Red Space Rocket

How are archetypes used in the film Cars?

“I am speed,” the hero says to himself. He is moments away from his big moment. As soon as he bursts onto the screen, we recognise him as a hero. As the story of the Pixar film Cars unfolds, we recognise many other classic characters as well: the love interest, the comic sidekick, the destroyer and the wise old man, to name a few. These character archetypes do not just appear in cartoons; they are common across stories and across cultures. This idea of archetypal characters originated with Carl Jung who proposed seven characters that reappear in stories across cultures. Other writers have added to this list over the years. We can see many archetypal characters in the Pixar film Cars. In this story, Lightning McQueen is a young, hotshot race-car who is close to winning the prestigious Piston Cup. His plans take a detour and he discovers a new way of seeing the world in the little town of Radiator Springs. With the help of his new friends, McQueen becomes a better racer and a better person. Many archetypes are obvious in this story, in particular the hero, the comic sidekick, and the old man wizard.

The archetypal hero is young, courageous, handsome, and often naive; this perfectly describes Lightning McQueen, the central character. In stories generally, the hero is little more than a boy. He is often fresh faced and optimistic. We see these characteristics in McQueen who shiny, modern and new and is often referred to as the rookie, an American term for someone inexperienced. Moreover, he is a good-looking car, but he is also naive. His selfish and narrow view is that racing is just about being fast and winning. He has no consideration of others, as we see when he fires his pit crew and chooses to work alone. When comparing the qualities of the archetypal hero with what we see of Lightning McQueen, we see that he perfectly embodies this archetype.

Heroes rarely work alone, most have a loyal comic sidekick, in this case the rusty tow-truck, Mater. The sidekick is instantly different to the hero. Where the hero is handsome, the sidekick is perhaps plain or clumsy. Where the hero is brave and strong, the sidekick is loyal but often needs the hero to save him. Finally, where the hero might get to be funny now and then, the sidekick is steadily funny, often at his or her own expense. Mater fits this archetype perfectly. Instead of being shiny and modern like our hero McQueen, he is rusty, sorry-looking, and missing his bonnet. Mater has skills (he teaches McQueen to drive backwards), but he could never hope to win a professional race himself. Instead, his virtue is loyalty. “I knowed I made a good choice,” he earnestly tells McQueen as he declared that our hero McQueen is his best friend. Finally, no description of Mater would be complete without mentioning his comedy value. He commonly misunderstands what is said or messing up what he is saying. If our sidekick is loyal and funny, then Mater is your man (or two-truck).

Often, a hero needs more than courage and a loyal friend to complete his journey. He needs to guidance is a wise old man, or old man wizard. Arthur had Merlin, Harry Potter had Dumbledore and, in Cars, McQueen is guided by the venerable racing car Doc Hudson. The archetypal old man wizard is often male, wise, and open up the hero’s view of the world. We can often also spot the old man wizard because his appearance is like something from an earlier time. This is our first clue that Doc Hudson is the old man wizard in this story. In contrast to McQueen sleek and modern style, Doc has the classic flowing lines of 1950’s Americana. Where McQueen is literally minded, Doc has the wisdom to know that “if you’re going hard enough left, you’ll find yourself turning right.” Most importantly, Doc changes McQueen’s view of the world. By the end of this story, our hero sacrifices a certain win to help another race-car, the King. He has learned from Doc Hudson that there is more to being a great car that just winning. By these characteristics and actions, we recognise our old man wizard, Doc “The Hudson Hornet” Hudson.

These are just three of the character archetypes that we see in the Pixar film Cars. These easily recognised characters enable us to quickly understand characters and appreciate the interaction between them. When we see McQueen and Mater interact, we enjoy the puppy-like loyalty that the sidekick shows the hero. We find it heart-warming to see the hero learn to have fun from the foolish sidekick. Likewise, once we recognise Doc Hudson as an old man wizard, we understand and appreciate the clash between him and our hero, and the eventual transfer of wisdom. Far from dumbing-down the storytelling, archetypes enable us to tell rich and entertaining stories like using timeless and familiar characters.

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There is also a version of this as a Word document. This document included comments explaining how the essay is structured. I would encourage you to read this before you write your essay about “Killed by Death.”