spine.
-The story picks up 4 months later because McQueen was in recovery for that whole time.
-McQueenâs coat of primer can be viewed as two things:Â âpajamasâ, or a cast
-Tire track clouds appear in the sky during âKingâs Highwayâ
-The Rusteze Racing Center is in North Carolina (near Charlotte), Thunder Hollow is in Georgia, and the town of Thomasville is also in North Carolina.
-McQueenâs remark of how he ânever thought he couldnâtâ race is based exactly off of what John Lasseter replied when asked âhow did you know you could make Toy Story?â
-Cristela Alonzoâs mother did actually tell her âdream small or not at all.â
-Owen Wilson DID NOT want to sing. But when he did, he wound up dancing a little (much like McQueen) as he recorded the lines. (apparently it was an âair-lassoâ type thing)
-Lightning DOES get faster from Smokeyâs training! But⊠Cruz gets faster too.
-Lightning knows his career is over when Cruz beats him the final time at Thomasville
-At the start of the Florida 500, Lightning has no choice to race, but according to the director, âhe would probably rather go home and throw up.â
-Lightning doesnât want âwhat happened to Doc to happen to himâ, but that is exactly what happens to him, and itâs the best thing for him.
-Lightning is described as âstunningâ at least once in the commentary, and is complimented many other times. Thankfully, the word âcurvaceousâ was not used this time! (It is used in the Cars 3 artbook though. Multiple times.)
-The filmmakers have no concrete explanation for how anyone was able to call Cruzâs Hamilton assistant at the end of the film ://
-They also have no explanation for why the 80âČs payphone near Floâs has a video screen
-Lightning is so focused on helping Cruz in the race that he literally does not notice how he must look on the crew chief stand, wearing a headset.
-Lightning has supposedly only paused his racing career to train Cruz
-There was supposedly more graphic design work in Cars 3 than Cars 1
-Jackson Stormâs engine sound was designed from scratch (like the rest of him) by Skywalker Sound
-The demolition derby racers were based partially off of hockey players
-Miss Fritterâs old school district is where her voice actor (Lea Delaria) went to school as a child.
-There are TWO Coco easter eggs in the film: the first on Gabirelâs treadmill screen, and the second is in the FIRST shot of miss Fritterâs bar, NOT the second shot. So look carefully!
-Randy Newman repeated sections of the Cars 1 score on purposeÂ
-Ray Magliozzi did NOT do his late brother Tomâs lines (as rumored earlier this year), Pixar instead used audio of Tom from their radio show âCar Talkâ
-Humpy Wheeler (voice of Tex Dinoco) insisted so much to Pixar that there must be a water truck in the derby scene that he actually drew them a picture of a water truck.
-Retired NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon (much like McQueen) cannot race on a simulator.
-The Mud in the derby scene took the effects department the entire length of film production time to complete.
-The sky scenes outside Sterlingâs office are a couple different matte paintings.
-Lightning was more happy watching Cruz win than he would have been if he had won himself. (And this is the same way Doc felt about Lightning back in the day.)
-Lightningâs relationship with Doc is described by the director as âmentor & menteeâ but also as âfather and son.â Later, Lightingâs relationship with Cruz is described the same way (but with diff. words lol).
-As Cruz flips though the air, sparks can still be seen raining off her damaged flank, and the producers named it the most beautiful shot in the entire film.
-Jackson Storm is indeed terrified of Cruz Ramirez. He keeps track of her field position the entire race regardless of his crew chiefâs warnings.
(Thereâs not much else in the commentary that we donât know from earlier articles and interviews tbh but there were some new things.)
