''Cars Toons'' is a television series of American

computer-animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...

short films produced by Pixar. It features the main characters Lightning McQueen and

Mater Mater is a formal Latin term for mother and may refer to: Places *Mater, Belgium, a village near Oudenaarde Health care Australia *Mater Health Services, Brisbane, Australia * Mater Health Services North Queensland, which incorporates: ** Mate ...

from Pixar's ''Cars'' franchise non-canonically in the original plot. 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 on both

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...

and

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. 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'' being the final short to be made.

Premise

''Mater's Tall Tales''

All ''Cars Toons'' in ''Mater's Tall Tales'' follow a shared formula: Each episode opens with

popping out of his garage door and declaring, "If I'm lyin', I'm cryin'!" (or a variation thereof as seen on the home media and television releases) before cutting to the episode's title card. Each episode then properly begins with Lightning 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 the former proclaims that the latter was also involved by saying, "Don't you remember? You was there too!" (or also some other variation thereof). The flashback then resumes with McQueen's sudden and usually unwilling participation in the story's events. After Mater finishes telling his tall tale (with the exception of ''Tokyo Mater''), McQueen denies the fact that Mater's tale is real and Mater replies, "Well, suit yourself!" (or also some variation thereof) before one or more characters/elements involved in the story coincidentally appear to McQueen's shock, paradoxically suggesting that Mater's story really happened. Each episode ends with Mater and McQueen posing in their corresponding story's costumes, with the exception of ''Tokyo Mater''. All episodes also feature Mia and Tia and various pit crew

forklift A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...

s in supporting roles (with the exception of ''Time Travel Mater'').

''Tales from Radiator Springs''

All ''Cars Toons'' in ''Tales from Radiator Springs'' simply follow the comedic antics and adventures of McQueen, Mater and their friends in their hometown Radiator Springs, following the events of ''

Cars 2 ''Cars 2'' is a 2011 American computer-animated Spy film, spy comedy film produced by Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Cars (film), Cars'' (2006), the second film in the Cars (franchise), ''Cars'' f ...

''.

Voice cast

* Larry the Cable Guy as

* 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 Jerome Ranft is an American character sculptor and voice actor for Pixar Animation Studios. He is the younger brother of the late Pixar story artist Joe Ranft. Career Ranft attended Fullerton College and the California College of the Arts. He g ...

as Red (only in ''Tales from Radiator Springs'')

Production

After the success of '' Cars'', production of ''Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales'' began in 2006. 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 in the US with ''

Bolt The BOLT Browser was a web browser for mobile phones including feature phones and smartphones that can run Java ME applications. The BOLT Browser was offered free of charge to consumers and by license to mobile network operators and handset manuf ...

'' on December 12, 2008. The short is the first Disney· Pixar production presented in Disney Digital 3-D. However, the DVD release features a different short, ''

Super Rhino ''Super Rhino'' is a 2009 American computer animated comedy direct-to-video short film, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and starring the characters from feature film '' Bolt''. Directed by Nathan Greno, the short film picks up sometime ...

''.

Sulley Sulley may refer to: Entertainment * James P. "Sulley" Sullivan, one of the main protagonists of the 2001 film ''Monsters, Inc.'' *"Sulley", a song from the film soundtrack of the film ''Monsters University'' People *Sulley Muntari, a Ghanaian so ...

and Mike from the 2001 film ''

Monsters, Inc. ''Monsters, Inc.'' (also known as ''Monsters, Incorporated'') is a 2001 American computer-animated Monster movie, monster comedy film produced by Pixar, Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, B ...

'' (also made by Pixar) make cameo appearances in "Tokyo Mater" as their car forms from the ending of the first film.

Release

Merchandise

It was announced that ''Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales'' was to be released as part of the ''Disney·Pixar Cars Die-Cast Line'' in mid-2009. In October 2009, they released several die-casts. They released all of the "Rescue Squad Mater" and "Mater the Greater" die-casts, and they are working on "El Materdor" die-casts and reverse.

Video game

A video game based on the series also titled ''Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales'' and developed by Papaya Studio, was released on October 19, 2010 for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

. A PC version was also released outside the United States and on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

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 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", with ''Moon Mater'' and ''Mater Private Eye'' created exclusively for this set. Choosing the "Play All" option from the menu gives each short (except for ''Mater the Greater'' which plays first) unique intros. The remaining two episodes of ''Mater's Tall Tales'', "Air Mater" and "Time Travel Mater" were released on the Pixar Short Film Collection, Volume 2. And the three episodes of ''Tales from Radiator Springs'', "Hiccups", "Bugged" and "Spinning" were released on YouTube. The remaining episode of ''Tales from Radiator Springs'', "The Radiator Springs 500 ½" was released on the Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 3.

Future

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

, but to date this has not occurred.

Episodes

''Mater's Tall Tales'' (2008–12)

''Tales from Radiator Springs'' (2013–14)

Characters

''Mater's Tall Tales''

''Tales from Radiator Springs''

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

References

External links

*
Mater's Tall Tales
on Disney website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cars Toons Cars (franchise) Pixar short films 2008 American television series debuts 2014 American television series endings 2000s American animated television series 2010s American animated television series American children's animated comedy television series American animated television spin-offs Animated television shows based on films English-language television shows Television series by Disney Television series based on Disney films Television series by Pixar Disney animated television series American computer-animated television series Animated television series about auto racing Short films directed by John Lasseter