[jekylljuice]

It's just occurred to me - I wonder how this is going to affect Pixar's recently-annouced sequel to Cars? Paul Newman's voice and presence as Doc Hudson was easily the strongest thing about the original for me, and now that he's completely out of the picture, I'm left feeling even less enthusiastic about the project than I was previously. A part of me strongly believes that the most respectful thing to do would be retire the character of Doc Hudson altogether, rather than try to find someone to impersonate him (I've seen a lot of similar discussion concerning how Jim Varney's absence will be dealt with the upcoming Toy Story 3). I would certainly miss him, but Paul's beautiful and distinctive vocals succeeded in making the role so uniquely his own that I just can't forsee anybody else being able to pull it off satisfactorily.