Disney/Pixar will release Cars 2 as its CGI animated family movie in 2011, according to a report on Dark Horizons.
Cars is a controversial choice for a franchise. Although it was the most successful animated movie of 2006 at the North American box office, it's probably the weakest film in Pixar's back catalogue. Despite it being a hit, it also was one of Pixar's worst films at the box office, making $461,981,604 worldwide.
In contrast, last year's Ratatouille made $620,261,049 in worldwide box office receipts and received much better reviews.
Cars also wasn't the fans' choice for a possible franchise. The most popular choice for a sequel, after the Toy Story series, was the Emeryville studio's 2004 release, Brad Bird's superhero comedy The Incredibles.
However, what likely put Cars over the top as a franchise was its merchandising. Sales of toys, clothes and various gew-gaws from the movie totaled more than $1 billion, the most cash a Pixar film has made from its merch.
Cars Was Pixar's Last Film In Original Disney Deal
The flick was created by John Lasseter after then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner nixed Toy Story 3 as Pixar's last film in the original Disney/Pixar distribution deal. Although Eisner (highly) reluctantly allowed Toy Story 2 to be one of the movies in the 7-flick deal, he decided Cars should be the last Pixar movie to be distributed by Disney.
Cars followed the adventures of Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), an arrogant young race car who learns that there's more to life than winning races.
It starred the voices of Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, John Ratzenberger and NASCAR fan Paul Newman, who was also a creative consultant on the flick. It's likely that all the actors, save Newman, will return for a sequel. Ratzenberger pretty much has no choice, since he's the studio's "lucky rabbit's foot," having voiced a role in every Pixar flick since Toy Story. Paul Newman announced his retirement in 2007, and isn't likely to return.
Most animation fans considered Cars to be Pixar's "fulfill the contract" picture, since relations between Disney and Pixar had reached an all-time low in 2005. Negotiations between Michael Eisner and Pixar founder Steve Jobs had completely broken down, with Jobs saying that he would never work with Disney again as long as Eisner was CEO.
This announcement was additional fuel for Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold's Save Disney campaign, which resulted in Eisner's ouster in 2005.
Cars won nearly every major animated film award in 2006, with the exception of the Oscar which went to Warner Bros.' Happy Feet.
Toy Story 3, which will be directed by Lee Unkrich, will be Pixar's 2010 release.
Fun Fact: Then Disney CEO Michael Eisner thought that Finding Nemo was going to fail at the box office. In fact, he hoped the film would tank so he would have a better bargaining position with Pixar's Steve Jobs when they negotiated another distribution deal.
In an email to board directors on March 22, 2001 (as found in James B. Stewart's 2005 book Disney War), Eisner said the film "will be a reality check for these guys. It's okay, but nowhere near as good as their previous films. Of course they think it's great. Trust me, it's not."
Finding Nemo is Pixar's most financially successful film to date.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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