Pixar released Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales in 2008.
The series is a collection of short animated stories centered on Mater, the rusty tow truck from Radiator Springs. Its episodes use an intentionally exaggerated storytelling device: Mater describes extraordinary adventures, while Lightning McQueen often appears as his listener and companion. The shorts play with the question of whether Mater’s tales are true, but their comic purpose is more important than continuity with the feature films.
The first short, “Rescue Squad Mater,” premiered in 2008. Later episodes place Mater in settings involving fire rescue, Tokyo-style drifting, time travel, and other imaginative situations. The shorts expanded Mater’s popularity between the feature releases of Cars and Cars 2.
Cars Toons is sometimes confused with the feature films or with later Cars short-form projects. The series was originally known as Mater’s Tall Tales and was produced by Pixar for television and home-video distribution.