Cars Toons is a series of shorts based on Cars. The show aired on Toon Disney, Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC Family, Disney Jr., and one was even shown in theaters.[1] Its first broadcast was on October 27, 2008 and ended on May 20, 2014. From 2008 to 2012, the series consisted only of episodes of Mater's Tall Tales. A new series of Cars Toons called Tales from Radiator Springs debuted on March 22, 2013.
Cast[]
- Larry the Cable Guy as Mater
- Owen Wilson / Keith Ferguson as Lightning McQueen
- George Carlin / Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore (archive footage)
- 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)
Synopsis[]
Mater's Tall Tales[]
Mater's Tall Tales is a short series based on Cars, featuring Mater (who's now the titular protagonist) and Lightning McQueen (who's now the deuteragonist).
All of the episodes follow the same tall tale sequence: Mater tells a story of something that he has done in the past. In the story, Mater finds himself in an inescapable predicament.
When Lightning questions Mater over whether the events in the story actually occurred, Mater always claimed that Lightning was also involved, often saying, "Don't you remember? You was there, too!" (or some other variation). Then, Mater continues to tell the story, including Lightning's sudden participation. The episodes end with Mater leaving the scene, often followed by characters or references to the story that was being told, suggesting that the story might be real.
Unused Episodes[]
The DVD/Blu-ray release of Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales included in its bonus features several abandoned concepts of Tall Tales:
- "Runway Mater"
- "Stunt Mater"
- "Backwards to the Forwards"
- "Mater Goes to the Car-Nival"
- "Import Mater"
Tales from Radiator Springs[]
Disney Channel debuted three new 90 seconds shorts during an airing of Up on March 22, 2013. Categorized as "Shorty Shorts", the three shorts are named "Hiccups", "Bugged", and "Spinning", and were classified under the new denomination Tales from Radiator Springs. All three are directed by Jeremy Lasky and produced by Mary Alice Drumm.[2] They are the first Cars Toons not to revolve around Mater.
Two new Cars Toons episodes called "The Radiator Springs 500½" and "To Protect and Serve" were announced at D23 Expo 2013 and set for a release in 2014 on Disney Channel.[3][4]
In March 2014, it was announced that "The Radiator Springs 500½" would be released in spring 2014, in the Tales from Radiator Springs series, while a second short is set for 2015.[5] "The Radiator Springs 500½" premiered on Disney Movies Anywhere on May 20, 2014,[6] then later on Disney Channel on August 1, 2014.[7] In October 2014, it was announced that the second short is "To Protect and Serve".[8] However, since its announcement, the second short has actually never aired.
It is very likely that "To Protect and Serve" as well as any planned Cars Toons after that were canceled due to the declining popularity and underwhelming reputation of the Cars franchise after Cars 2, and so that Pixar could focus on the development of Cars 3, since the movie had started pre-production shortly before the release of "The Radiator Springs 500½."
Episodes[]
Mater's Tall Tales[]
| No. in Series |
No. in Season |
Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 01 | "Rescue Squad Mater" | October 27, 2008 |
| Mater is working as a fire truck and has to rescue Lightning McQueen from a burning building. After he saves McQueen, he rushes the racecar to the hospital where the tow truck reveals that he is also a doctor. | |||
| 02 | 02 | "Mater the Greater" | October 28, 2008 |
| Mater is a daredevil and dresses in a style resembling 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. | |||
| 03 | 03 | "El Materdor" | October 29, 2008 |
| 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. | |||
| 04 | 04 | "Tokyo Mater" | December 12, 2008 |
| Mater offers to tow home a stranded Japanese car inspired by the Toyota Century, 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 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 by Kabuto's ninjas and then helps Mater catch up with Kabuto. Kabuto makes a cameo appearance in Cars 2, just before McMissile shows up at the party.
Note: this short premiered alongside the Disney movie Bolt in theaters. | |||
| 05 | 05 | "Unidentified Flying Mater" | November 20, 2009 |
| Mater finds a small UFO called Mator and they have a night out. Later, when Mator is captured by the military forces, Mater sneaks up and saves him with the help of Lightning McQueen and the UFO's mother. | |||
| 06 | 06 | "Monster Truck Mater" | July 30, 2010 |
| Mater is a professional Wrestler who works his way up the ranks from amateur to World Champion Monster Truck Wrestler, wrestling 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. | |||
| 07 | 07 | "Heavy Metal Mater" | October 8, 2010 |
| 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, "Dad Gum", 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. | |||
| 08 | 08 | "Moon Mater" | November 2, 2010 |
| Mater is the first Tow Truck on the moon. His mission: 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. | |||
| 09 | 09 | "Mater Private Eye" | November 2, 2010 |
| Mater is a private investigator working on a 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. | |||
| 10 | 10 | "Air Mater" | November 1, 2011 |
| A tow service leads Mater to Propwash Junction, a town of 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 their 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. | |||
| 11 | 11 | "Time Travel Mater" | June 5, 2012 |
| 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 traveling radiator caps salesman. With the realization, that if Stanley goes away there would be no Radiator Springs, Mater brings McQueen from the future, and Stanley sells him a radiator cap. Mater then suggests Stanley to settle there and build a town where he could serve broken cars, and Stanley accepts. Jumping a few years forward, Stanley shows Mater and McQueen the expanding town, when Mater takes a note of a broken 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. Introduced to each other by McQueen, he and Mater make another time jump, where they attend the Stanley and Lizzie's wedding, before returning back in the present time. There, Lizzie thanks McQueen for introducing her and Stanley. | |||
Tales from Radiator Springs[]
| No. in Series |
No. in Season |
Title | Air date | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 01 | "Hiccups" | March 22, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||
| Lightning McQueen gets hiccups from his from drinking his breakfast of champions: oil. Many of the Radiator Springs residents give him advice on how to cure the "annoyingness", but none of the ideas work—until Sally Carrera, Lightning McQueen's girlfriend, kisses him on the cheek... and his hiccups disappear. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | 02 | "Bugged" | March 22, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||
| Red’s peaceful morning routine is interrupted by a pesky visitor. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | 03 | "Spinning" | March 22, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||
| Guido discovers he has a hidden talent as a street corner sign spinner. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | 04 | "The Radiator Springs 500½" | May 20, 2014 | ||||||||||||||||
| Radiator Springs celebrates a Founders Day honoring the late Stanley when a gang of Baja racers descend on the town and challenge Lightning McQueen to a race. | |||||||||||||||||||
|
05 | To Protect and Serve | |||||||||||||||||
Production[]
Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Wallis, Guido Quaroni, Lindsey Collins, Elissa Knight, and others all reprised their voice roles from the movies. Owen Wilson did not return to voice Lightning McQueen in the episodes before "The Radiator Springs 500½",[5] which McQueen was voiced by Keith Ferguson in those episodes, this possibly due to him going through suicidal depression at the time. Though Nathan Stanton claims that Lloyd Sherr, who voiced Fillmore in any Cars media that came out after 2008, replaced the late George Carlin in the series,[9] Carlin is credited at the end of Unidentified Flying Mater through archive recordings.
Merchandise[]
Toys[]
It was announced that Cars Toons were to be released as part of the Disney·Pixar Cars Die-Cast Line in mid-2009. In October 2009, they released several die-casts. Die-casts have been released for all episodes of season 1. They have also produced die-casts for all of season 2's shorts except for "Mater Private Eye".
Video game[]
A video game based on the Mater's Tall Tales series was released on October 19, 2010 for the Wii.[10][11] Outside the United States, a PC version was also released.[12]
Release[]
On November 2, 2010, the first 7 Cars Toons episodes, plus the next 2 episodes exclusively, were released on DVD and Blu-ray,[13][14] the same day on which Toy Story 3 was released on DVD and Blu-ray. With the exception of "Mater the Greater", which is played first in the collection, the episodes have corresponding opening sequences of Mater appearing and saying "If I'm lyin', I'm cryin'" in different ways, when the viewer selects the "play all" option.
"Air Mater" was released with the DVD and Blu-ray release of Cars 2. Also, "Air Mater" and "Time Travel Mater" were included on Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2 (however, it didn't include the ending scene of "Air Mater").
Note: An updated version of the "play all shorts" cut was released on certain Disney TV Channels worldwide adding "Air Mater" and "Time Travel Mater", as well as unique intros for the "If I'm lyin', I'm cryin'" part for each of the two shorts. The cut ends with a clip of Mater alluding to the events of Cars 2. This clip actually came from the Cars 2 video game trailer, although it uses a black background instead of the original white.
Trivia[]
- The second Cars production to be produced in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, after Mater and the Ghostlight.
- This is the first Cars production to use the 2006-2022 logo of Walt Disney Pictures.
Cast and characters[]
Mater's Tall Tales[]
| Character | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | |||||||||
| Rescue Squad Mater | Mater the Greater | El Materdor | Unidentified Flying Mater | Tokyo Mater | Monster Truck Mater | Heavy Metal Mater | Moon Mater | Mater Private Eye | Air Mater | Time Travel Mater | |
| Tow Mater | Larry the Cable Guy | ||||||||||
| Lightning McQueen | Keith Ferguson | ||||||||||
| Luigi | N/A | Tony Shalhoub | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||||
| Guido | N/A | Guido Quaroni | Guido Quaroni | N/A | |||||||
| Ramone | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |||||||
| Flo | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||||||||
| Sarge | N/A | N/A | |||||||||
| Fillmore | N/A | George Carlin (archival recording) |
N/A | ||||||||
| Sheriff | Michael Wallis | ||||||||||
| Red | N/A | ||||||||||
| Lizzie | Katherine Helmond | ||||||||||
| Stanley | John Michael Higgins | ||||||||||
| DJ | E.J. Holowicki | ||||||||||
| Wingo | Adrian Ochoa | ||||||||||
| Boost | Jonas Rivera | ||||||||||
| Kabuto | Tony Kobayashi | ||||||||||
| Ito-San | Robert Ito | ||||||||||
| Mia | Lindsey Collins | ||||||||||
| Tia | Elissa Knight | ||||||||||
Tales from Radiator Springs[]
| Character | Hiccups | Bugged | Spinning | The Radiator Springs 500 ½ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mater | Larry the Cable Guy | N/A | Larry the Cable Guy | |
| Lightning McQueen | Keith Ferguson | Keith Ferguson | Owen Wilson | |
| Sally | Bonnie Hunt | Bonnie Hunt | ||
| Luigi | Tony Shalhoub | Tony Shalhoub | ||
| Guido | Guido Quaroni | Guido Quaroni | ||
| Flo | Jenifer Lewis | Jenifer Lewis | ||
| Sarge | Paul Dooley | Paul Dooley | ||
| Fillmore | Lloyd Sherr | Lloyd Sherr | ||
| Sheriff | Michael Wallis | Michael Wallis | ||
| Red | Jerome Ranft | N/A | ||
| Ramone | Cheech Marin | |||
- Note: A grey cell indicates the character was not in the series.
References[]
- ↑ Disney-Pixar to Premiere Its First Disney Digital 3-D(TM) Short Film Oscar(R)-Winner John Lasseter Directs Animated Short Based on "Cars" Character
- ↑ Three ‘Cars’ Shorty Shorts Debut Tonight On Disney Channel
- ↑ Twitter
- ↑ D23 Expo Round-Up: 'Toy Story of Terror', New Cars Toons on the Way
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lightning McQueen revs his engine off-road in Pixar's new Radiator Springs short -- EXCLUSIVE
- ↑ Disney/Pixar's 'Cars' Roar Back in a New Short
- ↑ Get Your Motor Running: A New Pixar Cars Toon Is Coming to Disney Channel
- ↑ Exclusive First Look at the Upcoming Cars Toon 'To Protect and Serve'
- ↑ Story Supervisor Nathan Stanton CARS 2 Exclusive Interview
- ↑ Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales
- ↑ Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales
- ↑ Cars Toon : Mater's Tall Tales (Game, PC)
- ↑ Cars Toon: Mater’s Tall Tales Blu-ray
- ↑ Report: Cars Toons BD/DVD on Nov. 2; no 'Nemo' Blu-ray (2 UPDATES)
External links[]
Cars Toons on WikipediaCars Toons on Pixar Wiki
Cars Toons on Pixar Cars Wiki
Cars Toons on Disney.com
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