THE EYES IN THE WINDSHIELDS.

Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON

"The obvious thing to do when you draw an animated car is to put the eyes in the headlights,'' Pixar Animation's John Lasseter explained. "But we've got the eyes in the windshields. It gives us a lot more to work with; you don't just have a flat face on the front of a car, but the hood becomes the nose and you can work a lot more expression into it.

"Besides, when we're inside a car, we look out the windows. This way, our characters see the world from where we'd see it, and that makes it a better way to tell stories.''

Lasseter, vice president for creative at Pixar and director of Toy Story and several other Pixar films, was speaking about the movie he is directing for release in June 2006, Cars, in which automobiles and trucks are the characters in the same way fish starred in Finding Nemo or insects in A Bug's Life. Lasseter was also repeating the unexpected message of the daylong AutoWeek Design Forum: When it comes to being passionate about cars, relating to the people involved is more important than the cars.

Lasseter was the keynote dinner speaker for the 12th annual Design Forum, conducted during the preview days for the Detroit auto show. This year's edition was titled A Car's Life: Designed To Entertain.

Lasseter described Cars as the outgrowth of an extended cross-country trip he took with his family (he has five children). He had been working nonstop through the '90s, and he said his wife sat him down and told him if he didn't take some time to spend with them, his kids were going to go away to college without him ever getting to know them well.

"So we bought an RV, and then we dipped our toes in the Pacific and headed east with no other goal than to eventually dip our toes in the Atlantic,'' Lasseter said. Eschewing the interstates, the Lasseters explored America's blue highways, and along the way he drew inspiration for his movie, particularly from Route 66.