In 'Cars 2,' John Lasseter Says Big Oil is the 'Uber Bad Guy'

"Cars 2" director John Lasseter spoke with the Wall Street Journal in his office at the headquarters of Pixar Animation Studios Emeryville, where he was creative director.

The film takes the friendly cars of the original "Cars" and transplants them into a bustling international spy caper with Mater, a rusty tow truck, as the unlikely hero.

Having served as executive producer on "Cars 2" in the early years of work on the film, John Lasseter stepped in as director last year and redesigned the main elements of the plot.

Lasseter discussed the film with the Journal nine days before its release—and less than three weeks after the death of his 87-year-old father, Paul, whom he credits as an inspiration for both “Cars” movies.

I’m sorry to hear about your father’s recent death. I understand he was a car enthusiast?

John Lasseter: Yeah. All my life, he worked for Chevy dealerships as a parts manager. And so, as a kid, I would work in his parts department, first as a stock boy putting away parts and dusting bins and all that stuff. And then when I turned 16, I got my driver’s license.I was a boy of delivery and would drive the truck across all parts during the Los Angeles area.

It must have been quite an education.

It was fun. I liked it because I loved cars. He was the type of the tail of all the really cool Chevrolet muscle cars. You know, the Camaro, the Chevelles, Corvettes and all that stuff. It was the early 70's.

The visuals of "Cars 2" has been very impressive. And the story is quite a departure from the first film.

This is by far the most complex film Pixar ever made, so 10 times. It starts with the genre of the film by picking a spy genre. I just love spy movies. “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” was my favorite TV show growing up.

And so, I just love all the great locales that spy movies go to and say, “OK, we’ve got to go to cool places,” right? One of the ideas of the movie was to take the characters, the car characters, out of Radiator Springs, off of Route 66, and take them around the world.

As I was doing publicity for “Cars,” I traveled around the world, and I kept thinking about cars as characters. Our characters in Tokyo, in London, and Paris, Italy, Germany—all these places where they all have their own unique car cultures and car histories.

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