Mater and the Ghostlight

Mater and the Ghostlight
Director(s)	John Lasseter Dan Scanlon (co-director)
Producer(s)	Darla K. Anderson Mark Nielsen
Story	Joe Ranft John Lasseter Dan Scanlon
Editors	Torbin Xan Bullock
Music	Bruno Coon Brad Paisley (Behind the Clouds)
Release	November 7th, 2006 with Cars DVD/Blu-ray
Running time	7 minutes, 58 seconds

Mater and the Ghostlight is a 2006 short film for the DVD of Cars, which was released on October 25, 2006 in Australia, and in the United States on November 7, 2006. It appears on the main menu screen.

Story

The short begins with Mater pulling pranks on the cars, including pulling flowers away from Red as he is watering them, frightening Luigi and Guido by jumping out from behind their tires, frightening Sally by pretending to be a cone vampire, attempting to scare Lizzie while she is sleeping (but fails), making Fillmore replace his cans of gas by constantly adding more.

Everyone is gathered at Flo's V8 gas station. Sally and Lightning McQueen notice a tow cable hiding behind some cans. Assuming it to be Mater pulling another prank, McQueen approaches the cans. Suddenly, Mater jumps out of nowhere and loudly frightens McQueen. McQueen jumps back and crashes into the cans; it turns out the cable was just from one of Mater's signs. Mater tells McQueen that he looks like he has seen "the Ghostlight". Sheriff then tells Mater not to mock the Ghostlight. He describes it as a translucent orb of glowing blue light, and proceeds to tell a story of a young couple that encountered the Ghostlight, and only "two out of state license plates" were left. Then everyone leaves in a hurry to their respected homes, leaving Mater in the dark.

Mater becomes scared and slowly drives to his home. While there, he loses his only headlight. Soon, a glowing light approaches Mater, and thinking it to be the Ghostlight, pleads for mercy, but it turns out to just be a lightning bug. Then, a blue light appears behind Mater. Mater looks in his rearview mirror and he immediately assumes it's the Ghostlight, starts running in fear screaming all the way. As he speeds away, McQueen and Guido appear from the hiding spots in Mater's yard and exchange successful glances. It turns out the "Ghostlight" was only a lantern that McQueen and Guido hung on Mater's tow cable.

Chaos ensues from Mater as he zooms through town with the "Ghostlight" chasing him. He rushes all over Radiator Springs with various things happening on the way. He zooms through the Tractor Pasture, going so fast the Tractors are scared awake and all accidentally tip themselves over. Mater even scares Frank awake, leaving the combine startled. Mater then rushes around Willy's Butte, screaming all the way. He also makes a drift parodying Doc Hudson's scene, coincidentally in slow-motion too. At this point, Ramone turns in for the night, telling the others to let him know how it ends. Minutes later, Mater, now completely exhausted stops, and sees the lantern, finally realizing he has been doing.

Sheriff replies that there is nothing to fear except Mater's imagination. "And of course," adds Doc Hudson, "the Screamin' Banshee. Well, g'night!". Everyone drives away, once again leaving Mater. At the very ending past the credits, the Screamin' Banshee appears behind Mater, but he takes no notice of the monster.

Characters

• Mater
• Lightning McQueen
• Doc Hudson
• Sally
• Sheriff
• Luigi
• Guido
• Fillmore
• Sarge
• Ramone
• Flo
• Lizzie
• Red
• Tractors
• Frank
• Screamin' Banshee
• Vroomaroundus Bugus

Cast

• Larry the Cable Guy as Mater
• Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen
• Michael Wallis as Sheriff
• Bonnie Hunt as Sally Carrera
• Paul Newman as Doc Hudson
• Cheech Marin as Ramone
• Paul Dooley as Sarge
• Steve Purcell as Tractors, Frank and Screamin' Banshee (uncredited)

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Mater and the Ghostlight/Gallery.

Staff

Main article: Mater and the Ghostlight/Staff

Trivia

• This is the very first Cars-based media where Mater is promoted to a main protagonist role (and also dedicated to him), instead of a side character.
• This is the second Pixar short film not to win or get nominated for an Academy Award. The first was Red's Dream.
• In Cars: Mater-National Championship and as well as the Xbox 360 and Wii versions of Cars: The Videogame, there is a minigame based on this short, called Ghosting Mater.
• In one scene, Mater loses his headlight. In later installments of the Cars series, Mater is depicted with it again. It is possible that he likely got it replaced or repaired by some time after the events of the short.
• So far, this is the only short not to have Owen Wilson and Paul Newman being replaced by Keith Ferguson and Corey Burton, respectively.
• This is the first short that Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen, the second one being The Radiator Springs 500½.
• This is the only Cars short that Doc Hudson appears, due to Newman passing away in the timeline of later shorts.

External links

• A clip on the official website

See also

• Cars Toons, another Cars-based media with a series of shorts also dedicated to Mater
• Mater and the Ghost Light