For a film that exclusively follows a group of cartoon cars around as they make very niche racing/engine jokes or engage in complex, tense spy missions, the cars franchise has developed a pretty huge fanbase.
Despite its large audience and success, each film in the franchise is riddled with continuity errors as certain things don’t quite add up between each shot or across each film. With animation requiring such detail-oriented work and Disney/Pixar being such a well known and profitable company, one would think that there would be large teams dedicated to ensuring that no errors made it into the final cuts of their films. Here are ten of the biggest continuity problems in the Cars franchise.
Where Is The Wire?
One of the best and most exciting driving scenes in the first film shows Lightning McQueen on the dusty streets of Radiator Springs. His biggest adversary? A wire. There is a long electronic wire strung up between two poles in the street which catches McQueen and ruins his form.
However, from various different angles, this very important plot device is simply nowhere to be seen.
The Wrong Replay
One of the flaws that, for some reason, seems to follow a lot of animated films, is the inconsistencies between what we saw happening in ‘real-life’, and what is shown on things like security cameras, video calls, and in this case specifically, photo-finish replays.
At the end of the first race in the film, McQueen, The King and Chick all cross the finish line with McQueen sticking his tongue out and downwards. When the replay is shown, his tongue is sticking straight out, meaning the two versions of events don’t match up.
Mater’s Tractor Tipping
In the Cars universe, tractors have a lot in common with cows. Mater, as a fine southern gentleman, likes to tip tractors. When he does so and McQueen tries to join in, the camera zooms out to show off the protagonists’ handiwork.
But in doing so, removes all evidence of Mater’s own tipping prowess as the two tractors he tipped are nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that they should be right next to him.
The Dirt Track
During the race (in which Lightning is catching up to Mack, who ends up actually being Peterbilt), an establishing shot shows that the upcoming T-junction is a normal asphalt road for Lightning to turn down.
However, when we see the cars actually make the turn, it seems to be spitting gravel up, suggesting it is more of a loose, dirt road than the smooth, professional surface it first seemed to be.
Magical Signs
There is one specific scene in the first film that follows Mini and Van as they shoot through the damaged area of Radiator Springs. There isn’t anything (other than the destruction around them) to warn of the situation, so the cars carry on through.
When they’re gone, the camera zooms in after them and two signs saying ‘end construction zone’ appear on either side of the road. In the next shot, we see Lightning McQueen navigate the same area, again with no signage, before the scene finishes and the signs return once again.
The King’s Eyes
The King starts and ends Cars with brown eyes. Both in the first shot we ever see him, and the final shot in which he is looking around the museum with his wife, they’re very clear in their color.
It seems very strange that when he opens his eyes after his crash, they’re temporarily blue. Is this the outcome of the crash, or an issue in continuity? Typically, animators have a model of a character for use whenever they’re on the screen, so why is this model not consistent in its eye color?
Big Screen Differences
This problem is very reminiscent of the issue that occurs when the replay doesn’t match what Lightning McQueen actually did at the end of the race. Considering this problem appeared in the first Cars film, one might expect that there would be an attempt to avoid things like this in the sequel.
However, when the cars are lining up for their first race in Cars 2, the big screen behind them isn’t showing the same goings-on behind the cars as the ‘real-life’ version of events.
Moving Every Minute?
The bizarre spy story of Cars 2 includes a lot of strange events throughout the film. One scene in particular sees Mater, Finn and Holley tied to Big Bentley’s gears with crushing imminent. Apparently, the gears rotate every minute on the clock, and when the clock reaches 3:02, they are just two minutes from being crushed.
Despite this, when the scene cuts away, the clock shows 3:05 but the gears haven’t yet moved and crushed the protagonists. Either the system is fatally flawed, or this is a bit of an error in continuity and realism.
Cow Inconsistencies
As we had seen in the first two Cars films, the cows (who are actually tractors) tip over as soon as they wake up suddenly. We don’t really know why, but it seems to be quite an important part of the universe.
In Cars 3, which has mostly abandoned the spy themes of the second film, decides that cows no longer need to tip over when they’re awoken suddenly. There doesn’t really seem to be much explanation for this personality change.
Number Switch
Cruz has her number 20 sprayed onto her right side when she is shown at Thunder Hollow. Later on, she is talking to Smokey and other veterans and it has moved over to her left. When practicing with Lightning, it is shown to be printed on both sides.
This is another example of the animation team deciding to change the existence of their own character models, leading to an inconsistency that probably didn’t need to be there in the first place.
