Three new “Shorty Shorts” from the animated franchise Cars popped up on Disney’s website today. The original film and its sequel show the adventures of Lightning McQueen, a race car who gets stuck in the town of Radiator Springs, and the friends he makes there. Each of the shorts comprises a “tale from Radiator Springs,” giving the viewer insight into more of the day-to-day goings on of the fictional town from the films. While the first Cars was a big success, Cars 2 wasn’t received as warmly. By putting out these shorts, Disney could be hoping to reach out to a new young fanbase, seeing as how Cars came out in 2006. I doubt that there is a Cars 3 in the works due to the underperformance of the sequel, but keeping an interest in the franchise might lead to a possible TV series or other project that could could build up some revenue.  Hit the jump for the shorts.

The three clips allow for some of the films’ supporting characters to stand out, such as Guido in the clip “Spinning,” which shows him attracting attention by spinning a sign for Luigi’s tire shop, and Red in the clip “Bugged.” The final short, “Hiccups,” involves many more of the characters trying to figure out how exactly to get Lightning McQueen to stop hiccuping. Each of the shorts was directed by Jeremy Lasky, who has done cinematography work on Toy Story 3, WALL-E, and Finding Nemo.  Click on each link to view the clip.  We'll have embeds up when they are made available.

Via Jim Hill Media/Disney.com.