From Roger Rabbit to Monsters, Inc

IT is the car that runs on children's screams. You won't find it in a London traffic jam, but it is one of the stars of the monster hit computeranimated epic, Monsters, Inc.

which will be in a cinema near you from today.

Styled like a Mini convertible with teeth, the car is the wheels of monsters Mike and Sulley (via the

voices of actors John Goodman and Billy Crystal). They live in a world where everything is powered by children's screams, but there's a problem. Kids don't frighten as easily as they used to. That means that too often our monstrous duo have to walk. Director Pete Docter said: "In Monstropolis, the sky's the limit and we knew we could do just about anything design-wise.

We started with buildings that could move and talk." And this was just a small step away from a scream-powered car.

Like the talking buildings and their inhabitants, the multiheadlamped car is no longer the product of teams of animators drawing thousands of pictures. As with Toy Story they're all realised using high-tech computer equipment. With each new animation movie it's become ever more powerful. The system used for Monsters, Inc. has twice the power of the one that brought Woody and Buzz Lightyear and Rex the dinosaur to life in Toy Story back in 1995.

The Monsters, Inc. car was created to fit into surroundings inspired by real-life factories and flats. It's part of a movie where the characters live in a parallel world, which is weird but recognisable. As a result, Mike and Sulley's motor isn't completely outlandish.

This motorised marvel is the latest in a long line of wheeled stars to appear in animated films and cartoons from the earliest Disney, through to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, TV's Wacky Races, Noddy and Wallace and Gromit, to name a few. The list of automotiveinspired features and short animated movies is endless.

But what makes a good cartoon motor? "The vehicles must reveal something about their owner's story," said Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park.

"Wallace and Gromit's bike and sidecar was based on a Triumph Tiger Cub from the Fifties because that seemed to have the chunky style that I wanted," he says.

"We needed something that would be an icon from the era, like the Batmobile.

They needed to be able to do their window cleaning in it and the sidecar had to be aeroplaneshaped because it had to fly.

"Most of all, perhaps, I love the old-style British engineering in

Top toon transport

Wallace and Gromit's bike with its flying sidecar Anything in Wacky Races The jeep in Gorillaz Noddy's motor car Fred Flintstone's stone and wood feetthroughthe-floor car Monsters, Inc's screaming wheels RC, the remote control car in Toy Story Toon Spin, the car in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

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