Jason Kottke, who writes the Kottke.org blog, attended a presentation by John Lasseter at the Museum of Modern Art’s Pixar exhibit in New York City. Lasseter is one of the creative forces at Pixar Animation Studios and is the director of the Route 66-themed movie, “Cars,” which will be released June 2006.
Here’s an excerpt of Kottke’s report:
Near the end of the talk he showed a 2-3 minute clip of Cars, prefacing it with an announcement that it had never before been shown outside of Pixar.[1] Some of the CGI wasn’t completely finished, but it was certainly enough to get the gist. When the first preview trailer for Cars was released, I was skeptical; it just didn’t look like it was going to be that good. Based on the clip Lasseter showed and some of his other comments, I’m happy to report that I was wrong to be so skeptical and am very much looking forward to its release in 2006. …
[1] For you Pixar completists and AICN folks out there, the clip showed Lightning McQueen leaving a race track on the back of a flat-bed truck, bound for a big race in California. As the truck drives across the US, you see the criss-crossing expressways of the city stretch out into the long straight freeways of the American west, the roads literally cutting into the beautiful scenery. A cover of Tom Cochran’s “Life is a Highway” plays as the truck drives. The world of the movie features only cars, no humans … the cars are driving themselves.