I liked Cars. I grew up in AZ and am very familiar with small towns strung along old highways. It struck a chord with me, and left a good message: Slow down, look around, and enjoy life for a moment. However, every other Pixar movie took either a living creature and anthropomorphized it (bugs, fish, monsters, rats) or in the case of Toy Story took inanimate objects and bought them to life, but did so with in the realm of our world. Cars is the only movie they’ve done where they’ve extricated the experience from our world and put it somewhere else completely. And that leads me to the one thing that didn’t sit well with me: the strange machine/flesh hybrids Pixar came up with to populate this world. It’s as if a mad scientist enamored with automobiles terraformed Mars and furnished it with cyborg vehicles with engines of steel and minds of flesh. You have these cars, but with actual fleshy eyes, with irises, and mouths of teeth and tongues. Where does the machine end and the flesh begin? So, to make everything piece together a little better in my head I drew up what I think the internal structures of Lightning McQueen might look like:
Actually, that mad scientist idea might be a good premise for Cars II. Lightning discovers that they’re all created on a whim by some wacko genius as toys for his own amusement.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
ew. ew. ew. ew. ew. cool. ew. ew. ew.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
……um….Jake? I’m not quite sure how I feel inside about this yet…. Disturbing, or interesting…. Its a bit gross and strange but I can’t look away!
July 25th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I like it! I wondered about that too after seeing Cars. I wonder how kids would interpret their insides? I’ll have to ask Jonas to draw what he thinks.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I gotta ditto Arkonbey. Only with another cool or two.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Whoa! WHA????????? I feel like my mind just did a hiccup.
July 26th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Jake, you nailed it. I’ve had a few conversations with friends about this very topic. Seeing it in glorious cut away is a treat!
July 28th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
That reminds me of a Cylon Raider. So you’re saying that Lightning McQueen is the Final Cylon?
July 28th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Finally! Someone else who feels the same way! I couldn’t concentrate on the movie because I kept thinking, “who made all the stuff they’re using? They don’t have hands! And what are the doors for!? Are they supposed to have drivers!?” Great drawing man!
July 29th, 2008 at 7:05 am
You’re a loose cannon, Parker. A LOOSE CANNON!
July 30th, 2008 at 10:14 am
[...] Inside Lightning McQueen >Catena Ex Situ [...]
July 31st, 2008 at 1:10 am
see, my theory is that they gained sentience after some horrible mishap, killed all the humans, then for a lack of better things to do, assumed their owners lives. that’s why that one main character female claims she’s a lawyer (why would cars need lawyers. really.) and one of the racecars was refered to as the name of a current famous driver.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:13 am
Sick man, sick.
Keep it up
July 31st, 2008 at 12:20 pm
That’s ****ed up Jake.
But man I love the way you think.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:59 am
Very very nicely done!
August 1st, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I love it, but that engine is driving me crazy. How does it operate!? Is it connected to the stomach? Do these things pee? What about reproduction? Oh god, you ruined Cars for me with this grotesquely beautiful illustration
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 am
It’s definitely a beautiful illustration… and, uh, I’m never going to look at Cars the same way without envisioning Lightning McQueen on an autopsy table. Biologically, I don’t think the internal physiology of a Pixar car would like this though.
Consider a car being about the same size as a small whale. How much of a whale is devoted to the brain? How much of the whale is devoted to digestion and locomotion? I think the same would hold true for Lightning McQueen.
I’d probably have drawn a smaller brain, more visible means of power transmission from the engine to the wheels, and more organs supporting gasoline digestion, oil lubrication, and locomotion.
August 4th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
…discovers that they’re all created on a whim by some wacko genius as toys for his own amusement.
reminds me of something.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
[...] Internal structure of Lightening McQueen [...]
August 18th, 2008 at 8:50 am
[...] 18, 2008Source: Agent44.comby Alex [...]
August 18th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Finally, I realize I’m not alone!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:37 am
At last, someone brought this up with a fancy diagram to illuminate the issue. It’s a recipe for a future PIXAR dark horror film of genetic manipulation and cyborg surgery - CARS II: PISTON YOUR FACE. The story can end only in full-tilt fancy death for all. I wanna see that one! CARS 1 was boring.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
i hated that they had flesh tongues i found it very disturbing
August 19th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
[...] | Cartoon Brew Imagen | Inside Lightning McQueen trackback ¿Recomendarías este post? Más noticias sobre: Ilustración, Frikadas [...]
August 19th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
[...] of Lightning McQueen that shows his “major internal structures.” There’s a fragment over there–you’ll need to go to his blog to check out the full deal. It is extraordinarily weird to see a giant brain in the back seat area of a car. It reminds me of [...]
August 20th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Glad I wasn’t the only one to ponder on this point.
Set as my wallpaper because while it scares me, I’m addicted to the adrenaline buzz that fear generates.
August 21st, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I think what disturbs me the most is the tongue. don’t really know why it’s just really creepy looking.
Very creative work I must say
August 21st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I thought the exact same thing when I saw Cars.
They need gasoline to go somewhere, but live without it.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:50 am
Well done, and disturbing. I wouldn’t have thought of this in a million years.
I think the most disgusting thing is the brain.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:11 am
[...] to a link posted on Neatorama, we now know what the inside of one of Disney’s Cars characters looks [...]
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
[...] to Agent44. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 12:48 am
where’s his penis?
August 25th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Nice, but I think the brain is a bit big considering his behavior in the film.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:13 am
Coooooooooooool!
September 19th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Thaaankyou! There have been a few theories about what goes on inside those cars, and this one is my favourite. Spooky? What kind of anatomy “bringing-something-closer-to-reality” isn’t?
Well it had to be done eventually, since every time my son (read: _me_) watches the damn film I wonder what’s behind those side windows. I mean, they’re clearly glass with some white substance being kept in behind them.
Could that be the car’s skin for the fleshy counterpart?
October 10th, 2008 at 2:59 am
[...] Jake Parker é um ilustrador que gostou muito de “Carros” da Pixar, na minha opinião singela e artrópoda, o filme mais “maomeno” da Pixar, e que vai ter continuação (por que não fazem uma continuação de “Os Incríveis” ora pois?). [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 10:09 am
[...] blog agent44, jake parker. [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Gross, but cool! really great!
November 27th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I wondered what the purpose is of a mattress in Cars World? During the scene where Lightning is being hauled by Mack, there is a minivan with a mattress on top. Can’t quite figure out what a mattress is for.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Leroy Traffik mystery solved
http://www.takefiveaday.com/2008/12/21/mattel-disney-pixar-diecast-cars-leroy-traffik-mystery-solved/
Jake, I’ll link and do a post on your art in a couple days - very interesting …
March 8th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
[...] have had the same questions, it seems. Will the sequel answer [...]
March 24th, 2009 at 8:13 am
[...] Jake Parker has taken the star of Disney/Pixar’s Cars franchise, Lightning McQueen, and cut him open lengthwise to see what makes him tick. Basically, Jake Parker has done AN AUTOPSY ON LIGHTNING MCQUEEN. [...]
March 31st, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Wouldn’t it hurt when he blew those tires and the wheel was scraping on the track?? Because it looks like it’s connected to his body like a foot or something. I mean, there were sparks coming off of it and everything..
June 18th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
no no no take it off makes me sad :,(
June 29th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Its a V10…?
Illegal Nascar much?
August 27th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
I’m fine with the idea of grotesque car/creature hybrids with flesh inside their steel. The thing that disturbs me, though, is a deleted scene. Specifically, Lightning has a nightmare that his engine (which is apparently his consciousness) is transplanted into a street paver while Mater is allowed to goof off in his chasis. Is this a normal action in the Cars world, or is it just the most horrifying nightmare ever?
November 28th, 2009 at 3:34 am
I’m a professional game designer, and since world building is my stock in trade, the nature of the Cars world has bothered me ever since I saw the movie as well. My current theory is that Cars are a bit more pseudo-organic than organic. They are actually made of a metallic “flesh” that conforms like soft plastic or mercury, with a somewhat harder outer layer for their skin (like Transformer’s faces). The chassis, undercarriage and wheels are all part of this body, while tires are treated much as we treat shoes. The body is able to move by contractions of the metallic structure, but it takes an engine to actually move at any great speed. This engine is actually a semi-biological turbine that spins the wheels, using combustible materials to create heat energy to drive the turbine (the tractor cows don’t seem to drink gasoline at all). Probably the engine doesn’t look that much like an engine at all. Cars don’t have to have gas to operate, but they need gas for moving at any speed. They seem to need oil and water though. They seems to feel pain and have physical ailments–most of the sponsors of the Piston Cup racers are the equivalent of OTC medicine producers–which leads one to suspect they get sick in an roughly organic way. The clincher is the Volkswagen “bugs”–there’s no reason why anyone would MAKE flying pests–therefore, they must have evolved in some way or another.
December 18th, 2009 at 10:27 am
OMG! It’s a cartoon! I stubbled on to this looking for some ideas for a homemade desk car for my 3 years old son who is a Lightning McQueen fan. The only thing this proves is that people will blog about anything. God I hope there is no blog about a “whats a woman doing living in the woods with seven short men” and “what goes on in that cabin”. Go ahead and slice the magic mirror sideways and see whats on the inside.