Pixar, Disney+ Release 9 Episodes of 'Cars on the Road,' a New Series

• Disney/Pixar takes another step into the Cars universe with the release of a new streaming series, Cars on the Road.

• The nine episodes follow beloved Cars characters Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater on a cross-country road trip to Mater's sister's wedding.

• The themes of the episodes range from an encounter with Mad Max-style ragers in the desert to a Jurrasic Park-style encounter with giant dinosaurs.

Everyone loved Cars, the 2006 animated feature film from Pixar that introduced the world to Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Sally and Doc as well as the desert town of Radiator Springs. It was an idealistic, downright Frank Carpaesque look at life in a small, forgotten town populated by iconic but somewhat nutty personalities that just happened to be automobiles… and tow trucks, tractors, and the occasional snorting farm implement.

It was an enormous hit. The first Cars grossed half a billion dollars worldwide, not counting all the profits from those #95 Lightning McQueen fuzzy slippers, school backpacks, and the CarsLand section of Disney’s California Adventure park next to Disneyland. The movie succeeded because it drew on universal themes of friendship, loyalty, and the extended family that often masquerades as the many characters of small-town life.

Disney and Pixar have spent the years since that first lovable movie trying to replicate the magic of the original Cars. Cars 2 came out in 2011, visually rich and evocative but so confusing that even the main characters couldn’t follow what was going on. The somewhat redemptive Cars 3 in 2017 had glimmers of the original’s warmth and message mixed in with historically accurate characters from NASCAR history. There were other features: Planes, and Planes: Fire and Rescue, as well as a series of shorts called Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales. And there was a separate short about Baja racers somewhere in there, too.