History Headscratchers / Cars

*** Well, towlines and pixar call her Linda Weathers (she is voiced by Richard Petty's wife after all). Sounds good enough to me.

** There is also the problem that they set up trial on the ''very next day to his crime''; even if McQueen hadn't joked off about his lawyer, there was no way the guy could have arrived on the same day, especially since the city is not even on the map anymore. And they basically tossed Mater, who is obviously not a lawyer, and the prosecutor, Sally, who was a high-class lawyer, blatantly sabotaging all, if any chance McQueen had of defending or even explaining himself, and he HAD a good defense("I was left stranded on the highway and took the wrong turn, this cop started ''shooting at me'' and I panicked, it was an accident!"; sure, the Sheriff DIDN'T actually shoot at McQueen, but it would be clear it was his engine making the noise and scaring McQueen, and he wouldn't look like some delinquent who destroyed the street ForTheEvulz). ''And'' the fact the jury is completely biased, since they're all long-time friends and sole inhabitants of the city, rather than random, unbiased people with no personal investment on the case. Hell, [[HangingJudge the judge came into the courtroom crying murder]]! It was, for all intents and purposes, a KangarooCourt, to showcase how [[FishOutOfTemporalWater backwater]] and [[CloudCuckooLander slightly off their rocks]] Radiator Springs really is. But what bothers me more is how Sally and Doc ignore a big opportunity to make the town popular again by forcing Lightning to make public monetary and marketing reparations instead of, you know, simply making him pave the road ForTheLulz. The rest of the town is too isolated to think of it, but Doc and Sally are more modernized, they should know better.

** There is also the problem that they set up trial on the very next day to his crime. Even if he didn't joke off about his lawyer, there was no way the guy could have arrived on the same day, especially since the city is not even on the map. And they basically tossed Mater, who is obviously not qualified, and the prosecutor, Sally, who was a high-class lawyer. ''And'' the fact the jury is completely biased, since they're all long-time friends and sole inhabitants of the city, rather than random, unbiased people with no personal investment on the case. It was, for all intents and purposes, a KangarooCourt, to showcase how backwater and slightly off their rocks Radiator Springs really is. But what bothers me more is how Sally and Doc ignore a big opportunity to make the town popular again by forcing Lightning to make public monetary and marketing reparations instead of, you know, simply making him pave the road ForTheLulz.

* Who the heck is the Mayor of this town? Seriously this is a question I've had ever since I saw the movie. Is it Doc? He's dead now so not anymore. Sally? Mater? Lizzie? She may be the wife of the town's founder but she's pretty forgetful. I mean she didn't even know Lightning left to race! So who runs Radiator Springs?

** In a world of concrete-ore, asphalt mountains and oil lakes, a comet wiped out the mighty and fierce Trolleysaurus Rex, the Bicyclesaur, and even the peaceful Carrigdons. In the resulting ecological upheaval, the humble little Windups began to slowly evolve into more and more complex creatures, adapting for almost any semi-flat terrain. Over time the Carus Mechanis emerges, an intelligent being capable of changing it's environment to suit it's needs. From them came hundreds of unique races of Cars, who lived together in towns and cites, carving out their own peculiar society.

[[folder: Cars 2]]
* It appears that the weaponry that the vehicles use are hidden behind panels. So does that mean that [[spoiler:Mater]], Shiftwell and [=McMissile=] have been surgically altered into fighting machines? Yeah, that brings up a bit of FridgeHorror for me.
** More like the spy genre and the cyberpunk genre are the same thing in their world.
* Spoilers for the sequel ahead. [[spoiler:First and foremost, what's up with the sudden outbreak of violence? In the very first scene, agent [=McMissile=] explodes several of the enemy Mooks and throws one of them into the night sea off the oil platform. For all we know, they likely were security guards (or, worst case scenario, {{Punch Clock Villain}}s). Am I supposed to be emotionally attached to him now? That felt like a pure WhatMeasureIsAMook moment. Mid-film, Mater, of all characters, fires two [[GatlingGood miniguns]] at a crowd of cars (unintentionally, and they were [[CardCarryingVillain villains]] anyway, mind, but still.) We do not see their fate, but I personally find it a bit of a stretch to believe no one got hurt. Speaking of which, there's a scene where we see remains of a previously seen character crushed into a cube of scrap metal (which would be the car-world equivalent of a mangled corpse), and - probably the most egregiously - there's a lengthy and ''very'' graphic torture scene ending with the torture victim's ''death''. (There was a scene of ElectricTorture in WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles, if memory serves, but come on. Bob was a super ''and'' a protagonist, he was obviously going to be okay.)]] No, I understand, kids kind of love guns and explosions, and there are genre conventions of a spy thriller, but... seriously? What happened to the Pixar that I knew?
** Death in a ''Cars'' film shouldn't be a surprise, really -- the first movie certainly suggested that Doc Hudson's big crash was a near-death experience.
*** To explain my (OP's) point... both Doc's and King's crashes were appropriately dramatic. All the spectators watching the race gasped and held their collective breath when King went off-track and flipped over his roof several times, and so did I when I watched this film the first time. That was realistic, dang it, as in, that was like it happens in real life - in fact, that was how it DID actually happen in real life to Richard Petty, The King's voice actor. For me, that scene by itself (and how it causes Lightning to feel compassion, and selflessly sacrifice his victory in the end) would already be enough to love the first film with all my heart, even if there were no other Heartwarming moments (and there were). That's why I felt a change to the genre-usual (for spy movies) happy-go-lucky explode-o-rama was an eager step down. [[SarcasmMode Not that the mooks deserved that kind of drama, of course]].
*** As for the torture scene... my 10-year old nephew said after we saw the film together that (in this kind of movies) "[[ColdBloodedTorture tortures shouldn't be for killing]], they are for the [[BigDamnHeroes rescue to arrive at the last minute]]." Professor Zundapp mentions (and we see it later, when the emitter is used on other racers) that the gadget has a perfectly-working non-lethal setting. Fine, you have chosen the [[SarcasmMode perfect]] moment to go realistic and become DarkerAndEdgier by showing how the villain wants to shut up a missing hero for real. Why on Earth after all this do we not even have a chance to see [[spoiler: either of the masterminds]] properly punished? I mean, I'm not cruel or sadistic to want to see anybody suffer, but, for comparison, the original film had the short but important scene with Chick Hicks where we get to know how his victory turned out to be hollow and bitter. Nothing of this kind here... the bad guys get (I suppose) arrested off-screen, that's all. That's not too satisfying of a grand finale.
* The main page says that Mater's aptitude for tall tales has key importance for the plot. Would anyone kindly point out where that skill was used? I didn't notice any case of it.
** I haven't seen the movie yet but I know Mater causes Lighting to lose a stage in Grand Prix so I figure Mater tries to explain all the weird EspionageTropes that are occurring to Lightning. Lightning, who's been told all of [[PixarShorts Mater's tall tales]] before, doesn't believe him.
*** Thank you. Yes, now that's probably the closest one it gets. Still, eh... [[spoiler: Mater does not try to bring Espionage Tropes to light, as he does not yet even know that his new girlfriend is a spy. Because of that, his story does not sound implausible at all (heard the voice of my date, got out of the pit box, saw a martial arts festival, got into a fight...) - and [=McQueen=] doesn't seem too disbelieving, knowing Mater's previous antics - more like angry and annoyed at having lost the race. Not much of a tall tale, I think. But it's close, yeah.]]
* There already is a question regarding homologation rules in the original, but in the [[SqualEscalation sequel]] . The World Grand Prix openly includes all types of racers, from open-wheel F1 (like [[http://cars2movie.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/FrancescoBernoulli-300x168.jpg Bernoulli]]) through sports (like [[http://cars2movie.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Shu-poster-300x168.jpg that]] Japanese guy) to rally cars (like [[http://cars2movie.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Raoul-poster-300x168.jpg that one]] from France). They even make an attempt at justifying it, saying that the race tracks have various parts, like strips of dirt-track where rally cars would be able to gain an advantage. Not being a racing aficionado, I would like to know how much sense it makes to those who are. Or is the WGP officially a charity event, making the rules more relaxed?
** Repeat TheMST3KMantra a few times...there is no possible way you could fairly race F1 cars, NASCAR cars, rally cars, drifters, etc. against each other, ESPECIALLY not with different track sections--on a grand prix track the F1 cars would demolish the others, a rally-style stage would shred the other cars' bodies, which can't take dirt racing and aren't meant to, drifters are entirely different concept. WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} cars seem to be able to adapt themselves to conditions, real cars cannot.
* In the scene where [=McMissile=] and Holly are outfitting Mater with spy gadgets, they offer to repair him, as his, ahem, less-than-perfect paint job interferes with their state-of-the-art holographic camouflage. Mater, of course, proudly refuses (can't let minor nuisances such as this alter the image of our protagonist, all right). But the reason he gives is that all these dents and scratches were received during his adventures with Lightning. Only... he totally was looking exactly like that when Lightning first met him in the original film. Fine, I could've let that one fly... but from that moment onwards, the holographic camo works like a charm on top of his rust without ever shorting out like it did the first time.
** Holly mentions that she'll 'work around the dents' at the end of that scene, so that's your latter question answered.
*** She does? Weird that I missed the line. Doesn't explain much (if the camo can work around the dents, why did it short out in the first place?), but a handwave is a handwave, ain't an expert on how futuristic holographic spy camouflage should or shouldn't work anyway.
**** I would assume it would've been easier to fix the dents than to have to edit the complex software to disguise it. Holly would've preferred to not have gone to effort of doing something she saw as unnecessary, and only agreed otherwise when she understood how important it was to Mater.
** And for the first one. He's a really rusty car that looks broken already, new dents wouldn't exactly stand out. What I'd like to know is how they got a computer like that to work away from the spy base (or plane, wherever they were). Even in the bad guy's meeting place.
*** The costume-shifting imagery was embedded in the new siren light they installed on top of Mater's cab. And given that Mater could get detailed information on the various villains, it probably included a high-speed wireless data link.
* In all of the Japan scenes from the sequel, how the heck did [[PixarShorts Kabuto]] get his modifications back? He should've stayed naked because of Mater the last time they met!
** Maybe all of Mater's tall tales never really happened, and the only thing that actually happened was him telling his stories. That would mean that Kabuto can still exist, but he just never ran in with Mater.
** Suppose someone loses a bet and has to go outside naked as a result. Doesn't mean he's going to be naked when you meet him in a year.
** You don't think Mater gave them back? He has no use for them and Kabuto had already been humiliated. Maybe he was a good winner and gave them back to him.
* How does that one female car have her eyes in her headlights? What is that supposed to represent?
** Some type of self augmentation thing that would probably just creep you out way too much to even wonder how it was done.
*** Now that I think of it, the twins Mia and Tia in the first movie were flashing their pop-up headlights at [=McQueen=]. Food for thought.
** (note: haven't seen it) Maybe she's a shout-out to the Chevron with Techron cars at [[DisneyThemeParks Autopia]]; they're also made by AardmanAnimations who made WallaceAndGromit, so it'd be a double-shout-out.
** It was most likely a TakeThat against previous attempts to make anthropomorphic cars. Before Pixar, the most popular place to put the "eyes" was in the headlights. However, since the placement of headlights isn't exactly anatomically correct to where human eyes should be, [[UncannyValley it looks incredibly unsettling]] when compared to cars that have their eyes placed on the windshields.
*** But RealLife car designers often speak of a car's "face", with the headlights as eyes. Putting them in the windshield denies them the basic function of cars (i.e., transporting humans) led to a cascading effect of why buses, crab-fishing boats and taxis exist in a world ''without'' humans... And have you ever seen one of those ''Cars''-car-eyes sunshades in use?
** Different races or cars? Hey, that way we can insert all the other stories with anthropomorphic cars into the universe!
** Judging by Mater's reaction of shock at first, followed by nervous politeness, it could be the Cars version of a physical defect or disfigurement.
* According to Lightning [=McQueen=], there are supposed to be 43 race cars competing in the Piston Cup (just like in NASCAR as in real life), but in actuality, there are only 36 cars competing in the Piston Cup!
** Similarly, in the sequel, there are eleven race cars competing in the World Grand Prix, but the starting line shows an empty twelfth starting marker!
* All right, in Cars 2, Sarge reveals that, before the last race, he switched Lightning [=McQueen=]'s "Allinol" (the alternative oil sponsored by Axlerod) with his own organic fuel, thus explaining why he wasn't affected by the EM pulse. Except...the film didn't show the villains TRYING to hit him with the EM pulse! When did they even try?
** At the very beginning of the third race, they had the EM camera trained on him the whole time and were surprised when nothing happened.
** I think what the OP was trying to say is that Sarge never had a reason to switch the fuel, because he had no idea that Allinol was dangerous. I don't think he ever knew about the danger per se; he just really likes organic fuel for some reason. So [=McQueen=] has been running on organic fuel this entire time; it was switched before the first race.
** "Once big oil, always big oil." Sarge just plain didn't trust Axelrod, on general principles. Possibly he had no idea that Allinol was dangerous, but he ''did'' doubt it was as efficient of an energy source as Axelrod claimed. He knew for a fact that Fillmore got good performance from biofuel, so he swapped out Lightning's Allinol for the hippy van's home-made mix.
* Anyone else notice that ladder during the scene where Mater and the other two are driving through the airport? I mean, they're having some sort of chase scene AND THERE IS A FREAKING LADDER CONNECTED TO ONE OF THE BOARDING GATES IN THE BACKGROUND. Did the animators just not care, or something? Unless we're going with the 'human slave' WMG theory. Which admittedly explains a lot.
** Possibly it's not a ladder, but rather an extensible appendage of the boarding gate. Boarding gates have motors, after all, so they could be intelligent (albeit sedentary) and would need some way to manipulate their surroundings (e.g. baggage hung from its rungs to be hauled up or lowered down).
* '''Big Spoilers Ahead:''' The plot of Cars 2 kicks off by announcing that Allinol is a replacement, environmentally friendly, sustainable fuel. The idea being that it's going to eliminate the Cars world's reliance on gasoline. Then the BigBad and the "lemon mafia" find and tap one the largest oil fields on the planet. So a plan is hatched to blow up world-class racing cars in a high-profile, Allinol-fueled race so that any belief in Allinol being a suitable gas replacement will be crushed, so that cars will ''still'' have to rely on gasoline and be beholden to the mafia and the big oil companies. Then we discover that the racing cars are gettng blown up because Allinol ''isn't'' really a sustainable, replacement fuel source, but in fact just gasoline modified so that it makes cars blow up when hit by an EMP. Which means there was no Allinol to begin with. Why in the world cook up such a complicated plan to discredit Allinol (and, presumably, by association, other alternative fuels)? Instead, simply announce that, sadly, Allinol doesn't live up to its promise when that new oil field is found, and then own the market more-or-less legally, without any shenanigans or, more importantly, the Cars equivalent of ''murder.'' There's a throwaway line about Fillmore's homemade organic biofuel, but really, who's gonna believe a Hippie Microbus that he has a legitimate, alternative, scalable source of sustainable biofuel versus Axelrod's Allinol "failure", the oil industry and ''the frickin' mafia''. (Especially since, if it's really a viable alternative fuel, you'd think it would get publicity from the fact that ''one of the winningest race cars in history'' uses it exclusively. Except that it's never even mentioned until a line or two at the end.) In conclusion: by the end of the movie the only changes to the status quo are: several world-class race cars get blown up, it is made clear that the mafia is now in charge of the largest oil field in the world, that large-scale, sustainable, alternative fuel sources ''don't'' exist and that the Cars world - except for a few cars who home-brew their own biofuel - is still going to have to rely on gasoline pumped from under the ocean.
** Possibly it's meant as a shout out to James Bond Villains?
** The point is not to discredit Allinol: it's to discredit ''all'' alternative fuels. Axelrod and the lemons plan was to make everyone fear change. Gasoline is safe, so why risk trying anything else? Lasseter explains it pretty well on the commentary.
** Invoked DisastrousDemonstration.
* The climax... [[spoiler: I mean, I know {{Batman Gambit}}s rely on the people involved doing exactly what you'd expect them to, but this one's pretty ridiculous. Consider if Mater ''didn't'' figure out how to escape from the DeathTrap - then there wouldn't have been a bomb to blow up [=McQueen=] with, considering the bomb was attached to Mater directly. Then [=McQueen=] likely wouldn't die, considering the bomb in question would be ''nowhere near him'', and the earlier EMP camera plan failed spectacularly. Not to mention, the only other plan I noticed - taking [=McQueen=] out in a fight - wouldn't play into the "alternative fuels are evil" message their plan hinges on. They couldn't ''really'' have put all their eggs in those two baskets, could they?]]
** Maybe they had some other plan for how to plant a bomb in case Mater didn't escape, and the one attached to him was a fallback plan in case he did.
* At the very end we get told that Allinol is just normal gas with something added to make it go ballistic when exposed to an EM ray. But we get told earlier that it had been analyzed by an independent scientist. How did this scientist not notice that it was gasoline with something added to it? An organic chemist testing the dangers against gasoline would quickly notice the similarities.
** There WAS no independent study? Just a lie by Axelrod?
*** Either that, or the "independent scientist" was in fact paid off by Axelrod to give false information. It's not an unheard-of thing.
*** Possibly ''the Professor'' was the "independent scientist". Presumably he has a public reputation as an honest researcher, ''a la'' most brainy ''Film/JamesBond'' villains, with only those in the spy trade knowing about his shady doings.
** Axelrod really did create a biofuel by improvising when he got stranded in the wilderness, just not something that could be mass-produced and accessible to the world's cars as a viable fuel option in terms of affordability among other things.... But since he actually did create some biofuel, the cars of the world assumed that he could mass-produce it for the world and thought it redundant to personally examine the fuel every time it was put into a racer's tank for the World Grand Prix that he started anyway. That and he's been knighted; he is Sir Miles Axlerod. Seems like a trustworthy person.
*** This is TruthInTelevision. Biofuels on small scales can use cheap products available in mass to make inexpensive fuel (this is the used cooking oil to biodiesel stuff you hear about). On large scales, this "cheap products available in mass" is a very small drop in a very large budget that is global energy demand. In 2014, around 98% of all alcohol produced on the planet is burned in automotives, producing large price shocks in foodproducts to replace a small fraction of their gasoline supply.
* '''Spoilers: ''' How exactly was pretending to create a completely new and highly dangerous alternative fuel supposed to discredit existing alternative fuels, which are still unpopular anyway and have no known history of causing damage anything like Allinol? Surely the most damage lasting done by Axelrod's plan (apart from the victims of Allinol) was to his own reputation, making the whole sceme completely rediculous. Sure, he might be sitting on the biggest untapped oil reserve ever discovered, but it's hardly the only remaining source of fuel; heck, Axelrod sold ''an entire oil empire'' as part of the setup for his plan! Was the public really going to want to buy oil from him after the disaster he was responsible for, even if they didn't know it was all a setup?
** There was never any warranty that Axlerod would be the face of the new oil empire, just like he rarely ever made personal appearances at his crime syndicate's meetings. A large portion of the winnings could still go to him without the public knowing he was behind the whole operation. Likely he'd hoped that after the Allinol fiasco, he'd be allowed to fade into obscurity as a celebrity, with people thinking he was too ashamed to show his face in public when he'd actually be rolling in riches.
* When the main cast finds out that Mater is missing, they all come to London to search for him. Why? They should be going to Tokyo, the last place anyone has seen him.
* There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of statues of car ''angels'' in one of the London shots, when Holly is flying past the cathedral. Why, if there are no non-vehicle animals in the ''Cars'' world, do they have feathered wings? Wouldn't airplane wings be more appropriate?
* How does one "fatten" a car, as Mama Topolino apparently wanted to do with Lightning?
[[/folder]]

* Spoilers for the sequel ahead. [[spoiler:First and foremost, what's up with the sudden outbreak of violence? In the very first scene, agent [=McMissile=] explodes several of the enemy Mooks and throws one of them into the night sea off the oil platform. For all we know, they likely were security guards (or, worst case scenario, {{Punch Clock Villain}}s). Am I supposed to be emotionally attached to him now? That felt like a pure WhatMeasureIsAMook moment. Mid-film, Mater, of all characters, fires two [[GatlingGood miniguns]] at a crowd of cars (unintentionally, and they were [[CardCarryingVillain villains]] anyway, mind, but still.) We do not see their fate, but I personally find it a bit of a stretch to believe no one got hurt. Speaking of which, there's a scene where we see remains of a previously seen character crushed into a cube of scrap metal (which would be the car-world equivalent of a mangled corpse), and - probably the most egregiously - there's a lengthy and ''very'' graphic torture scene ending with the torture victim's ''death''. (There was a scene of ElectricTorture in TheIncredibles, if memory serves, but come on. Bob was a super ''and'' a protagonist, he was obviously going to be okay.)]] No, I understand, kids kind of love guns and explosions, and there are genre conventions of a spy thriller, but... seriously? What happened to the Pixar that I knew?

* There's a BlinkAndYoullMissIt glimpse of statues of car ''angels'' in one of the London shots, when Holly is flying past the cathedral. Why, if there are no non-vehicle animals in the ''Cars'' world, do they have feathered wings? Wouldn't airplane wings be more appropriate?

* Sally argues that they should make Lightning fix the road because if he doesn't no one will be able to get to the stores and everyone will go out of business. But repairing the roar takes multiple days, and absolutely no one has trouble getting around at all. In fact, everyone presumably just used this broken road to get to the court house. It'd probably need to be fixed eventually, if only for convenience sake, but it's obviously not the urgent thing she makes it out to be. Yeah, she just really wanted to make him fix it, but she couldn't come up with any argument that made a modicum of sense?

* Sally argues that they should make Lightning fix the road because if he doesn't no one will be able to get to the stores and everyone will go out of business. But repairing the roar takes multiple days, and absolutely no one has trouble getting around at all. In fact, everyone presumably just used this broken road to get to the court house. Yeah, she just really wanted to make him fix it, but she couldn't come up with any argument that made a modicum of sense?

****** Because she's really not embarrassed by it and is just acting that way?****** Also, it's not a decal: it's pinstriping, which is painted on and top-coated. Removing pinstriping is quite a bit harder.

** Having just learned that ''DeadliestCatch''[='s=] Sig Hansen is cameoing as his own boat, I've got to ask what would vehicles do with crabs? And since bugs are VW Beetles are the "crabs" actually tiny walking tanks?

* So the [[DeadliestCatch F/V Northwestern]] catches crabs. I'm wondering what vehicles would want with crabs, which are probably also vehicles (probably something like [[http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/insectesque_machine_prototype_helps_logging.php this]]). I can understand using plants as biofuel, but what would they use "animals" for? Do they suck out their "blood"? Grind them into abrasives? Are the "crabs" in fact sentient blobs of oil? If they were, wouldn't the crab pots look more like devices used to trap oil during the Gulf spill?

[[/folder]]

*** Possibly ''the Professor'' was the "independent scientist". Presumably he has a public reputation as an honest researcher, ''a la'' most brainy JamesBond villains, with only those in the spy trade knowing about his shady doings.