Pixar's Boy Stories by Shannon R. Wooden

Author:Shannon R. Wooden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Precision Instruments”

It may seem that a film in which all the characters are machines would have a hard time essentializing masculinity and condemning alternate performances of manliness. Ironically, though, even in the Pixar films most celebratory of technology—Cars and Cars 2—which idolize in art and story those “precision instruments of speed and aerodynamics” that populate the world of auto racing, a sense of embodied masculinity reigns supreme, reifying the traits that yet characterize hegemonic American manhood, and contrasting dramatically with alternative masculinities. The original film’s plot may domestically redirect Lightning’s acclaimed horsepower—showing him how to fix roads, to rescue old friends, and to attract a new girlfriend rather than just vanquish other young men in sport—but its essential masculine superiority remains unquestioned. Doc, one of the most decorated Piston Cup racers of all time, narratively represents a spiritual father figure, handing down knowledge and wisdom from his experience with racing and its business culture, but he also marks a lineage of body type, having won three of the coveted trophies himself before injuries forced him into retirement. If any doubt remains as to the bodily superiority of the racecar over less powerful automobiles, the film directly praises Lightning’s body numerous times, from his own brags to Sally’s observation about his horsepower to Lizzie’s crowding around to admire the “sexy hotrod.” If, younger and less mature than established alpha males like Doc and the King, Lightning needs to develop self-control and a social conscience, his is held up as an exemplary male body all the same: Mater’s, Guido’s, Fillmore’s, and even Sarge’s bodies are not in the same league. (The large, quiet, but emotionally volatile Red, it seems, dutifully watering his flowers, belongs in another category altogether.)

By the time the sequel begins, Lightning, at least four years older and wiser, has assumed his rightful place as Doc’s heir, not only as a pillar of Radiator Springs but also apparently as the winner of several Piston Cups himself. Nevertheless, the narrative catalyst of Cars 2 calls Lightning’s essentially superior manhood into question. In light of the gauntlet publicly thrown down by Miles Axelrod and Francesco Bernoulli, through their invitation to compete in the World Grand Prix, Lightning’s winning one more race unexpectedly becomes necessary for him to maintain his hypermasculine position. Lightning’s American frame is far from a shoo-in for victory when pitted against Formula 1 and Indy cars on the global stage. But the plot ends up measuring his masculinity against rubrics other than rival race cars, contrasting his supposedly excellent embodiment of manhood with a variety of alternative masculine types. Lightning not only faces the delicate-framed European favored (by some) to win the race, after all, but also, like Mr. Incredible, encounters an angry engineer capitalist and, like Sulley, crosses paths with a group of unfashionable, physically inferior “losers.” Once again, size and ability triumph over all other qualities in what becomes an international celebration of the American jock and his blue-collar brawn. Worse, in this film, the bully society turns violent, literally.

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