Mater the Greater is the second short film in the Cars Toons series. It premiered on October 28, 2008, on Disney Channel. The episode follows Mater as a daredevil performing various stunts.
Plot[]
At Flo's V8 Café, Lightning McQueen, Flo, and other townsfolk from Radiator Springs are settling down with oil when Mater does a jump and hits some cans. Mater tells McQueen how he used to be a daredevil and begins his story.
At a dirt stadium, Mater the Greater enters in for his first stunt: jumping a long line of cars. He backs up to the point that he hits the wall, then zooms toward the ramp. However, he only manages to land on the first car and instead tiptoes across the whole line to the other ramp. Mater performs a whole bunch of stunts: a cannon shot through a ring of fire (his hook catches on the ring and burns him), flying on a spinning biplane (Props McGee) (his hook catches on the plane so he doesn't fall off), and jumping from a high board into a pool of water (the pool breaks afterwards). But the biggest stunt Mater ever does is jumping Carburetor Canyon.
At Radiator Springs, Mater reminded McQueen that "[he] was there, too".
Back at the jump, Mater and a scared McQueen, both equipped with rockets, get ready to jump. Mater's pitties, Lug and Nutty, light McQueen's rockets and push him down the ramp towards the canyon to make the jump.
Back in Radiator Springs, Mater reveals that McQueen didn't make the jump and he drives away with Lug and Nutty, who pick up the cans Mater hit earlier, following him.
Characters[]
- Mater
- Lightning McQueen
- Mia and Tia
- Flo
- Sarge
- Fillmore
- Al Oft
- Lug
- Nutty
- Buck the Tooth Vendor
- Props McGee
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Before McQueen could jump the canyon, Mater says, "Git-R-Done!", the catchphrase of his voice actor Larry the Cable Guy.
- Mater's character in this episode is based on the famous stunt performer Evel Knievel, who died in 2007 (a year before this episode was released) due to pulmonary disease.
- In the stadium, stands for brands that sponsored Piston Cup race cars are visible. These include Vitoline, Trunk Fresh, No Stall and Easy Idle. The Tach-O-Mint Hauler also makes an appearance.
- The stadium where Mater performed his stunts was actually the Motor Speedway of the South, the same stadium where the opening race of the first Cars movie took place.
- The ambulance seen at the end of the short after McQueen crashes offscreen is the Rescue Squad Ambulance from Rescue Squad Mater.
- Mater's license plate reads "M8R GR8R" instead of his usual one, "A113". This is an allusion to his character's name in the episode.
- Props McGee appears in the Cars 2 video game along with his counterpart Barney Stormin.
- This is the first Mater's Tall Tales short to be 3 minutes long.
- Daredevil Lightning and Mater the Greater are downloadable playable characters in the Cars 2 video game, the latter of which also appears in Cars 3: Driven to Win.
Errors[]
- When Mater winks at Mia and Tia, both of their tow-cables are red, but at the end of the short, Mia's tow-cable is blue and Tia's tow-cable is white.
