Mater's Tall Tales

As a kid I didn't even notice that the episodes followed a similar formula, instead I laughed at Mater and the shenanigans he got into and how McQueen was there suddenly. I loved this as a kid but now that I'm older, it doesn't click the same way anymore. Set your expectations a bit lower when seeing this one.

These short films are essentially a bridge between the first 'Cars' film and the second. In fact you could say that each short film is a concise analogy of the relationship between the two Cars films - they start out in slow-paced Radiator Springs and then branch out into far-fetched adventures. I would highly recommend watching these before watching Cars 2, they make the shift in tone much less jarring. Also the idea that Mater is always telling 'tall tales' becomes relevant in the second film.

I would not say that these are better than the two feature-length films, but they do suit their function more appropriately. The first film had good characterization, but for a children's cartoon there was not much action. The second film had a lot of action, but with less interest in the characters.

These are only intended as fun little sketches, and as such they work superbly. I had more laughs per minute than the feature films, with the highlight being a hilarious reference to 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'

This is a collection of cute cartoons that all have the same basic set-up of Mater seemingly lying about a misadventure he had in the past only for it to turn out to be true. Each is a parody of a film genre, or plot. All of them are worth the couple minutes of run time because there's a few chuckles in each. The collection on the whole is pretty rote and basic (even for kid's media) but I liked them well enough. Mater Private Eye was the best one.

As long as you set your expectations a bit lower, you'll enjoy these very short CGI films. I say set your standards lower because the cartoons are very, very short...and they follow the same formula in each and every one. Each consists of Mater (one of the main characters in the full-length film "Cars") telling what sound like wild fibs. And, each time his friend McQueen says he doesn't believe the story...only to then get confirmation that the story WAS true and that McQueen himself was a witness--though he somehow forgot. While the cartoons are quite trivial, they are gorgeous--with some of the nicest CGI I have seen. As a result, they hold up well on the new DVD "Mater's Tall Tales"--a compilation of all of these short films. Each short is only about 4-5 minutes in length and kids will love 'em. Adults will enjoy them for a while--until they notice that each short is pretty much the same pattern being repeated again and again.

As a person who has "respected" the cars franchise, it's not that bad.