Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of a hit animation film? I know I do! That's why i was excited to interview both Director Brian Fee And Producer Kevin Reher. It is fun to learn the inspiration, the tools, and why they do things the way they did. They were fun to talk to, and we learned a lot. Did you know they starts Cars 3 six years ago?!?!?!?

One of the things I personally found in Cars 3 is that there are scenes that if you didn't know better looked that real. I was shocked at the realism, and that for me, it really made me believe I was in Lightening McQueen's world. We asked them about it, Brian told us:

We have a new renderer, and we can do things that we couldn't do on the first film. We can make things look- we can go wholeheartedly into a sense of realism. We try not to say photo realism because I think photo realism would actually be kind of boring, we almost want like a hyper realism. We want to be able to control how you feel but we want you to feel like you can smell the air.

I absolutely love the end of his answer. You really do feel like you can smell the air. We also asked them about the messaging of the film. Brian told us (and seriously, get the tissues ready):

I looked at McQueen’s and Doc’s relationship as a father and son relationship. You could see it as a mentor mentee, however people plug into it in their own personal lives. I have that moment- middle of my life my mom’s passing away and you kind of feel that safety net that you've always had. That moment where you get just a little scared that everything you've ever known is kind of dropping. I have two daughters and I realized I'm their safety net, like they look up to me, I'm playing that role for them and it kind of erased the fear I had of losing my parents, not that I don't want to see them go, but it gave me new strength that a sense of purpose in life. I look at McQueen’s on that same transition . You may think you're losing something, but the best thing is still in front of you- have yet to come.

I went to art school and have an illustration degree, and my daughter has been drawing these little sketches with her crayons. They would look at professional illustrations in books and stuff, and I wanted to demystify that. I wanted them to know that a person just did that, the only difference between those and their little doodles is that they took longer at it. They went to school and learned how to do it and they spent more time on it. I set up one of their American Girl dolls, and I was going to paint it. I wanted them to see all that goes into it, it takes a while, and you've got to put some time in. I don't know, after about twenty minutes, they're gone. I was going to stick it out, and I'm going to show them that a little perseverance and a little time so I spent hours on a Saturday. I showed them, and they just went, yeah that's cool. I had this moment where I just thought if I was going to paint something on a something afternoon I didn't think it would be an American Girl doll. There's a lot of things I could do, I mean I don't have a lot of personal time anymore. I kind of walked away and that was a failure it didn't work out the way I wanted it to, but a week later, I went into my older daughter Lucia room. She had these papers on the floor, and they were her stuffed animals. She had set them up and she was drawing their portraits. In that moment, I felt like that might just have been one of the most important paintings I’d ever done.

That was the kind of thing I was trying to communicate. I wanted McQueen to feel that- when he spends most of the film trying to do service to his own career, right, service, the thing that he thinks he's most passionate about and terrified of losing actually, actually terrified of losing the one thing that brings him the most joy. I wanted him to see that helping someone else do it is actually not only just as powerful but can be more powerful.

This is one of my most favorite stories we were told about Cars 3. It still makes me tear up, and it is so true. Sometimes the forest does get lost among the trees. Kevin told us:

For me, it was the Doc Hudson McQueen relationship. My dad died and I was the car kid, my brother was the sports kid. He never got to see Cars One, and so the whole McQueen Doc stuff just slays me.

Insert more tears. I know, who would have thought these interviews would be so emotional. It just goes to show you that these films are created from the heart.

They also clued us into some Easter Eggs (WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS):

• Lea isactually on the sound track during Riding on the Freeway of Love with horns and backup singers because she's a singer.
• Lea isBoo in Orange is the New Black so her first moment is when she goes Boo!
• Miss Fritter says “you're going to feel the wrath of the Belleville Unified School District”. Lea actually went to Belleville High School.
• The license plate on Natalie Certain is Kerry Washington’s birthday and New York where she was born.
• Kerry Washington’s son and Armie Hammer’s son are listed in the production babies at the end.

This interview was so insightful for this movie. We could have talked to these guys all day long! Cars 3 is now in theaters so make sure you go see it! I took my kids for my third viewing of Cars 3 at the drive in theater Friday night! They loved it!

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