SATURDAY SIX: Our Favorite CARS Details at Disney’s ART OF ANIMATION Resort

This week’s SATURDAY SIX takes a look at 6 Amazing CARS Details at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort! The original Cars is one of our all time favorite Pixar films and is right up there with Ratatouille, Up, and The Incredibles. When Disney California Adventure opened up Cars Land, we were more than a bit jealous, but one thing we did get in Florida is the incredible Cars wing at Art of Animation (AOA.) The rooms, the buildings, and even the hotel’s lobby are filled with incredible details and references to the film, many of which might go unnoticed by the average guest. Today we’re going to take a look at some of our favorite Cars-related details, and let’s kickoff the countdown with…

# 6 – Pixar Autographs on Cars Storyboards in the Chandelier

The lobby of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is one of the most unique on property, and is a downright must see for animation fans. The highlight of the entire area is the stunning Storyboard Chandelier. The star burst-like chandelier is made up of hand drawn storyboards from the four films that make up the sections of AOA (The Little Mermaid,  The Lion King, Finding Nemo, and Cars.)

 

If you look closely at some of the storyboards, you’ll see that several of them are signed by people involved in the films.  For example, Jodie Benson and Pat Carroll – the voice actresses for Ariel and Ursula in The Little Mermaid – both have autographed storyboards featuring their characters from the film. This chandelier is legitimately one of the coolest design features in all of Walt Disney World.

For the Cars storyboards, some of the biggest names from the history of Pixar can be found in the Chandelier. There is no name bigger than John Lasseter, the director of Cars and former Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering. Lasseter has signed a storyboard featuring Lightning McQueen.

The signature is fading from being hit by direct sunlight over the years, but it is still there.

Jerome Ranft was a character sculptor for Pixar and brother of the late Joe Ranft (screenwriter with credits that include some of our favorite animated films including Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King.) Jerome signed a drawing featuring Mater cow tipping that was actually drawn by his brother. Jerome also worked on some of the larger than life sculptures we see in the Big Blue Pool area in the Finding Nemo section of AOA.

Director Josh Cooley (Toy Story 4) also worked on Cars and even hand colored the storyboard that he autographed back when Pixar originally had it made for the film. The storyboard features Lightning McQueen chasing down Chick Hicks and The King. Note that in this drawing, which was made early in the development of the film, Lightning McQueen was numbered 57 instead of the number 95 we know him as today (we’ll get to that later in this article.)

Robert Baird, the writer behind Big Hero 6 and Monsters University has autographed a storyboard featuring an angry Chick Hicks bound and determined not to finish behind The King again. Baird was a part of the story developmental team on Cars.

Jay Ward, the actual Cars Legacy Guardian, has his John Hancock on a storyboard featuring the moment where Snotrod wakes up the tired Mac.

# 5 Lightning McQueen #57 in Lobby

While we are still in the AOA lobby, let’s check out some of the artwork on the wall facing the check-in desk. Starting from when you enter the lobby, the drawings progress from the earliest concepts of the film all the way to the end with the characters that we know and love.

For Cars, one of these drawings include Lightning McQueen with the number 57. While we know Lightning with the number 95 today (a number that references 1995, the year the original Toy Story film was released) during the development of Cars, McQueen’s 57 was referencing 1957, the year John Lasseter was born.

Further down the wall we see a more fully realized version of McQueen, now with his 95 number.

# 4 – Hidden Mickeys AND Hidden Cars

Next we’ll head over to the actual Cars wing of AOA, and everyone who has been there knows what a great job Disney did in recreating a small scale version of Radiator Springs. One thing that many guests like doing at all of the Disney hotels is finding the “Hidden Mickeys” around the resort. AOA has Hidden Mickeys in all four wings of the resort, including Cars, but one thing it also has is… Hidden Cars. The buildings all have cloud formations at the top of them, but if you look closely a couple of those clouds are actually in the shape of cars driving around!

One of the Hidden Mickeys you can find is appropriately made out of tires and hubcaps.

# 3 – Puntastic Decals

A great part of the Cars wing is that the actual residents of Radiator Springs are out and about for photo ops. ‘Mater, Doc Hudson, the Sheriff, Ramone, Flo, Mater, Sarge, Fillmore, Sally, and Lighting are all out for guests to take photos with.

Each of the cars have details that you probably wouldn’t notice while watching the film, especially all the stickers for Lightning McQueen and Fillmore.

Like NASCAR cars in our world, McQueen has a bunch of ads on him that feature parodies of human products such as Gasprin (for aspirin) along with fun play on words such as Mood Springs instead of mood swings.

Leak Less Adult Drip Pans, as Larry the Cable Guy – the voice of Mater – would say, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny.”

Lightning also drives on Lightyear tires. This is a two-for-one gag in that it’s a take on the Goodyear tires we have in our world, but also referencing another Pixar character, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.

You will also see Lightyear tires represented at Luigi’s Tires.

Fillmore is covered in bumper stickers with clever takes on being pro-recycling and for the environment (along with a little conspiracy theory.)

Loved this Save 2D Animation sticker, and one thing that is important to know is that even with the computer animated pictures like Cars, they all start with hand drawn 2D art (such as the storyboards that make up the lobby of AOA.)

Fillmore also has a registration-like sticker that mentions “Luxo.” Luxo is the official mascot of Pixar and is that little lamp you see jumping across the screen at the start of every Pixar film.

You will see creative wordplay throughout Radiator Springs, including signage for the Knights of Combustion, a humorous take on the Knights of Columbus organization.

# 2 – License Plates

Most of the actual cars in this area have traditional license plates (McQueen being an exception) and some of them have some really cool references. Mater’s plate is A-113 and this is a reference that can be seen in many Pixar films because it is a call out to classroom A113 at the California Institute of Arts. This is where a class was held for graphic design and character animation, and many of its students have gone on to help make many of the animated classics – and live action films – that we treasure today (including John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, Tim Burton, and John Musker.)

Sarge’s license plate is 41WW2, referencing that his vehicle is a World War 2 Army Jeep.

Fillmore’s license plate 51237 is referencing the birthday of George Carlin, the comedian who originally voiced the character. Carlin passed away in 2008, two years after the first Cars film.

Doc Hudson’s license plate references his old racing number (51) the initials of his card model Hudson Hornet (HH) and (MD) for him becoming a doctor when going to Radiator Springs.

The good ol’ Sheriff got plate #001 in Carburetor Country.

Luigi’s plate is an interesting one. With 44.5-10.8 it has the quick joke that it appears to be based on the metric system, which makes sense since Luigi is clearly Italian. However, it appears the reference goes even deeper than that, with the numbers actually referring to the GPS latitude and longitude coordinates for Modena, Italy – the Italian province where the Ferrari factory is located. That is next level bananas. Incredible!

Because Guido is a forklift and not an actual vehicle for the road, he doesn’t have a license plate, just the Alza Facile manufacturing logo. Alaza Facile means “Lift Easy” in Italian.

While Flo’s SHO GIRL vanity plate isn’t all that noteworthy, the Motorama 1957 above it is. As we mentioned earlier, the 1957 refers to John Lasseter’s birth year, and the Motorama refers to a completely bonkers car show held on the Pixar campus.

Meanwhile Ramone has LOW N SLOW, which references a line Flo says to him in the original Cars film. Ramone’s reply? “Oh yeah baby!”

# 1 – The Nighttime Transformation

As a Cars fan, one of my favorite parts of the movie is when Lightning surprises Sally by showing her all the neon in Radiator Springs lighting up at night. It’s a truly special moment in the film and Cars Land in California recreates it nicely as well. While the entire Cars section at AOA isn’t filled with a ton of neon, it does have several pieces of neon along with other lighting features that really make the area pop at night.

Disney has a lot of great resorts, but very few of them have a transformation when the sun goes down like the Cars wing at AOA. After a long day at the theme parks, it’s nice to walk back to an area that is remarkably different looking than the one you left in the morning, and if you’ve only seen the Cars section during the day it’s worth a walk over at night to check out the area.

Love seeing the headlights working on the vehicles.

It’s great seeing the “moving” neon elements, such as the cannon firing at Sarge’s Surplus Hut or the sleeping car catching their Z’s in the Cozy Cone sign.

HONORABLE MENTION – There’s Even MORE Great Details!

There are so many great references in the Cars area of AOA that we couldn’t possibly get to them all, but keep your eyes open and you’ll see some very funny jokes or things from the film brought to life.  It’s a terrific area and – for me – by far and away the best place to stay at Art of Animation.

So there you have it: Our Favorite CARS Details at ART OF ANIMATION! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on BlueSky (@derekburgan).

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FINAL PLUG! Did you know The 2026 Unofficial Guide to Universal Orlando has a special edition of the SATURDAY SIX in it? Finally, someone came up with an actual reason to read a book. Everything you need to know on Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, Volcano Bay, all the onsite hotels, Citywalk AND – of course – Epic Universe. Written by Universal Orlando experts Seth Kubersky and the Permit Princess Alicia Stella, stop what you are doing and ORDER this baby now!