Mater and the Ghostlight

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Mater and the Ghostlight
A DVD screenshot of the Title
Directed by	John Lasseter
Produced by	Mark Nielsen
Starring	Larry the Cable Guy Owen Wilson Bonnie Hunt Paul Newman Michael Wallis Paul Dooley
Music by	Bruno Coon
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	2006
Running time	7 minutes 6 seconds
Language	English
IMDb profile

Mater and the Ghostlight is a 2006 Pixar computer animated short created for the DVD of Cars, which was released on October 25, 2006 in Australia and in the United States on November 7, 2006. It is about a mysterious blue light haunting Larry the Cable Guy's character, Mater. As it shows a brand new story using characters from previous films, it is similar to Mike's New Car (with characters from Monsters, Inc.) and Jack-Jack Attack (with characters from The Incredibles).

[edit] Synopsis

This short is based on the day to day shenanigans of Mater some time after the story shown in the feature film, once life has returned to normal in Radiator Springs.

The short film starts with Mater playing pranks on the other residents of the sleepy town on Route 66, such as

• pulling some flowers out from underneath Red as he waters them,
• jumping out of Luigi and Guido's carefully stacked tire display to frighten them (causing them both to faint),
• appearing as a "traffic cone vampire" in Sally's office window that frights her,
• attempting to wake Lizzie from her afternoon slumber (the single prank that fails), and
• confusing Fillmore by replacing his organic fuel cans as he stores them.

His final prank is his most successful: Lightning McQueen sees a tow hook hanging from behind a stack of cans and, assuming that Mater is hiding behind it, approaches to foil the prank. Mater then jumps off of the roof of Flo's café, screaming. McQueen is startled and knocks over the pile of cans, revealing that the hook was actually from the sign of Mater's place of business. The startle caused the others to laugh. Doc says, "If only you moved that fast on the racetrack." Mater teases, "You look like you seen the Ghostlight!"

Mater's day then takes a turn for the worse, as Sheriff admonishes him for "mocking the Ghostlight," a character of urban legend amongst the cars. The Ghostlight is described as a "glowing orb of blue, translucent light" that haunts Radiator Springs, and hates nothing more than the sound of clanking metal - a sound frequently made by Mater's rickety shell. Sheriff continues to tell the story of a young couple lost in the area, whose only remains were "two out of state license plates." He then concludes with an overly cheerful "Well, g'night". The population of Radiator Springs then leaves within seconds, leaving Mater by himself.

Post-credits closing shot -- Mater and the Banshee.

The rest of the short film deals with Mater's comeuppance. After Mater is first frightened by a "lighning bug" (a tiny flying Volkswagen Beetle with bright headlights), Lightning and Guido attach a glowing blue lantern to Mater's towing cable. When Mater sees the glow behind him he goes into a blind panic and drives around in a frenzy until exhaustion.

The short ends with Mater finally collapsing on the road with the rest of the folks surrounding him, and Sheriff warning him that the only thing to be afraid of on Route 66 is "your imagination." Doc Hudson adds, "Yep. That, and of course, the Screamin' Banshee. Well G'night." The cars once again disappear in seconds, shutting off the streetlights and leaving Mater all alone on the road outside of town. "The... screamin' what??", Mater whimpered and started trembling again.

[edit] Voice cast

[edit] Trivia

• This short film was made especially for the DVD release of "Cars".
• Mater loses his remaining headlight when he arrives home, presumably from trembling too much.
• Lightning McQueen retains his "Radiator Springs" paint job for this short film, but Doc Hudson forgoes his Hudson Hornet styling in favour of his usual royal blue coat. Ramone, who is seen in coats of purple, green, yellow, and red in the Cars film, is blue in the short film.
• If the viewer continues to watch after the credits roll, they will see Mater, still frozen with fear next to his lantern on the road. A gigantic, hideous vehicle made up of parts of various broken construction vehicles is sneaking up behind him. It has the word "BANSHEE" conveniently written on its chin. Mater turns to it and says, "You better run, they say there's a banshee out here tonight... But I ain't seen him yet. G'night." He then runs off, leaving the banshee bewildered. Whether Mater realized that the creature was the banshee or not is arguable, as he warns it of the monster, yet seems fairly keen to leave its company.
• Just before realizing he'd been in a prank, Mater says that the Ghostlight will strip his parts and sell them on the computer auction website.
• Mater engages in "tractor tipping" once again, if unintended, as he tears through the tractor field. He also wakes up Frank the Combine, albeit momentarily.
• After tearing past the tractors, Mater drives through "Willy's Butte", the racetrack where Doc Hudson attempts to teach Lightning McQueen to "turn right to go left". In a slo-motion sequence, Mater skids out of control as dust billows behind him. This is nearly a direct duplication of the scene where Doc Hudson successfully executes the same opposite lock technique to complete the tough turn McQueen couldn't handle. Also, if this scene were played at double speed, Mater's slow-motion screams would sound as if they were at regular speed. This implies that these screams were actually emitted by Larry The Cable Guy and then slowed down by the Pixar crew.
• "Cars" cast members Larry the Cable Guy (Mater), Owen Wilson (McQueen), Bonnie Hunt (Sally), Paul Newman (Doc), Michael Wallis (Sheriff), and Cheech Marin (Ramone) all provided their voices for the short. Paul Dooley's Sarge laughs, barely audible. All seven are listed in the short's credits. Flo, Luigi, Guido, Fillmore, Red, Mack, and Lizzie all appear, but do not speak and are not credited.
• When Mater is driving from the café to his home, he is singing Brad Paisley's song "Behind the Clouds" under his breath to himself, the same song that plays at the start and end of the film.
• This is McQueen's first appearance where he does not say one of his two catch phrases ("Ka-chow" and "Float like a Cadillac, sting like a Beemer").
• Despite Mack's presence in Radiator Springs, Lightning McQueen is living at the Cozy Cone instead of Mack's trailer. It also does not show where Mack is staying.
• Lightning McQueen lives in house number 1 at the Cozy Cone Motel, the same house he stayed in at that motel in during Cars (he presumably rents it from Sally)
• This is the first short for Mater to be a main character.
• Despite the end of the film, Radiator Springs seems to be deserted yet again. Though this may just be that the short took place in the middle of the night, and all of the tourists would be back at their rooms at the Wheel Well or the Cozy Cone.
• The Banshee's size is apparent from its dwarfing of Mater, the second-largest inhabitant of Radiator Springs.