- ""Francesco always-a wins.""
- —Francesco, talking to Lightning McQueen, [[{{{3}}}]]
Cars 2 - Francesco Bernoulli
Francesco Bernoulli is the tertiary antagonist of Cars 2. He grew up in the shadow of the famous Monza race course in Italy where he and his friends would sneak onto the track and race the famous Pista di Alta Velocita bank turn. He was an instant winner on the amateur circuit and soon became an international Formula Racer champion. The ladies love Francesco's open wheels, youngsters look up to his winning spirit and fellow racers envy his speed. But Francesco's biggest fan is Francesco himself, as evidenced by his racing number. As the most famous race car in Europe, #1 Francesco is a favorite to win the World Grand Prix, which also makes him Lightning McQueen’s chief rival.
Bio
In Cars 2, Francesco is the main antagonist, at least on Lightning McQueen's side of the movie, and is considered very self-centered and cocky. For some reason, Mater can't say his name right. He's always calling him "Mr. San Francisco." In the movie, he first appeared on the Mel Dorado show. Then when they talked about inviting Lightning McQueen, Francesco began insulting him. Mater didn't like Francesco insulting his best friend, so he called the show, telling Francesco to stop insulting Lightning. Then Lightning takes Mater out of the phone, and tells Francesco that he doesn't like his best friend insulted. The two have an argument, ending with Lightning calling Francesco fragile, because Francesco is a Formula 1 car, which Formula 1 cars are actually quite fragile, he takes it as an insult and starts yelling in Italian. Then, Miles invites Lightning to join the World Grand Prix, to which he accepts and joins. Later, Lightning and Mater meet Francesco at the party in Tokyo. Then when they finished their conversation, Francesco shows Lightning a bumper sticker saying "Ciao, McQueen!" Later on, Mater tried the wasabi, mistaking it for pistachio ice cream, which Francesco then laughs mockingly at Mater. Then in the race, he was announced to be good on the straight-aways. When they lined up, he heard Lightning's catchphrase, "I am speed!" He decides to copy it, and say, "Francesco is triple speed!" Then in the dirt section, he fell behind to last place, but was able to catch up to 2nd place. Then when Mater was "going to meet his date," he accidentally gave Lightning some bad racing advice which was to race on the outside, and Francesco who was shadowing McQueen, took the inside, passed McQueen and won the race, which only made their rivalry grow larger. In the second race in Porto Corsa, Francesco hears about Lightning missing his friend, Mater. Then he tells him that it's hard to be far away from home. However, he was at home, and his mama was in the audience. He tells his mama that he will win the race. For most of the race, Francesco was in the lead, but then Lightning passes him and wins the race, with Francesco second. In the third race in London, he was at first seen in the lead, but then Lightning passes him. Then, when Mater with his rockets The race was disastrous, as Francesco kept screaming "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!", due to the escape of Lightning McQueen on Mater with his rockets, which when they zoomed passed him, he was hoping it was a bad dream. Then Holley with her wings passes him, and he freaks out again. By the Radiator Springs Grand Prix, the rivalry between the two had settled down a little, and they can be considered "friends" although they do seem to still be major rivals at times. Before the race, Sally meets him. Lightning introduces them to each other. Then Francesco sees Lightning's bumper sticker, which said "Ka-ciao, Francesco!" The race then started with Lightning in the lead (it was his home track), and Francesco following.
In Cars 2: The Video Game, Francesco re-appears as a playable character.
In Francesco's New Look!, Francesco has decided to visit Radiator Springs, to see his friends Lightning and Mater. However, Mater accidentally swings his tow hook into Francesco's hood, giving him a tiny dent. Francesco claims that a high-media celebrity like himself could never be seen with a dent like that. He asks Ramone to fix him up, and Ramone gets carried away and gives him a flame job.
In Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure, he appears in the second Cars level as part of the main goal. He tells the player and Holley Shiftwell to keep off the Tokyo race course as he has a race to prepare for, only that the player and Holley were searching for a bomb that somebody planted on the course of the Tokyo Grand Prix. They see that the bomb is on Francesco, who doesn't even know about the bomb. The player has to catch Francesco and use a device to disarm the bomb before it explodes. In the ending cutscene, the player deactivates the bomb, only that when the player and Holley investigate the bomb, Francesco asks them what did they want with him. Holley explains that someone sabotaged him with the bomb, only that he's safe now, but he doesn't believe it, saying that it is ridiculous and that he is not easily fooled, before driving away saying to the player and Holley that they are just trying to get into his head, but it will never work.
Personality
Francesco is cocky and self-centered, as proven on numerous occasions with Lightning McQueen. In Cars 2, Francesco serves as the main antagonist on Lightning's part of the film, and has a similar persona to Chick Hicks.
Livery
Francesco is painted red, white and green. He has red rims, as well as black rubber tires that read "Pasta Potenza".
Model
Francesco is based off a Formula 1 race car, as noted from specifications such as open wheels and a long hood. His top speed is 220 mph, with a 0-60 of 2.5 seconds. His engine is a 2.4-liter V-8, 18,500 rpm redline, with a horsepower of 750.
Occupation
Francesco is a world-renowned racing champion.
Development
While developing a Formula One character for the film, the developing team realized that a such open-wheeled car could make much more gesture than normal cars with fenders. Director John Lasseter said: "We don’t typically lift the tires off, partly because of the fender. But I thought, “Wow. To have an open wheel car, like Francesco, it gives us a lot more gestures.”. And so we thought, “Well this guy’s going to be gesturing like crazy. Let’s make him Italian, an Italian Formula 1 car. This will be perfect.”"
Bernoulli’s design took four months to be finalized. as the team worked out where to put the mouth and how to give an F1 car a “windshield” for the eyes. Indeed, F1 cars do not have a windshield. Additionally, they are very long. As says Character Art Director Jay Shuster, "Formula cars have long snouts, so we had to really inflate his form to get the real estate we needed.". Ultimately, the eyes were placed on a sort of helmet that is integrated with the body. The mouth is at the end of a foreshortened nose, and not underneath it as originally envisioned.
The fact that Francesco, as an open-wheeled car, has his suspension visible, posed some unusual problems to the animators. According to Shuster: “Francesco was the hardest design to complete because of his exposed suspension”. As supervising animator Dave Mullins said: "We always have fenders covering the wheels. So we can hide our dirty little secrets underneath the hood, because the chassis is moving around and stretching around. All you really see is the hard body of the car, and the wheels acting. With Francesco, we can see the connection between the wheels and the body. It was one of the big challenges trying to figure out how to support everything that’s going on with the body."
The original suspension had to be reinvented in order to support all the stretchings that Francesco's gestures would cause, and the team had important struggles to achieve a believable suspension. Jay Shuster said: "We realized that when he takes off his front wheels, he's stretched like a rubber band and it's really ugly. Something like that took about two months to figure out what was going on—we developed a whole telescoping arm that had a pivot point." “The kind of physical expression we were able to get from Francesco’s movement took a lot of work but really looked great in the end. He was able to achieve these really extreme poses.”
According to Story Supervisor Nathan Stanton, Francesco's character constantly reminded the development team of the character John Turturro played in The Big Lebowski. Consequently, John Turturro was chosen to voice Francesco.
Appearances
Feature Films
Video Games
Comics
Merchandising
- 1:55 Scale Diecast (regular, metallic, chrome)
- Micro Drifters
- Action Agents
- LEGO
- LEGO Duplo
- Disney Store Diecast Line (regular, Chase metallic)
- Shake 'N' Go
- Tomica
- Geotrax
- Wood
- AppMates
Trivia
- Francesco’s last name, Bernoulli, is a reference to Daniel Bernoulli, a Dutch/Swiss mathematician who published ground-breaking theories on fluid dynamics and the conservation of energy.
- Francesco's pit crew chief is Giuseppe Motorosi.
- On Francesco's side is a logo presenting the letters FR in a design similar to the F1 logo. It is the abbreviation of "Formula racer", his racing league.
- Francesco's tires are "Rotelli Tires Pasta Potenza". Potenza makes allusions to Bridgestone's Potenza tires, which were used by all Formula One teams from 2007 to 2010. Note that "Pasta Potenza" would literally mean "the power of pasta". "Rotelli" is a play between Rotini, a type of pasta, and Pirelli, which is now the official F1 tire supplier. It is possibly also a reference to Italian sports cars being called "Pasta Rockets".
- Many fans like to pair him with fellow racer Carla Veloso, though it is unknown why.
- Francesco often refers to himself in the third person.
Quotes
- ""Women respect a car that has-a nothing to hide.""
- —Francesco, at the party in Japan., [[{{{3}}}]]
- ""Grazie di arrivederci!" (Thank you, goodbye!)"
- —Francesco passing Lightning in Tokyo, after Lightning thinks Mater told him to go outside., [[{{{3}}}]]
- "Darrell Cartrip: "Hey, what was your strategy today?"
Francesco Bernoulli: "Strategia? (Italian for "Strategy?") Francesco needs-a no strategy! It's-a very simple. You start the race, wait for Lightning McQueen to choke, pass him, then win. Francesco always-a wins. It's-a boring."" - —Darrell Cartrip asks Francesco what strategy he used to win the race in Tokyo., [[{{{3}}}]]
- "Francesco Bernoulli: "This is impossible!"
Lightning McQueen: "That's what I'm talking about! Ka-chow!"
(a bunch of ambulances pass them with their sirens on)
Lightning McQueen: "Wh- What happened? Where are all the other cars?"
Francesco Bernoulli: "What is going on?"
(they look at the screen to see the huge pile up.)
Lightning McQueen: "Oh, no!"" - —Francesco and Lightning, after the race in Italy., [[{{{3}}}]]
- ""What is happening?! It's a bad dream!""
- —Francesco, after Mater zooms past him with his rockets., [[{{{3}}}]]
- ""WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?!""
- —Francesco, after Holley Shiftwell zooms past him., [[{{{3}}}]]
Gallery
