Fans were given a taste of the new art style being used for the 2027 return of a classic Pixar franchise. The beloved animation house has gotten into franchising as of late. While sequels were never out of the question, the California-based movie studio has leaned even harder into its catalog of established IP in the last few years. This has taken the form of the $1 billion-making Inside Out 2 in 2024, the upcoming Toy Story 5 set for release this summer, as well as numerous other projects (like the already announced Incredibles 3 and Coco 2).
There are plans to revive Pixar's classic Cars franchise in 2027; however, it will look a bit different from its previous iterations. Animation insider @GarfieldMovNews on X shared an exclusive first look at the upcoming Cars: Lightning Racers animated series, debuting the brand-new art style the forthcoming TV show will sport to the world.
Instead of the classic, hyper-realistic look of the original Cars trilogy, the Disney Jr. series will feature a Saturday-morning-cartoon aesthetic, with a painterly, almost two-dimensional feel.
The change in look feels much more inspired by the Cars caricature seen in various licensed merchandise for the franchise, as well as by those used in the series' iconography across the Disney Parks.
For comparison, the last Cars TV show, Cars on the Road (which originally arrived on Disney+ in 2022), used a design almost identical to that of the Cars films.
Cars: Lightning Racers was announced in August 2025 as part of the "Disney Jr. Let’s Play" event at Anaheim's California Adventure theme park. The series will come to Disney Jr. sometime in 2027, following the continued adventures of former racing champ Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and his four-wheeled friends. The series will see Wilson return to the franchise, along with Larry the Cable Guy as Mater, Tony Shalhoub as Luigi, Cheech Marin as Ramone, Bob Peterson as Chick Hicks, and John Ratzenberger as Mack.
Will Cars Ever Return to the Big Screen?
The Cars franchise returning to the screen in 2027 is a big deal for fans. The animated series of films has become one of the most beloved amongst Pixar's much-celebrated catalog. However, Cars: Lightning Racers will likely leave some wanting more.
The new animated TV show is exactly that, a TV show. This is nowhere near the full-fledged Cars 4 movie that audiences have been craving since Cars 3 crossed the finish line in 2017. While, at the time, it seemed as though Cars was waving the checkered flag (at least from a theatrical front), there is no reason that the piston-pumping franchise could not have one more lap in it.
During a 2023 appearance at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion Event, Cars creator Jay Ward teased there were "some real fun projects" in the works for the Pixar franchise. This was likely in reference to Cars: Lightning Racers, but who is to say a souped-up big-screen sequel may not be on the cards as well.
Pixar (and Disney overall) has been all about bringing back well-known IP to the big screen over the last handful of years. It is honestly surprising that this initiative has not spawned a Cars 4. Perhaps Lightning Racers is just the appetizer, with a main-course movie sequel coming shortly after.
