New York Times tells about creation of “Cars”

Phil Patton of the New York Times interviewed a number of people about the production of the upcoming Pixar film, "Cars," including Michael Wallis, who gave out a few details about the two Route 66 tours on which he led the Pixar crew.

A tour guide and author of "Route 66: The Mother Road," among other books, Mr. Wallis led the Pixar crew along Route 66.

The most lovable character in "Cars" is Mater, a rusty tow truck with the voice of Larry the Cable Guy. That's Mater, as in "Tow-Mater," an aptly cornball pun. Mr. Wallis recalls the time and place he was created. "There was an old wrecker in an empty lot by Route 66 in Galena, Kan.," he said. "Joe Ranft, the studio's head of story and a key member of the Pixar team, stopped and noticed it, and Mater was born."

Acting as a consultant for the Pixar team — Mr. Ranft; John Lasseter, the director; and other top animators — Mr. Wallis played Beatrice to their Dante.

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The cars tend to types. George Carlin plays Fillmore, a VW bus whose front license plate suggests a beatnik's goatee. Sarge is a Jeep, Flo a waitress (inspired, Mr. Wallis says, by a real waitress, Dawn Welch, at the Rock Café in Stroud, Okla. [Editor's note: Welch is the owner, not a waitress, of the Rock Cafe.]). A 1957 Motorama show car, Flo boasts (through chrome lips) of selling "the best gas in 50 states."

…The sheriff of Radiator Springs is a 1949 Mercury, and its voice is Mr. Wallis's. The author is delighted with his role. "That car has always been one of my favorites, and it fits my personality," he said. "My rapidly whitening mustache looks more like that Mercury's grille every day."

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Bypassed by Interstate 40 and other modern highways, Route 66 — the pieces that remain — has been reborn as a tourist road. Real motels and restaurants served as models for those in Radiator Springs, like the Cozy Cone Motel and V-8 Cafe.

"They saw the teepee-shaped motels and gas stations," Mr. Wallis said in the rawhide tones he uses on his road tours. "They felt the wind through the winter wheat. They gulped it all in."

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For Route 66, Mr. Wallis loaded the animators into rented white Cadillacs. "We rode three big new Detroit sleds," he said. The animators decorated the cars by attaching items found on the roadside: sheaves of wheat, bunches of thistles, sunflowers, snake skins and a road-kill armadillo. "We called this stuff Okie hood ornaments," Mr. Wallis said.

At trip's end, he said, "We buried it all in the high desert," adding: "We had a ceremony. I spoke some words and one of the animators, Bud Luckey, played a few bars on his harmonica. I'll never forget it."

In other news, Goodyear announced it would recast its famous blimp into a Lightyear blimp temporarily in honor of its involvement with "Cars." Lightyear is the brand of tire in the film.

Here's a look at the altered blimp below: