"Luigi", a Fiat 500 who runs the local tyre shop, will be one of the animated stars of Pixar Studio's latest hollywood movie blockbuster "Cars" which goes on general release this Friday. The tyre shop (called the "Casa della Tires") will be home to the "Leaning Tower of Tyres" and as an avid racing fan, "Luigi", who is a 1959 version, is biased toward Ferrari sportscars. Actor Tony Shalhoub from TV's "Monk" will provide Luigi's voice.

The movie, which will be the seventh blockbuster from the Pixar Animation Studio, is set to be one of the summer's big international hits and will neatly raise awareness of the iconic "500" brand name just as Fiat Centro Stile are in the midst of putting the finishing touches to a successor to the famous tiny car which revolutionised Italian post-war motoring. The new model will be based on the Panda platform, is set to be built at Fiat's Tychy factory in Poland and take its styling cues from the well-received recent 'Trepiuno' 3+1 seat concept car.

The animated movie "Cars" will focus around Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, but who discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. On route across the country to the big Piston Cup Championship in California to compete against two seasoned pros, McQueen gets to know the town's offbeat characters -- including Doc Hudson (a 1951 Hudson Hornet with a mysterious past, voiced by Paul Newman), Sally (a 2002 Porsche voiced by Bonnie Hunt), and Mater (a rusty but trusty tow truck voiced by Larry The Cable Guy) and of course Luigi the Fiat 500 (voiced by Tony Shalhoub) - all who help him realise that there are more important things than trophies, fame and sponsorship. The all-star vocal cast also includes free-wheeling performances by Michael Keaton, Cheech Marin, George Carlin, Katherine Helmond, and John Ratzenberger.
 

Delivering more fun and authenticity to the cast for "Cars" are vocal performances from some of the all-time greatest names from the racing world including the legendary Richard Petty, plus "drive-on" roles by Mario Andretti, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Darrell Waltrip (who holds the record for five-wins in the NASCAR Coca Cola 600), and Michael Schumacher, the ace German Formula One racing legend, who is a seven-time Grand Prix World Champion, and is widely considered to be the best Grand Prix racing driver of all-time.

Cars, the seventh animated feature film to be created by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures, is directed by Pixar's two-time Academy Award-winner John Lasseter, who directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2. Cars is produced by Darla K. Anderson (A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc.). Cars will be the final original film produced under Disney and Pixar's highly successful partnership.

Pixar Animation Studios combines creative and technical artistry to create original films in the medium of computer animation. Pixar has created and produced six of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: Academy Award-winning Toy Story (1995); A Bug's Life (1998); Golden Globe-winner Toy Story 2 (1999); the Academy Award-winning Monsters, Inc. (2001); the Academy Award-winning Finding Nemo (2003), and The Incredibles. Pixar's six films have earned almost US$3 billion at the worldwide box office to date. The Northern California studio's next release is Cars (June 9, 2006).