Pixar looks global with Cars 2

<i>Cars 2</i>. Photo / Supplied

There's a scene early in the new highly-anticipated Pixar animated film Cars 2 where the hero, US race car Lightning McQueen, attends a glitzy party in Tokyo where glasses topped with high grade motor oil flow freely.

The shindig is for the launch of the World Grand Prix, a race staged in multiple countries and attracting the world's fastest cars.

Australian audiences will probably have a giggle when a car decked out in an Australian flag rolls up to McQueen at the party and gives him a hearty g'day.

The Aussie car is voiced by V8 Supercars star Mark "Frosty" Winterbottom.

It is a great marketing opportunity for Winterbottom, although it is not a global one.

If you watch Cars 2 in a cinema in North America, Europe, Asia, South America or Africa, don't expect to see the Aussie car or hear Winterbottom's voice.

In a clever marketing move by the Disney-owned studio behind the movie, Pixar, there are different versions of the Tokyo party scene, with famous race car drivers edited in to give the film a local flavour.

The Mexican version of Cars 2 features the voice of a famous Mexican driver. In the Spanish version, it is a well-known Spanish racer.

"In the individual markets, we go to who is the iconic racer in that market and we try to tailor a part, a voice or 'drive on' role for them in that version of the film," Pixar executive Jay Ward, who serves as the company's guardian of the Cars franchise, tells AAP.

Small touches like this have made Pixar the most successful Hollywood studio of the past decade and its boss, John Lasseter, who directed the original Cars and Cars 2, one of the film industry's most powerful figures.

Pixar, located outside of San Francisco, came from humble beginnings.

It began in 1979 as an unheralded segment of the computer division of George Lucas' movie production company Lucasfilm, was bought by Apple's Steve Jobs in 1986 for US$5 million (NZ$6.16 million) and produced computer animated TV commercials until striking gold in 1995 with its first feature film, Toy Story.

Pixar has never had a box office flop, with its films, including the Toy Story trilogy, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Up, WALL-E, Ratatouille and Cars, earning more than US$6 billion (NZ$7.4 billion) worldwide, universally praised by critics and claiming 26 Academy Awards.

In 2006, Disney bought Pixar in a US$7.4 billion (NZ$9.13 billion) deal.

While some Hollywood studios are guilty of making movies aimed at the lucrative North American market, Lasseter, who holds the title of Disney animation's chief creative officer, says Pixar has its eye on films that US and non-US audiences can enjoy and relate to.

Components of that include inviting locals, like Winterbottom, for "drive on" cameos and scripts that do not get lost in translation.

"We have really thought about our films not just being made for the North American market, but for the world," Lasseter says.

"The largest growth in theatrical distribution in theatres has been international (non-US markets).

"Where originally it was half of the US box office, it is now at least double, if not three times the box office.

"It is very important for us."

Finding Nemo, released in 2003, made US$867 million in theatres around the world, with just US$339 million of that from North America while 2009's Up made US$731 million, with US$293 million from the US and Canada.

Cars, released in 2009, with its US storyline, fared better in North America, collecting US$244 million of its overall haul of US$461 million, but with the sequel set in Japan, Italy, France and England and with a sprinkling of territory-specific cameos like Winterbottom, Cars 2 is expected to have larger global popularity.

It also worked well that not only are Japan, Italy, France and England major car manufacturing nations, but are also some of the biggest non-US movie markets.

"One of the things I stayed focused on was 'What are the big automative countries? What countries that traditionally make cars?'," Lasseter, explaining the countries where the Cars 2 storyline visits, says.

"Then you look at what are our biggest international markets.

"They align, which was nice for the subject matter."

The Cars 2 script does not stop in Australia, but Pixar was aware of the popularity of V8 Supercars and Winterbottom in Australia.

"There's so many countries that are passionate about their cars and racing and in Australia, obviously, Supercars is huge," Ward explains.

*Cars 2 opens in NZ cinemas on June 23

-AAP