Our Exclusive Review of Radiator Springs 500½ - The Characters, the Die Cast Cars & The Details

Pixar's latest tale, Radiator Springs 500½, is packed full of fast-paced action, eye-catching camera angles and puns atop of puns. All this adventure is balanced perfectly against a leisurely stroll as the townspeople retrace Stanley's original frontier route as he discovered Radiator Springs. Before you read any further though, if you haven't already watched the six minute and twenty second short film yet, be sure to head over Disney Movies Anywhere and watch it for free.

The town of Radiator Springs is just about to kick off their annual "Stanley Days" celebration (in honor of their town's founder), when Mater spots a cloud of dust in the distance. A group of baja racers has sped into town looking for Lightning McQueen (having heard he was the fastest race car around). Shortly thereafter the baja racers insult Stanley prompting Lightning to utter, "Looks like our leisurely drive just turned into a race".

Mater informs the racers of their course with a series of extremely quick and confusing directions which sets up the ensuing chaos. While the racers are speeding their way across the terrain, Mater leads the rest of the gang on the relaxing frontier path. When Mater and crew arrive back in town, they wonder where the racers are (they should be back by now). As the racers speed back into town after dark, they are humbled by Stanley's bravery - they can't understand how a car like Stanley could have traveled on such a treacherous journey (not knowing that they took a completely different path).

We had previously mentioned how excited we were to see a few of our favorite Radiator Springs characters with new paint jobs, but after seeing all of the characters, we really think Pixar did an outstanding job giving the entire gang an early 1900's look (since Stanley founded Radiator Springs in 1909). At one point, Flo even jokes that she's, "roaring her 20's" as Lightning McQueen asks, "Everyone dressed for adventure?" That was just one of many puns which are spread across the entire short - in fact, we love the quirky nature of the jokes as the Rimshot Pitty rolls into frame hitting his drums with the signature, "ba-dum-crash".