October 27, 2008 (2008-10-27) – May 20, 2014 (2014-05-20)
Running time
2–7 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Cars Toons is an American animated short series based on the Cars franchise. It features Lightning McQueen, Mater, and their friends in comedic antics and adventures canonical to the films. Larry the Cable Guy reprises his role as Mater while Keith Ferguson replaces Owen Wilson as the voice of Lightning McQueen until "The Radiator Springs 500 ½", when Wilson reprises his role.
The series premiered on October 27, 2008 with "Rescue Squad Mater" on Disney Channel, Toon Disney and ABC Family. Not exclusive to television, the shorts were also released on home media and/or as theatrical shorts. The series ended on May 20, 2014 with "The Radiator Springs 500 ½".
Premise
Mater's Tall Tales
All Cars Toons in Mater's Tall Tales follow a shared formula: Each episode opens with McQueen and Mater seeing something that results in the latter proceeding to tell the former a “tall tale” about something he supposedly did in the past, before the action shifts to the flashback of Mater's story. At a midway point, the action briefly shifts back to Mater and McQueen in which McQueen questions Mater over whether the events in the story actually occurred (or in some episodes asks him what he did next), resulting in Mater proclaiming that McQueen was also involved. The flashback then resumes with McQueen's sudden and usually unwilling participation in the story's events. After Mater finishes his tall tale, McQueen denies the fact that Mater's tale is real before one or more characters/elements involved in the story coincidentally appear to McQueen's shock (with the exception of "Tokyo Mater", "Unidentified Flying Mater" and "Time Travel Mater"), paradoxically suggesting that Mater's story really happened.
All episodes also feature Mia and Tia and various pit crew forklifts in supporting roles (with the exception of "Time Travel Mater").
Tales from Radiator Springs
All Cars Toons in Tales from Radiator Springs follow the daily lives of McQueen, Mater and their friends in their hometown Radiator Springs, following the events of Cars 2.
Jerome Ranft as Red (only in Tales from Radiator Springs)
Production
Production of the series began in 2006 following the success of Cars. The first nine shorts were produced by Pixar, while all the following shorts were produced by Pixar's subsidiary, Pixar Canada.[1]
"Tokyo Mater" premiered in theaters with Bolt on December 12, 2008. The short is the first Disney/Pixar production presented in Disney Digital 3-D.[2] However, it is not featured on the film's home media releases. Sulley and Mike from Monsters, Inc. make cameo appearances in "Tokyo Mater" as their car forms from the credits of the first film.
Release
Merchandise
The Disney·Pixar Cars Die-Cast Line included die-casts of various characters from the shorts, including "Rescue Squad Mater", "Mater the Greater", and "El Materdor", in the toy line.
Video game
A video game based on the series titled Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales was developed by Papaya Studio and released on October 19, 2010 for the Wii.[3][4] A PC version was also released outside the United States and on Steam worldwide in 2014.[5][6][7]
Home media
A DVD and Blu-ray compilation of the first nine shorts, titled Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales, was released on October 31, 2010. The compilation includes "Mater the Greater", "Rescue Squad Mater", "Monster Truck Mater", "Unidentified Flying Mater", "El Materdor", "Moon Mater", "Heavy Metal Mater", "Mater Private Eye" and "Tokyo Mater".[8] "Moon Mater" and "Mater Private Eye" debuted in this set.[9]
In addition to "The Radiator Springs 500 ½," which was released in 2014, director Rob Gibbs revealed at the 2013 Disney D23 Expo a fifth Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs episode titled "To Protect and Serve." The short was expected to debut in 2014 on Disney Channel,[10] but it ended up being unreleased.[11]
Mater is working as a fire truck and has to rescue Lightning McQueen from a burning building. After he saves McQueen, the ambulance rushes McQueen to the hospital where Mater reveals that he's also a doctor (with an MD, PhD, STP and GTO).
Mater is a daredevil, dressing in a style like that of Evel Knievel. In a stadium, Mater attempts to jump a long line of cars, but instead merely tiptoes over them. He performs other stunts, and later claims Lightning McQueen failed to jump over Carburetor Canyon while strapped to a rocket.
Mater is a matador fighting a herd of bulldozers in Spain. When Lightning McQueen enters the story, the bulldozers chase after him due to his red paint job.
Mater offers to tow home a stranded Japanese car inspired by the Toyota Century (named Ito-San), but ends up in Tokyo, Japan after hauling him all the way across the Pacific Ocean. He is subsequently challenged to a race by the Drift King Kabuto (a car resembling Boost, the leader of The Delinquent Road Hazards), with the winner being crowned "King of All Drifters" and the loser being stripped of all custom modifications to become a "stock" car. "Lightning Dragon McQueen" shows up to help Mater fend off an attack from Kabuto's ninjas and then helps Mater catch up with Kabuto and win the race.
Role: Drift KingGuest stars: Robert Ito as Ito San, Mach Tony Kobayashi as Kabuto
Mater befriends a small flying saucer called Mator and they have a night out. When Mator is captured by the military forces, Mater sneaks up and saves him with the help of Lightning McQueen and Mator's mothership.
Mater, alias "The Tormentor", is a monster truck wrestler who works his way up the ranks from amateur to World Champion Monster Truck Wrestler, fighting against all kinds of characters along the way. These trucks include the I-Screamer, Captain Collision, The Rasta Carian, Dr. Feel Bad, and Paddy O'Concrete. When faced with his biggest opponent yet, the Monster of Dr. Frankenwagon, Mater tags in his "tag team partner", Frightening McMean (Lightning McQueen).
Mater is a rock star in a heavy metal band. He starts out in a garage band called "Mater & The Gas Caps" and rises to the top with his hit song, "Dadgum" (which bears a heavy-metal style by accident when the drummer goes crazy trying to kill a fly on the drum while recording an album), a song based on the line Mater is famous for. Lightning McQueen joins him on stage in the middle of a huge concert and they rock into history.
Mater is the first tow truck to land on the moon, with the mission to rescue the Impala XIII by giving him a tow and bringing him back to Earth. Lightning McQueen joins Mater and they are met with a hero's welcome.
Mater is a private investigator working on an open-and-shut case of counterfeit tires, when Tia rolls back into his life. She hires Mater to find her sister, Mia, who's been car-napped. Mater searches for clues and closes in on a major crime scene. Lieutenant Lightning McQueen arrives just in time to help bring the criminals to justice.
A tow service leads Mater to Propwash Junction, a town populated by planes. Amazed by all these flying machines, Mater gets interested in learning how to fly when he sees Skipper's Flight School, which has a sign that says they could teach anyone. After learning how to fly, he learns himself to fly backwards and amazes a group of stunt planes known as the Falcon Hawks. Since one of them has sprained a wing during practice for a stunt show, they ask Mater to take place of the injured plane. He accepts and becomes the stunt planes' new member. Lightning McQueen, also a stunt plane, helps Mater at one point when he is in trouble.
Accidentally gaining the ability to travel in time, Mater travels back to 1909 in the middle of a desert where he meets Stanley, the founder of Radiator Springs, who works as a travelling radiator caps salesman. With the realization, that if Stanley goes away there would be no Radiator Springs, Mater brings McQueen from the future to which Stanley sells him a radiator cap. Mater then suggests Stanley to settle there and build a town where he could serve broken travelling cars, and Stanley accepts. Jumping to 18 years in the future, in 1927, Stanley shows Mater and McQueen the expanding town when Mater takes a note of a broken Ford Model T, which turns out to be Lizzie. Lizzie's seemingly falling in love with McQueen makes Mater panic again about Radiator Springs' future, but it turns out that Lizzie had her eye on Stanley. After Stanley and Lizzie were introduced to each other by McQueen, he and Mater make another time jump, where they attend Stanley and Lizzie's wedding before returning to the present. There, Lizzie thanks McQueen for introducing her and Stanley.
Lightning McQueen gets hiccups while drinking oil. Many of the Radiator Springs residents give him advice on how to cure the hiccups, but none of the ideas work until Sally kisses him on the cheek, curing McQueen of his hiccups. Sheriff then starts getting hiccups, which leads to Mater, thinking that kissing will help all hiccups, attempting to kiss Sheriff to cure them, leading to a chase between Sheriff and Mater.
Luigi assigns Guido to shake his store's sign to draw in customers. When Guido discovers his hidden talent as a street corner sign spinner, he draws in a huge crowd.
Note: This is the last Cars Toon episode to feature Keith Ferguson as the voice of Lightning McQueen.
Radiator Springs celebrates a Founders Day honoring the late Stanley when a gang of racers descend on the town and challenge Lightning McQueen to an off-road race.
