7. Pixar's Cars Is Almost A Note For Note Adaptation Of Doc Hollywood
Cars was arguably Pixar's first disappointing film - not that it was bad by any means, but it just didn't feel as fully-fledged as their previous efforts. It was the first time that a Pixar movie failed on the "creativity" front, which might be down to the fact that this was John Lasseter's personal passion project, and that the prospect of "talking cars coming to life" seemed a little more akin to what they do over at Dreamworks. Or maybe it was the story, which concerns Lighting McQueen, a famous, hot-shot racing car who accidentally winds up in a small town on the edge of nowhere and learns to appreciate life and other people and to stop being such a jerk. Sound familiar? It might, granted you've seen Doc Hollywood, the 1991 rom-com starring Michael J. Fox, a movie about a plastic surgeon who ends up a small town on the edge of nowhere and learns to appreciate life and other people and to stop being such a jerk. And to be fair, the pitch for Cars might as well have been "Doc Hollywood with Cars," 'cause that's exactly what this is. Almost note for note, the two storylines run almost in perfect parallel, with a "famous" person/car (that nobody really likes) causing an accident and being "sentenced" to community service in a backwater town. Trapped, Doc/Lighting slowly befriends the townsfolk, falls in love with a small town gal, and learns that there's more to life than what he originally thought. Even the ending is the same: both Doc and Lighting return to their old lives, only to regret leaving their old lives. Of course, both return, nab their respective love interests, and the circle of copyright lawsuits goes on and on...