here is an extract from an article found on electric-escape.net today. It is a conversation between Cars director John Lasseter and Animation supervisor Doug Sweetland during a daily:

At one point, McQueen must make a decision during a race, and he slams to a halt. As Sweetland, one of two “Cars” supervising animators, reviewed the rough animation in a screening room, Lasseter took out his laser pointer and circled McQueen’s eyes, which, like all of the film”s anthropomorphic characters, are built into the windshield.

Sweetland thought McQueen was trying to figure out what to do next, and therefore needed to close his eyes and collect his thoughts, the way the scene was animated. “Isn’t it about McQueen’s trying to decide what he’s doing?” Sweetland asked.

“I hear what you are saying. I just don’t agree with you,” the director told Sweetland.

Lasseter believed the character knew precisely what he was about to do next, and was only settling himself before acting. A squint, Lasseter felt, would show McQueen’s resolve. Closed eyes, he believed, would read as indecision. Sweetland saw it differently, and was concerned that McQueen would come across as arrogant, rather than confident. “I don’t want him to be full of his own narcissism,” he said.

Lasseter wasn’t buying it. “I think we are over-thinking this,” said the director, whose last film was 1999’s “Toy Story 2.” “We want the audience to say, ‘What the hell is this guy doing?’ But McQueen knows what he is doing.” Sweetland still demurred. After a few minutes, the debate became, well, animated. Michael Stocker, one of the dozen or so other animators in the room, interjected that he could change the performance of McQueen”s mouth (part of the bumper), which might suggest that the character is sorting through his options.

“What if I just had him breathing?” Stocker wondered. Again, Lasseter considered the idea, and then — pleasantly but firmly — dismissed it. “That’s not the way the scene was conceived,” he said. Sweetland and Stocker finally conceded the point, and Lasseter came over to hug Sweetland. “Good discussion,” he said, patting him on the back.