Get your motor running and get out on the highway, because Cars on the Road is revving up! The Pixar property may not be the most critically acclaimed of the animation house’s many films, but it has a fervent fan base (it turns out six-year-old boys love cars) and they’ll be absolutely chuffed to know that all eight episodes of the first season are now screening exclusively on Disney+.
Set mere months after the end of 2017’s Cars 3, Cars on the Road follows race car Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and his best bud, pick-up truck Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) as they head out from sleepy little Radiator Springs on a cross-country road trip to attend the wedding of Mater’s sister, Mato (Dana Powell). While Lightning would be happy to catch a ride on Mack (Pixar lucky charm John Ratzenberger), Mater insists there’s only one way to do a road trip right – on your own four wheels.
Of course, adventure awaits on the open road, and our hard-driving heroes encounter all sorts of wild scenarios and weird characters along the way, including new friend Ivy (Quinta Brunson), a monster truck. The cast is filled out with an impressive mix of returning favourites and new models, including Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Jenifer Lewis, Tony Shalhoub, Lloyd Sher, Guido Quaroni, and Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez (no sign of Armie Hammer’s Jackson Storm, for some reason).
And while the Cars franchise has always been unabashedly aimed at kids, there’s fun stuff here for the grown ups, with pop culture references a-plenty. Our favourite might be all of episode eight, “Road Rumblers”, which sees Lightning and Mater forced to do battle in the “Thundercone” by a motely assortment of spiked and modified vehicles who wouldn’t look out of place on the Fury Road. What a lovely day, indeed.
