A Cars-Style Makeover For The Desi Cycle Rickshaw

Mumbai: Artists of Disney - Pixar's popular animation franchise Cars, who have designed the adorable Cars characters including a Hybrid, Le Mans endurance racer, a Porsche 911, a Hudson Hornet, a Wrecker Tow-Truck, and the famous Chevrolet Impala, are in awe of the Indian cycle rickshaw. Cars 3 story artist, Michael Daley, who helped create the first visuals (the blueprint) of the film, has made a Cars-like sketch of the Indian three-wheeler and says, "I thought it's pretty interesting to make a Cars character out of a rickshaw." The line-up of Cars includes a tow truck, a Porsche, a Willy's Jeep and a forklift. The central character of the franchise is a racer named Lightning McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson.

Though he has never been to India, Michael Daley finds the combination of a part bicycle and part carriage quite attractive. Mr Daley adds, "However, they weren't that ornate, so I decided to put a little more detail but not get too crazy because I was trying to make it simple and storyboard type of drawing. So, I did a lot of research on these awesome Indian rickshaws on the internet and it was very important to decide where to put the face; the eyes and the mouth. Some of these rickshaws had a boxy feel or a blank spot in the front where the handlebars were and I just chose that place to put the eyes and the mouth. Usually you put the eyes and mouth on a big blank spot on the cars; usually the windshield but we needed a spot to put for some of these character's faces and eyes in a spot where you can see very clearly like what they are doing without using the headlamp. It was just interesting to see how the rickshaws worked, and it sent me down a huge hole of research on how the handlebars attached to the wheels, the carriage at the back; so looking at all of that I had to do a very simplified version to get the basic idea across without getting too crazy complicated so it was really fun to do research on."

Cars 3, directed by Brian Fee, releases in India today. The voice cast also features Armie Hammer, Nathan Fillion and Kerry Washington.