Pixar Debuts Brand New ‘Cars’ Short

Recently Disney launched their ambitious Disney Movies Anywhere platform, a kind of virtual locker that allows you access to all of your favorite Disney movies, syncs with your iTunes account, and occasionally offers you exclusive behind-the-scenes material or, in this case, a brand new animated “Cars” short entitled “The Radiator Springs 500 ½.” As long as you’ve got a Disney Movies Anywhere account you can watch it for free, right now.

The short, part of the wonderful “Cars Toons” series, is one of the first with the “Tales from Radiator Springs” label (most of the previous installments have been branded “Mater’s Tall Tales” and involve the bucktoothed tow truck getting into outlandish, highly improbable adventures), one that opens up the world a little bit to encompass the world of Carburetor County. In this short, co-directed by Rob Gibbs and Scott Morse (a comic book creator responsible for the beloved “Soulwind” series), a leisurely stroll through the land just outside of Radiator Springs becomes a high-octane descent into madness when some off-road racers challenge Lightning McQueen to a cross-country rally.