Cars Toons is the Pixar Cars short series starring Mater in stories such as Tokyo Mater.
The series, also called Mater's Tall Tales, began with short animated episodes featuring Mater recounting improbable adventures. The episodes play with the question of whether Mater's stories are true, while Lightning McQueen usually listens or becomes involved in the action. Tokyo Mater is one of the best-known entries and sends Mater into a stylized Japanese street-racing story.
Cars Toons is separate from the three theatrical Cars feature films. Its episodes explore comic genres and locations that would be difficult to sustain in a feature, including exaggerated action, spy stories, and fantasy-like situations. Pixar produced the shorts for television and home-entertainment distribution.
The title is often written as Cars Toons, with the second word stylized as Toons rather than Tunes. Mater's Tall Tales is the series' alternate title, not a different Pixar franchise. The shorts expand Mater's personality without changing the feature-film continuity's main storyline.