Real-life lessons in new flick of master animator John Lasseter

John Lasseter's latest flick combines his two lifelong loves: The animated and automotive worlds. The director of the "Toy Story" movies and "A Bug's Life" and chief creative force of Pixar which brought us "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles," Lasseter returns with "Cars," the animated story of a haughty race car that gets a lesson on life in the slow lane.

For Lasseter, "Cars" rolled off the assembly line of his childhood. His mom was an art teacher whose work helped forge his early fascination with animation, while his dad ran the parts department at a Chevrolet dealership in Whittier, Calif., where Lasseter worked weekends growing up in the heyday of muscular Camaros and Corvettes.

"I've always loved cars," says Lasseter, 49. "I'm a gear-head and wanted to do a film about cars, like putting the two sides of my life, my two loves, together."

"Cars" also is a reflection of the real-life lessons he learned about making time for family and friends amid his professional success, which includes an Academy Award for best short animated film and an honorary Oscar for creating the first feature-length computer-animated tale with "Toy Story."

After a hectic run making "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2," a time when he and his wife also had four sons, Lasseter decided to pull over for a rest stop. Lasseter's wife warned him that if he kept up the work pace, he would wake up one day realizing their boys had all gone off to college and he had missed their childhood. So Lasseter figured it was time for a summer road trip, just him and the family.

"We bought a used motorhome, put our feet in the Pacific Ocean and turned east," Lasseter says.

"And we got so close as a family. We loved every single minute of it, and I came back from that journey and I knew what I wanted this movie to be about. It's about a character that learns the journey in life is the reward," adds Lasseter.

"Cars" is set in a world populated by talking automobiles, featuring the voice of Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car so cocky he thinks he can roll through life without family and friends to provide roadside assistance. On the way to a big race, Lightning ends up stranded in Radiator Springs, a sleepy burgh along Route 66 that fell off the map after it was bypassed by the speedy new Interstate.

There, he learns the value of slowing down and hanging with a loving pit crew through the help of a crusty old Hudson (voiced by Paul Newman), a sleek Porsche (Bonnie Hunt), a rusty, crusty tow truck (Larry the Cable Guy) and the town's other four-wheeled denizens.

"I've got Disney blood in my veins," says Lasseter who will become chief creative officer for animation at both Disney and Pixar once their buy-out deal is completed.

"Walt Disney is the reason I do what I do. I believe so strongly in making what he believed in, which is making family films that are not just for kids. They're for everybody, and that's one of the things I'm so incredibly proud of in the track record at Pixar." - Buena Vista International