Customer Reviews

Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales (Two Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For those of you who do not have the Disney Channel, Mater's Tall Tales are five minute CGI animated shorts based on characters from Pixar's Cars. They are about the tow truck, Mater, regaling his friends on his numerous (and outrageously unrealistic) adventures such as meeting a UFO, being a world famous bullfighter, professional wrestler or daredevil, and other crazy situations. These shorts always fall back on the same joke where Lightning McQueen challenges Mater's tale as being true and Mater replying with, "Don't you remember? You was there too", which ends with McQueen being in the thick of the tall tale.

The animation quality is on par with the movie. Plus you get appearances of other Cars characters like Sally, Red, Mia and Tia and more. They even get just about all of the original actors to do the voiceovers with the notable exception of Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen (replaced by veteran voice talent Keith Ferguson). All in all a fun little cartoon to fill time between shows on Disney.

This Blu-Ray collects all of the shorts ever released and a couple that haven't come out yet. This totals nine cartoons, so it's not exactly a large amount of content at about 40 minutes. You do, however, get about 50 minutes of additional features to whet your whistle. Here's a list of the bonus stuff:

Paths to Pixar - Similar featurette to the ones on other Pixar collections this has interviews with Pixar artists, editors and such and gives insights on their experiences and other career details.

Studio Stories: McQueen Has No Hands - The challenges of manipulating a map when your character doesn't have any hands.

Mater: Bumper to Bumper - Goes into detail about the creation of Mater and how he is animated.

Making of Mater's Tall Tales - Self Explanatory. Documentary on creating the Mater shorts from conception to finished product.

Unmade Tales - Some of the ideas that didn't make it to production. Each one has an intro by Director Rob Gibbs and are pitched by the story artist. Tales include Runway Mater, Stunt Mater, Backwards to the Forwards, Car-nival and Import Mater.

Cars Toons Story Reels - Mater the Greater, Unidentified Flying Mater and Mater Private Investigator all shown in their conformed storyreels shown against the final audio track. You also have a picture in picture option to see both the reel and the finished product.

Cars Land Sneak Peek - Just as it says you get to see the upcoming Disney California Adventure attraction Cars Land. Mainly behind the scenes stuff.

If you love the movie Cars and/or the Mater shorts then of course this is the disk for you. Makes me wonder if they will re-release the Toy Story Treats that were done in 1996 somewhere on a Blu-Ray collection. Just keep in mind you are paying for about 90 minutes of content including all of the bonus features. It's a short disk.

NEW! Never Before Seen
1. Moon Mater
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.

NEW! Never Before Seen
2. Mater Private Eye
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.

3. Monster Truck Mater
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. When faced with his biggest opponent yet, Mater tags in his "tag team partner," Frightening McMean.

4. Heavy Metal Mater
Mater is a rock star in a heavy metal band. He starts out in a garage band and rises to the top with his hit song "Dad Gum." Lightning McQueen joins him on stage in the middle of a huge concert and they rock into history.

5. Rescue Squad Mater
Mater is a fire truck that rescues Lightning McQueen from a burning building. When McQueen is rushed to the hospital, he discovers that Mater is a doctor, too.

6. Mater the Greater
Mater is a famous daredevil who does all kinds of stunts. And Lightning McQueen becomes an unwilling participant in Mater's greatest stunt ever.

7. El Materdor
Mater is a famous bulldozer fighter in Spain. He's so good, he's able to fend off multiple bulldozers at once. Lightning McQueen joins Mater in this Tall Tale just as things are at their worst.

8. Unidentified Flying Mater
Mater meets a cute little bucktoothed UFO named Mator, takes him out for a night of fun and they quickly become best friends. But when Mator is captured by the military, Mater and Lightning McQueen come to the rescue.

9. Tokyo Mater
A routine towing assignment lands Mater in Tokyo where he is challenged to a drift-style race against a nefarious gang leader and his posse of ninjas. With the help of his friend, "Dragon" Lightning McQueen, and some special modifications, Mater attempts to drift to victory and become "Tow-ke-O Mater, King of all Drifters."

BONUS FEATURES:
Unmade Tales

Mater Bumper-to-Bumper

Studio Stories: McQueen Has No Hands

All-New Mater Intros ("Play All" Selection)

And Much More!

I bought this movie for my 4 yr old son's birthday. I specifically checked the run time of 90? minutes. Sunday he was watching it for the first time and before I got dinner ready it was over. I was like "Why did you turn it off?" Everyone said it's over. Do you really think my kids gonna be entertained by 1 hour of "out takes?" Um..No. Mater is funny don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't have bought it had I known the actual movie time is 38 minutes. :( HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED!!

Why two stars? Too freakin' expensive for 38 minutes of content. Sure there is over forty minutes of extras (one of the longest being an infomercial for Disneyland), but the real "meat" are Mater's Tall Tales.

I give the Tall Tales themselves FIVE STARS. But for Pixar/Disney to price so little content at $29.99 is ridiculous. Even at $19.99 it is too much.

Just look at all you get on the Cars blu-ray, that is pretty good value.

There must have been more stuff in the Pixar vaults that they could have paired this with.

That said, Tokyo Mater, is pure genius.

Its Funny how they are coming out with collection, as my wife and I were talking about this a few months ago. We told each other how nice it would be if they would come out with a DVD with all the Mater Toons on it. My son loves these shorts, and since we had to reduce over TV package, he isn't able to see them anymore. Now, he will be able to watch them whenever he wants. They are so funny, and I can't wait to see his reaction when he sees this. He asks us about these toons everytime he watches Cars, so now I can tell him he can watch them again. Great idea by Disney to release this.

The detail of this DVD has been covered quite splendidly by previous reviewers; I really just want to add my 'aye' to the 4 and 5 star count, and to comment on the cost of the DVD, since a couple of people have mentioned it. I think that there are some movies out there that you pay a ridiculous amount for, as well as getting nailed for all the franchise stuff (cough, cough "Princess and the Frog"), and you walk away from the experience feeling as though you've been taken... this isn't one of them. Maybe it's because, as noted, it is a handful of short cartoons, but each one feels finished, and there's no "What, that's it?" at the end of the disc, which our household has suffered through with "Frog", "Marmarduke", even as far back as "Chicken Little". And don't even get me started on "Furry Vengeance"! And so, yes, it's short, if you want to get technical, but the quality of the product is absolutely great (Mater is my son's favorite CARS character, and so I buy alot of stuff having to do with the drawlin' haulin' guy), and I'd pay this same amount again for whatever the franchise has coming up next. Wait, am I supposed to admit that???

November 2nd was overshadowed by a Pixar DVD/ BluRay release, perhaps you've heard of it: Toy Story 3? However, while TS3 was wooing fans, another beloved Pixar/ Disney collaboration franchise received a bit of an unofficial sequel of sorts that quietly snuck on the scene. That franchise was 2006's Cars and this release (despite a name that insinuates an official sequel) is actually a collection of animated shorts that have aired on the Disney channel featuring the antics of the beloved tow truck Mater. Side note: the real sequel, Cars 2, is scheduled for a summer 2011 release.

Cars Toons consists of 9 shorts, each of which that follows the same tall tale formula: Mater narrates an unbelievable story of something he has done in the past to a skeptical Lightening McQueen.

In the story, Mater finds himself in a near inescapable predicament at which point McQueen, at his fill of the unbelievability, interjects to question Mater as to whether the events in the story actually occurred.

Mater then responds that McQueen ought to remember since he was there as well and the story resumes to suddenly include McQueen's participation (usually as the victim in need of Mater's assistance).

The story then ends back in Radiator Springs with Mater and McQueen parting, often followed by characters or references to the story that was just told, suggesting that the outrageous story might in fact have been true.

In short, the formula works! Often times the situations presented, in their brilliant silliness, are nearly as comical as the dialog itself (which is pretty darn hilarious). It turns out the friendly tow truck has been involved in everything from a moon mission to sleuthing in a black and white noir film, from UFO encounters to drifting in the neon-lit streets of Tokyo.

Despite including 2 never-before-seen shorts for this DVD collection, the runtime of the feature comes in at a very disappointing 38 minutes. Yes there is nearly an hour of special features including interviews with some of the real-life characters that is Pixar (and even some witty exchanges with Mater's voice: Larry the Cable Guy).

The biggest complaint about the ultra-short runtime however stems from the fact that Disney feels entitled to charge full feature film price for this collection. Couple this to the fact that many retailers are incorrectly listing the run-time as 91 minutes (which is in fact the grand total including the special features rather than the feature itself) and the formula for disappointment is solidified.

The animation is easily on par with that of the first Cars film and the vocal work is equally stellar (Keith Ferguson doing a very serviceable Owen Wilson impression for the voice of McQueen and Larry the Cable Guy returning to reprise his role as Mater).

In all this is a terribly funny little collection of classic shorts. The only thing keeping it from earning a 4.5 star rating that the material itself deserves is the reality that an anemic runtime should, at the very least, be priced accordingly. One really gets the impression that "the Diz" is doing all they can to milk the franchise in this instance as surely these shorts could have been included as a special edition re-release of the first Cars or even as a very enticing bonus for viewers who preordered the upcoming Cars 2 (or something to that effect).

As it stands, wonderfully charming material that's sure to dazzle viewers of all ages.. just too little of it for the price.

This entertaining (albeit short) series of vignettes continues the saga of Disney's delightful movie, Cars. The tales focus on Mater's backstory. The stories are so fantastic, they couldn't be true... or, could they? Each of Mater's Tall Tales leaves that question enjoyably open ended, a humorous twist that won't be lost on the kids.

With big studio movie production quality from every facet (writing, animation, sound, voice acting) this feels like an extension of the original film in every way. Larry the Cable Guy reprises his role as Mater and Keith Ferguson steps into the role of Lightning McQueen. Don't worry that Owen Wilson didn't return (for whatever reason). You (and more importantly your kids) won't miss him. Ferguson's Lightning is nearly flawless and you probably wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't read the credits (or this review). The only reason I wouldn't give this DVD an "A+" for grade is that it clocks in at a very spritely 38 minutes. It'll leave you wishing it went on for twice as long, but that's ultimately a reflection of it's high production quality.

If you or your kids are Cars-a-holics, I couldn't recommend this spin-off DVD enough.

We were very disappointed in the running time of this! The movie was cute, there are probably 8 little skits, varying from 3-5 minutes each. I paid 19.99 for this, I would never have bought it for that price if I had known how short it is!

My kid loves extras though - I don't think most kids want to see how these things are made; but she often wants to watch the extras first!
We got this from Netlix but it's all on one disc. ????? All the cartoons plus all the pixar documentary stuff> Weird.
Anyway we have to own this!