#a film theory
Just me and my theory a$$, I was raised with gravity falls ok? XDD
…but…are they brother tho? Blitz and the imp Fizz is bassed on?…No? Just me? Ok XDD…
The CCU (Cars Cinematic Universe) takes place in a highly classist society in which it is deemed extremely unorthodox and even disgraceful for Cars of one class to ever interact with others outside their own class. In this essay, I will-
You know what? No, I’m actually going to talk about this.
I feel like one of the biggest examples of this is in the courtroom scene in Cars 1 in which Sally immediately enters the room and Lightning goes “Whoa, a Porsche.” This is literally Lightning addressing the fact that Sally is an expensive and a quote high status car at least in the real world. This idea is further explored and expanded on during the Wheel Well scene in which Sally starts talking about her past and Lightning asks “Well were you rich?” And then when he asks why Sally stayed and Sally says that she fell in love, Lightning is like “Huh, was it a Corvette?” Once again, Lightning is addressing the fact that Sally would be considered and expensive in high status car and would most likely be dating and other car that is considered in that same level.
Then there’s how people treat rusty cars. While it would be understandable to think that the treatment of rusty cars is something along the lines of racism it is shown, that rust is something that can be removed. So the next line of thinking would be ableism. And while that would be true, very well still could be true in this theory, I am not going to talk about it as such because that is an entirely different rant to go on.
Anyways, as I was saying, the treatment of rusty cars isn’t exactly the best. Lightning talks about rusty cars as if they are the scum of the Earth. He says (to Matter!!!) that once he makes it to diet go he no longer have to deal with rusty old cars, he tells Mac that he does not like rusty old cars he generally does not like them. And it seems that rusty cars are aware of this fact? Mater says that he understands what Lightning means when he says this to him, and it says if he has heard it before. And everyone at Rusteeze seems to acknowledge this as well. It’s almost as if it’s an unspoken rule.
Then there’s the Lemons. The Lemons probably have the most proof in this scenario. At the very beginning of the movie one of Mater’s friends breaks down just a little bit outside of Radiator Springs and says that he can’t help it that he’ll always be a Lemon. And while a Lemon is a type of car it is used any derogatory manner in the way Mater’s friend is saying it. Later on in the movie, you find out that Lemons are generally not liked by most of the public. This is to the point where Lemons are literally hatching a scheme to basically become rich and super powerful so that they won’t be disrespected because they literally cannot be if anyone wants to basically survive. Things are basically being treated as lower than anyone else. They are a minority, in a sense. It is so bad that it’s to the point where people have stopped making parts for Lemons in-universe. Mater talks about this while pointing out that Sir Axelrod had to order super expensive, custom parts in order to even be kept working. Finally, in Cars 1 there’s a very small moment during the courtroom scene in which Lizzie brings up an unknown character named Big Al. Ramone responds that Big Al left town ages ago, but as we all know, Lizzie has some major memory problems. This causes her to say to Ramone, “Then why are you bringing her up, you lemon?” Lizzie, who is not a Lemon, uses the word in a derogatory sense aimed at someone else who is also not a Lemon. Something else that is important to mention is that the term “lemon” is a generalized term for a specific group of cars. This can be used to assume that the term “lemon” is essentially a slur in the Cars Universe.
But with the most common thread between these three very different groupings of Cars is how the real world would view them in relation to how good of a car they are. Lemons break down a lot, rusty old cars are usually assumed to just not be very good, both to drive and to look at, expensive cars are usually seen as signs of wealth and privilege, thus representing different social and even economic classes in the CCU.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
