Cars may not be the pinnacle of Pixar’s oeuvre, but the animated franchise might just be worth a second look.
According to evidence put forward by The Film Theorists, which contradicts the very title of the film, the cars in Cars are not cars.
Instead, the theory claims Lightning McQueen and the gang are actually ‘highly evolved forms of insect’ that fit into that supposedly seamless Pixar Timeline.
It might sound far-fetched, but before you scoff and start chuntering about tin foil hats and exaggerated Easter eggs, The Film Theorists have put forward a very convincing argument in this 14-minute investigation.
In a nutshell, the theory states the cars in Cars are ‘living creatures with internal organs protected by a car-like exoskeleton’.
They have come to this mind-boggling conclusion after noticing that Lightning McQueen, Mantle and the convoy repeatedly act like sentient humans and even have the same biological functions as organic beings.
Throughout the film and its animated short spin-offs, the characters can be seen eating, drinking, moving and even breathing oxygen, just like insects.
According to The Film Theorists – who ruined our childhoods when they revealed Wall-E is cannibalistic – one Pixar animator even let slip that the cars don’t open their doors because the metal outer shell protects their ‘brain’.
As if that’s not enough to take in, if this theory were true, it would also impact upon the current Pixar Timeline.
Cars currently sits between Up and Wall-E, thousands of years after Syndrome from the Incredibles takes over the world with his super-advanced AI.
However, this new ‘car-like insect’ theory could place Cars after Antz, illustrating the natural progression of highly intelligent sentient insects, like Z and Bala, evolving into super machine-like bug beings, like Lightning and Mantle.
Don’t believe me? Just watch the video for yourself:
Mind. Blown.
While you’re trying to reorganise your perspective on life and its meaning, you can watch the trailer for the upcoming Cars 3 below:
Meanwhile, if this theory has even the tiniest semblance of fact, I’m left wondering: Do the ‘cars’ in Cars get car insurance or life insurance?
Disney and Pixar announced that Cars 3 will be released on June 16, 2017.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.