| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Producer: | Kimberly Adams |
| Runtime: | 2–7 minutes |
| Released: | – |
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".
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").
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.
See main article: List of Cars characters.
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.
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.
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]
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]
"Air Mater" and "Time Travel Mater" were released on Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 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.
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.[10] 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.
| Characters | Rescue Squad Mater | Mater The Greater | El Materdor | Tokyo Mater | Unidentified Flying Mater | Monster Truck Mater | Heavy Metal Mater | Moon Mater | Mater Private Eye | Air Mater | Time Travel Mater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mater | Larry the Cable Guy | ||||||||||
| Lightning McQueen | Keith Ferguson | ||||||||||
| Tia | Elissa Knight | ||||||||||
| Mia | Lindsey Collins | Lindsey Collins | |||||||||
| Guido | Guido Quaroni | Guido Quaroni | |||||||||
| Fillmore | |||||||||||
| Sheriff | Michael Wallis | ||||||||||
| Kabuto | Mach Tony Kobayashi | ||||||||||
| Ito-San | Robert Ito | ||||||||||
| Skipper | Stacey Keach | ||||||||||
| Judge Davis | Jonathan Adams | ||||||||||
| Sparky[11] | Danny Mann[12] | ||||||||||
| Stanley | John Michael Higgins | ||||||||||
| Lizzie | Katherine Helmond | ||||||||||
| Character | Hiccups | Bugged | Spinning | The Radiator Springs 500 ½ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning McQueen | Keith Ferguson | Keith Ferguson | Owen Wilson | ||
| Mater | Larry the Cable Guy | Larry the Cable Guy | |||
| 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 | colspan="2" | |||
| Ramone | Cheech Marin | ||||
| Lizzie | Katherine Helmond | ||||