Cars Toon

''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 Mater saying, "If I'm lying, I'm crying!" and then the title card. Next, McQueen and Mater see 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 exceptions 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''.

Voice cast

* Larry the Cable Guy as Mater
* Keith Ferguson (2008–2013) / Owen Wilson (2014) as Lightning McQueen
* George Carlin (2009, archive recordings) / Lloyd Sherr (2013–2014) as Fillmore
* Tony Shalhoub as Luigi
* Guido Quaroni as Guido
* Michael Wallis as Sheriff
* Katherine Helmond as Lizzie
* Lindsey Collins as Mia
* Elissa Knight as Tia
* 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.

"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. 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. A PC version was also released outside the United States and on Steam worldwide in 2014.

Home media

A DVD and Blu-ray compilation of the first nine shorts, titled ''Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales'', was released on November 2, 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". "Moon Mater" and "Mater Private Eye" debuted in this set.

"Air Mater" and "Time Travel Mater" were released on '' Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 2'', while the former was also released as a bonus short on home media releases of ''Cars 2''. "Hiccups", "Bugged", and "Spinning" were released on Disney.com and YouTube. "The Radiator Springs 500 ½" was released on '' Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 3''.

YouTube

Disney Junior FR officially uploaded all episodes of Mater's Tall Tales (Martin se la raconte) on its channel starting between December 2012 and December 2014. The episodes have amassed 200 million views with Tokyo Mater (Tokyo Martin) garnering 63 million views alone. Mater's Tall Tales were added to the Disney Jr. YouTube channel from January through August 2024, where they accumulated about 22 million views with the most-watched episodes being Tokyo Mater (17M) and Monster Truck Mater (5M).

Unreleased short

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 the Disney Channel. but it ended up being unreleased for unknown reasons. Despite never being released, it did receive merchandise, including die-cast models and a book. The book contains several images from the short, which confirms that it was completed but, as of now, remains lost media. In the short, Sheriff goes on a mandatory vacation, leaving 2 squad cars in charge. However, the squad cars soon wreak havoc on the town by ticketing everyone for minor offenses.

Short films

''Mater's Tall Tales'' (2008–2012)

''Tales from Radiator Springs'' (2013–2014)

Characters

''Mater's Tall Tales''

''Tales from Radiator Springs''

* ''Note'': A gray cell indicates the character was not in the episode.

References

External links

*

Mater's Tall Tales
on Disney.com
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cars Toons
Film series introduced in 2008
Cars (franchise)
Pixar short films
American computer-animated films
Short films directed by John Lasseter
Tall tales