Mater

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For other uses, see Mater (disambiguation).

Mater

Model	1958 International Harvester tow truck
Gender	Male
Eye Color	Hazel
Color	Rusted (formerly Baby blue), later light orange
Voice Actor	Larry the Cable Guy

Tow Mater is a fictional, anthropomorphic tow truck from the Disney/Pixar animated film Cars. He is voiced by Larry the Cable Guy. Whether his first name really is Tow is arguable.

[edit] Personality and physical characteristics

Mater is a tow truck who is one of the twelve remaining cars left in the fictional town of Radiator Springs. Although he is rusty and missing his hood, he is still able to operate. Mater runs Tow Mater, the local towing service. He is not very intelligent, but he is good-natured, fun-loving, and a loyal friend. At one part of the movie he says "I knowed I made a good choice!" Lightning asks "In what?", and Mater says "My best friend." Mater closely resembles a 1958 International Harvester (IHC) Pickup truck, converted into a tow truck. According to this Star-Ledger article, however, he is a mid-1950s Chevrolet One-Ton Wrecker Tow Truck.

Mater is also the self-proclaimed world champion backwards driver. He attributes his rear-view mirror as his secret to his backwards driving skill, and his philosophy is "you don't need to see where you're going, only where you've been." His hobbies include tractor tipping (similar to the supposed real-life practice of cow tipping) and searching for the ghost light which is a monster.

At the end of the film, Lightning has the helicopter for The King's Dinoco (the gasoline company from Toy Story)-sponsored race team give Mater a ride as part of a promise that Lightning made.

Mater was light blue before he became severely rusted. Later, he is pale orange and has his hood and left headlight, a different side font and blue linings. This became apparent when during the epilogue of the film, and the flashback scene in which Sally tells Lightning McQueen of how Radiator Springs was before the Interstate was constructed.

[edit] Trivia

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Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.

Before he got rusted, his original color was baby blue. He also lost his hood, sometime in the middle of his rusting (which he does find during the end photo-montage, but he then sneezes, which causes his hood to fall back into the chasm again (the hood caused his engine compartment to get stuffy). Afterwards, his color is light orange, which make him to look like Flashback Mater.
He has a thick southern accent. There is a slightly hillbilly-like voice as well.
In the Cars video game, Mater introduces his long-lost cousin Tommy Joe, a demolition derby car.
Mater appears in the Disney/Pixar short film called Mater and the Ghostlight that appears on the Cars DVD. He refers to the ghost light twice in the original film.
Mater's license plate number is A113.
Mater and the town's late founder, Stanley, have the same teeth and similar eyes (both have pronounced bottom eyelids, which most other cars in the film don't have). Also, Stanley's pose in the statue is nearly identical to the pose Mater is in in much Cars merchandising. From this evidence, some fans speculate the two are related, perhaps that Stanley is Mater's father (which would most likely make Lizzie his mother).
Uses Larry the Cable Guy's catchphrase "Git-R-Done" during the race sequence. During the tractor tipping scene, he uses another one of Larry's catchphrases, "I don't care who you are; that's funny right there." He also says "I'm happier 'n a tornado in a trailer park!" during the helicopter ride, which is very Larryesque.
In the die cast Cars toy line they came out with three Maters: Rusted Mater, Blue Bowlin' Mater (similar to Flashback Mater but with a different side font and no hood), and Flashback Mater, where Mater is in his original baby blue, has his hood, and sports the classic font.
Mater's backwards driving trait was inspired by Sheriff's voice actor, Michael Wallis' ability to turn his feet completely around backwards.
Mater was born from an old, baby blue, rusted tow truck that the Pixar crew saw on the side of the road on their research trip on Route 66.
Director John Lasseter stated that Mater's personality was loosely based on Joe Ranft.
In the teaser trailer, Mater's eyes are green. In the later movie, they are hazel.
In the Italian version, his name is "Carl Attrezzi", which sounds like "carro attrezzi", the Italian for "tow truck".
In the Spanish version, he is called "Molcador", which is short for "remolcador" , Spanish for "tow truck".
In the French he is called "Depanneur" which is French for "tow truck".
In the Polish version, he is called "Złomek", which can be translated as "Scrappy" (from "złom" - scrap metal).
He will occasionally make snorting sounds, usually when startled (like when Sheriff stops him from unwittingly freeing McQueen), or when very excited (such as during his backwards driving demonstration).
He is hinted at being illiterate, having difficulty spelling 'kissing' when singing a song to tease Lightning about his feelings towards Sally Carrera. In the video game, after teaching McQueen to drive backwards, he makes several attempts to spell Lightning's name backwards, finally coming out with "Gintil", to which McQueen replies "Mater, my name's not Litnig. You're not so good with the whole spelling thing, are you?"

2006 Disney-Pixar film Cars
Main Characters	Lightning McQueen \| Mater \| Sally \| Doc Hudson The King \| Chick Hicks \| Ramone \| Flo \| Luigi \| Guido \| Mack \| Red Sheriff \| Fillmore \| Sarge \| The Delinquent Road Hazards
Production Studio	Disney \| Pixar
Related Articles	Soundtrack \| Official Video Game \| Radiator Springs Radiator Springs Adventures \| Cars Diecast Line