Mater

**Sir Tow Mater** is one of the main characters of the Cars franchise. He is a major character in Cars, the protagonist of Cars 2 and a supporting character in Cars 3.

He is a rusty old tow truck, Lightning McQueen's best friend, and Holley Shiftwell's love interest/boyfriend.

## Background

### Characterisation

John Lasseter describes Mater to be one of those special characters, as being fun and lovable, an "idiot savant about obscure little knowledge", as well as being a lot like the late Joe Ranft, saying: "You know I thought of Joe all through this. Because you know Joe is Mater. He's all over Cars 2."

### Personality

Mater speaks with a somewhat high-pitched thick rural Southern accent, has a whistle-dry lisp to his voice, and frequently misspells words. He is very optimistic and often at times forgetful. He has the biggest heart and is super sweet to a fault. He’s a helpful person who is very unselfish and he just loves serving others out of selflessness and unconditional love. He’s deeply caring and thoughtful to everyone including his friends and family who he is the closest to. He also has true unconditional or agape love for others and just needs true friendship from other people. He can be extremely scared or skittish at times because of his sensitive nature. He gets scared very easily and usually panics when frightened. And he often lives in his little world when real danger or threat approaches. Like with the Screaming Banshee, Mater became so scared that he was ignorant to notice the impending danger of the monster at the end of Mater and the Ghostlight.

He is a very selfless and loyal person to a fault, especially toward those closest to him. His selfless nature is most notably shown at the end of Cars 2 when he puts his own life in danger just to save his friends from being blown up by the c4 Bomb on his engine.

He is also a very non-judgmental person.

Although he may seem silly and dim-witted, he has a vast encyclopaedic knowledge of automobiles, engines, and towing, and is a fiercely loyal friend to anyone willing to give him a chance at true friendship. He unknowingly bestows wisdom upon others at times. He is also beyond funny without realizing it. He also likes to joke about different things, like saying Sally is his fiancée when she's not. Although he is not the smartest car in Radiator Springs, he makes up for it with his extreme heart and loyalty. He has got the biggest heart more than anyone in town. He is extremely friendly, especially towards Holley Shiftwell, Lightning McQueen, and Sally Carrera.

### Physical Appearance

Mater's body is in the shape of an old 1950s tow truck. According to Car Finder, his model is a Haulital Hook'em. He also resembles a 1951 International Harvester L-170 "boom" truck with a mix of a mid-1950s Chevrolet's elements.  His license plate reads "A113", which is a common Easter egg in other films including Pixar, although it reads "RSQ M8R" in Rescue Squad Mater, and "M8R GR8R" in Mater the Greater.

He has hazel eyes that appear green, with orange inner rims and large crooked buck teeth, and used to have pale baby blue paint and light blueish grey eyes in his young childhood in Radiator Springs, but his paint began to get rusty orangish brown over time, though he still has patches of his original blue birth colour still showing through. His doors are a light pastel green showing his initials, along with a sticker of McQueen's racing number and lightning bolt design from when he first worked with Team McQueen in Tokyo. Additionally, he used to have a hood that somehow got lost before the first film occurred, and is shown to still be blue when he finds it in a valley. His back bumper is also painted in yellow and black V stripes to represent a "caution" symbol.

Mater seems to have some kind of control over his tow hook as if it was an appendage.

## Film Appearances

### Cars

Back before Interstate 40 was built, Mater had been doing his job of towing broken-down cars to Radiator Springs so they could get fixed up. However, when the Interstate was built, all of the tourists had forgotten about the town and Route 66, causing not much business for the residents. Several decades later, Mater comes across a red race car named Lightning McQueen, who has been accused by the residents of accidentally destroying the main road when he was tied to the statue of the town's founder Stanley. Doc Hudson, the town's judge, orders McQueen to leave the town immediately, but after some advice from Sally, he changes his mind, having McQueen fix the road with a road paving machine called Bessie.

During the process, Sheriff asks Mater to take over the job of watching McQueen one night, so that he gets the road done without trying to escape. This gives Mater the idea of taking McQueen out to go tractor tipping, which is a parody of the cow tipping legend, where they have to sneak up on the sleeping tractors and honk their horn or rev their engine near them so that they can get spooked and tip over on their back, but also must avoid being seen or caught by Frank, who is the guard of the tractors and has the role of a raging bull. Afterward, while Mater is playfully teasing McQueen about his crush on Sally, he gets told to stop driving backwards otherwise he would wreck something. At this point, Mater shows McQueen that he can drive backwards extremely well by looking into his wing mirrors to see where he has been.

A couple of days later, Mater and the other residents find that the road has been completed, and believe that McQueen has left. However, it soon turns out that McQueen has not gone, wanting to help out the residents by getting souvenirs. The residents all take a cruise around the town that evening, where Mater tries to copy Ramone's action of creating sparks by pressing his bodywork against the tarmac, as well as bringing McQueen to Sally so that they make up some love. However, the press comes to the town to pick McQueen up and take him to a Piston Cup race at the Los Angeles International Speedway that he was supposed to come to, leaving Mater saddened by the fact that he did not get a chance to bid farewell to his new friend, especially when it turns out that the press had been called by Doc because he was not impressed with McQueen staying in the town.

At the time of the race, Mater and many of the town's residents come to the circuit to be part of McQueen's team, with Doc acting as the crew chief. To everyone's delight, McQueen gets into first place on the final lap, but then, they all notice a tragic moment, where Chick Hicks purposely causes the King to crash onto the infield after getting angered with being stuck behind him. At the sight of this, McQueen puts on his brakes before he could cross the finish line, leaving everyone, including Mater, confused about what he is doing, until they see that he is deciding to help bring the King across the line to finish his final race, to which everyone cheers for McQueen on his heroic act. The resulting actions of McQueen also cause Chick to be booed for his notorious actions. Soon afterward, Mater gets his long-term wish of riding in a helicopter, when McQueen asks Tex to have him ride in Rotor Turbosky, at the same time where McQueen sets up his racing headquarters in Radiator Springs to attract tourists once again, along with becoming Mater's new best friend. During his helicopter ride, he flies up to again tease McQueen and Sally during their reunion.

Sometime later, Mater finds his hood and puts it back on, but then he sneezes and it falls back down.

### Cars 2

In the second film, Mater returns, but as the main protagonist.

While McQueen has been focusing on winning his fourth Piston Cup trophy, Mater focuses on some plans for the summer so that he can spend time with his best friend. On the day that McQueen comes back, Mater feels more than excited to see him again, and gets up to a couple of his plans, although they do not work out so well. Before Mater could get to do a third plan, McQueen decides to spend some time away from him just that evening, by having a meal with Sally at the Wheel Well. However, feeling deeply saddened, scared, lonely, and abandoned that he is always being left out, Mater invites himself to the restaurant to dress up as a waiter, which McQueen is surprised about but also agrees that it would be ridiculous if he did that just so he could hang out with them.

While trying to find out what McQueen's usual drink is, Mater sees an announcement on the Mel Dorado Show mentioning Miles Axlerod promoting his new fuel, Allinol, in a racing competition like no other, called the World Grand Prix, so to declare who is the world's fastest racer as well as to try and get everyone to use alternative energy. Soon, a World Grand Prix racer named Francesco Bernoulli joins Mel's interview with Axlerod, when they begin talking if McQueen should compete as well. While Axlerod notes that McQueen has been deciding to take some rest after racing in the Piston Cup, Francesco starts to make insults about McQueen, saying that he couldn't beat someone faster than him. Feeling angered, Mater phones the show by telling them that Francesco should not say awful stuff about McQueen because to Mater, McQueen is the greatest race car in the whole wide world. However, each time Mater tries to convince him, Francesco insults Mater more without Mater realizing he is being insulted, eventually trying to get Mel to move on to another caller because he wants someone who is more intellectually stimulated, like a dump truck, just insulting Mater again, in which Francesco calls Mater dumber than a dump truck. Soon, McQueen pulls Mater out of the phone booth and takes over for the conversation, saying that he does not like his best friend being insulted like that and agreeing to take part in the World Grand Prix, as well as to take Mater along after Sally advises him.

However, as soon as they arrive in Tokyo, Mater is still acting in the same behaviour as he was in Radiator Springs, leaving McQueen concerned. At one point, during the World Grand Prix's opening ceremony, Mater comes across a sushi bar giving out Japanese food and mistakes some green wasabi for pistachio ice cream. Not understanding the chef's correction, he begs to have a large scoop of wasabi, which burns his mouth and causes him to drive up the waterfall on stage where Axlerod is introducing McQueen to the crowd. He then notices an oil leak between him and Axlerod, and everyone assumes Mater did it. Despite his protests that he never leaks oil, McQueen sends him away to the bathroom to clean up.

Entering the men's bathroom stall, Mater has trouble with a Japanese washing contraption (a heated bidet), unaware of a brawl fight between an American secret agent and two lemon cars, Acer and Grem, outside of the bathroom stalls. By the time he gets out, the American agent secretly slips a device underneath his bumper/undercarriage. The device's GPS results in British agent Holley Shiftwell mistaking Mater for a spy. After answering her countersign correctly, Mater starts babbling on before mistakenly assuming that Holley wants to ask him out on a date, and agrees to meet the next day. He then returns to his friends to tell them of this development, but Guido does not believe him. He then tries calling out to Holley, but she ignores him and drives away, not wanting to blow her cover.

The next day, Mater advises McQueen during the race, enabling him to get ahead of Francesco. Unknown to Mater, the lemons assume he’s a spy too, and are covertly closing in on him. Holley hacks into his headset, giving him directions to avoid the lemons trying to hurt him. Mater follows blindly, assuming he is being guided to his date. He later mishears Holley, turning towards a ruckus instead of away from it. He soon witnesses Finn McMissile fighting off the lemons, which he assumes to be a live karate demonstration. Finn then vanishes, while Holley tells Mater that it is too dangerous to rendezvous and promises to be in touch. As Mater leaves to go back to the pits, he asks Holley over his headset, if he missed their date.

Mater then returns to the pit, only to learn that while he was talking to Holley, McQueen was hearing him too and mistook Mater's conversation with Holley as instructions which made him make a mistake that cost him the race. Mater feels guilty when he discovers he messed up the race and offers to help fix his mistake, but McQueen yells and hits that he doesn't need or want help and drives off. Mater is deeply hurt by his best friend's rejection and writes a sad farewell note to his friends in upper case poor handwriting before deciding to go home. At the Tokyo airport, Finn disguises himself as an airport security guard and lures Mater to a lounge, where he inquires which American intelligence agency he is affiliated with. Mater claims to be "triple-A affiliated" and starts babbling that he knows some karate. Finn then detects Acer and Grem closing in on them, and drags Mater outside. Mater assumes he is getting first-class service and is completely oblivious to the danger that's happening around him.

Once aboard the spy jet Siddeley, Mater figures out that Finn and Holley are spies as they extract data from the device embedded in him, which had information on the lemon boss, showing a picture of an obscure British engine. He identifies it as "the worst engine ever made" but has no clues as to who the identity of the car belongs to. However, he does point out that the mystery car makes use of replacement parts that are factory original and would not be found on open markets. Grateful for Mater's insight, Finn offers to set up an informal task force. Though reluctant, Mater agrees to help out the spies when Finn assures him that he would be helping him. Mater then tries pointing out that he is "just a tow truck", but Finn does not take him seriously.

Mater joins Finn and Holley as they meet with Finn's black market contact, Tomber. Tomber informs them that the car to whom the engine belongs only does business over the phone, buying numerous parts to maintain his engine, making Mater reveal that the mystery car is a lemon. Upon being asked about the term, he explains the nature of lemons to Finn and Holley and identifies Gremlins, Pacers, Hugos, and Trunkovs as lemons, which makes Holley realize that everyone in the plot is a lemon car. Finn takes it from there and deduces that the lemon families are taking orders from the car behind this engine. Tomber reveals that the lemons are hosting a secret meeting in Porto Corsa, Italy, which is also where the second race will take place, and the lemon boss will most likely be there as well.

While being transported by Stephenson to Italy, Finn and Holley install a holographic cloaking device onto Mater's beacon light and have him disguise himself with a voice command as a lemon tow truck named Ivan. Mater then objects to buffing his dents to ensure a fool proof disguise, declaring the worth of his moments with McQueen. The spies realize he is talking seriously about being friends with McQueen, and Finn tells him that friendships are dangerous in spy work. Mater again tries to tell them the truth about who he is again, but they assume he is joking.

Upon arriving in Porto Corsa, Mater begins to have second thoughts about the missions, but Finn tells him to keep up his "act" of playing "the idiot tow truck." These words deeply affect and hurt Mater, but he has no time to reflect, as Holley had lured away and tased Ivan, prompting him to take the blue tow truck's place. As he is towing Victor Hugo through the casino, he nearly blows his cover by directly talking to Holley over the radio and reading his HUD on Alexander Hugo's wanted status and nicknames until the latter begs him to stop, believing "Ivan" is threatening to have him arrested. Upon arriving at the lemon meeting, Mater is shocked to be in the room of the heads of the lemon family who are all very dangerous, and becomes worried about his cover. He takes to the sidelines as the lemon boss calls the meetings via video on four flat-screen TVs. Mater soon discovers the lemon plot, revealing that the lemons are sabotaging the race by igniting the Allinol in the race cars' tanks. As Finn and Holley are captured, Mater watches Axelrod on TV declaring a suspension of Allinol for the final race in London. However, McQueen announces that he will use Allinol for the race and admits how guilty he feels over his fight with Mater. The lemon boss then calls the meeting, ordering Professor Zündapp to kill McQueen and fully discredit Allinol for good. Mater then accidentally breaks his hologram disguise, allowing the Lemons to identify him.

Fortunately, the tow truck's choice of words allows him to escape as he accidentally tears up the place with his Gatling guns, activates his parachute, and flies off to warn McQueen about the lemons' evil plot, only to be captured and sent to London (the final race's setting) where he, Finn and Holley are all tied to the giant gears of Big Bentley to be crushed to death. Mater again tells Finn and Holley that he is not a spy and is just a tow truck, and finally this time, they believe him.

Mater then believed McQueen was dead and blamed himself but learns from Grem and Acer, two of the lemons inside the clock tower, that the latter is alive but only for Mater to witness his death. Horrified, Mater watched as they aimed a death ray at McQueen but nothing occurs, so they resort to their backup plan. They tell a curious Mater that they claim to have installed a bomb in Lightning McQueen's pit, that will kill McQueen upon his arrival. As soon as the lemons leave, Mater activates his Gatling guns to cut through the ropes binding him, and races to the track to warn McQueen about the bomb. But when he gets there, he finds all his friends have gathered there to find him before Finn calls him on the radio, revealing that the lemons had tricked him and that the bomb in question is instead actually planted inside Mater's air filter when he was unconscious as the lemons knew he'd try to save his friend. As McQueen returns to the pit and spots him, Mater desperately drives backwards to avoid harming his friends and avoid killing McQueen, but McQueen chases after him anyways, trying to make amends with his friend. Mater's attempts to warn McQueen about the bomb go misunderstood. As McQueen grabs his hook, Mater accidentally activates his rockets, sending them blasting out of range of Professor Z's detonator. The two are sent on a wild goose chase through the streets of London.

When they come to a stop, Holley reveals the bomb to McQueen as Finn arrives with a captive Zündapp. The Professor admits that the bomb is voice-activated, but he neglects to mention that it could only be disarmed by the one who activated it after Mater attempted to deactivate it himself, starting a five-minute timer. Holley threatens Zündapp, who orders the bomb to deactivate only for everyone to learn that he was not the one who armed it, shaving off another minute. After Holley teases Zündapp, the foursome are surrounded by the lemons, intending to watch the bomb go off. Mater attempts to reason with them, stating that he understands what it is like to be the laughingstock, an outcast, ridiculed, and abused, but becoming wealthy and powerful beyond their wildest desires will not make them feel better. When that fails, the lemons prepare to finish them off until the Radiator Springs townsfolk come to their rescue. In the subsequent fight, Mater defends McQueen against the lemons by karate chopping some six or seven of the lemons including Ivan. The remaining lemons try to escape but are stopped by Sarge and the British military who presumably arrest the criminals.

Guido then attempts to remove the bomb from Mater, but none of his wrenches fit the bolts that hold it in place. With only two and a half minutes left, Mater has an epiphany, but he hesitates to act on it, as he acknowledges to McQueen that people do not take him seriously and that they are not in Radiator Springs. However, with some encouragement from his best friend, Mater proceeds to fly with his friend to Buckingham Palace, where he tells everyone that he knows who is sabotaging the race. But when he takes a moment to respectfully bow to the Queen, everyone spots the bomb and goes into a panic. Finn intervenes before the royal guard could open fire, informing them that he cannot disarm the bomb, and orders Mater to stand down now. After remarking that London is nothing at all like home, he is soon reminded by McQueen to get back on topic. With that, Mater accuses Axlerod of being the head lemon behind the whole scheme. He reasons that the bolts on the bomb are the same ones from the lemon engine on Holley's photo; he also realized that Axlerod did not convert from a combustion engine to an electric one, hence how he leaked oil back in Japan, blaming it on Mater, and he would probably still have it under his hood. Though Finn and Holley are a bit sceptical, Mater states that Axlerod wanted Allinol discredited to turn the world against alternative fuels and go back to using oil, so he could profit off/become wealthy with the huge untapped oil field Finn found. Mater even accuses Axelrod of disguising his voice in his statement but the latter rebukes this. The guards drive off and escort the Queen out as Axelrod yells at Mater. With his bomb only down to the last ten seconds, Axlerod, realizing that his villainy has been exposed and fearing for his life, is immediately forced to deactivate the bomb, and is then arrested on the spot. Just right as the police are about to take Axlerod away, Mater opens the lemon's hood, revealing the same engine as seen in Holley's photos, confirming Mater's theory. As Axlerod is left perplexed as to how a tow truck got clued in on his plot, McQueen tells Mater that he is coming to all his races from now on.

Subsequently, the Queen of England knights Mater for his bravery and for catching and outsmarting the evil lemon boss. Afterward, Mater and his friends return to Radiator Springs, where he tells everyone a tall tale-like story of his big adventure. Though Van does not believe a word of it, Finn and Holley show up to prove it. Mater then introduces Finn to everyone. He tries to introduce his friends to Holley, but Holley cuts him off, announcing herself as Mater's girlfriend (to Guido's shock). Mater is then pleased to see that Holley receives a dent from their London adventure and decides to emulate him by keeping it. McQueen and Mater wonder why the latter didn't explode because of the death ray which is revealed to be due to Sarge switching the Allinol with Fillmore's organic fuel.

While watching the unofficial Radiator Springs Grand Prix, Finn and Holley reveal that they want to recruit Mater for another mission, but he declines, preferring to stay home. The spy cars respect his decision. Finn says that Mater is the smartest and most honest chap that they ever met, and Holley also adds, massively charming. Holley promises to come back and take him out for their first date, and Finn offers to give Mater any favor he asks. Mater cashes in on that favor, as he receives his rocket boosters back and joins the race, with both Mater and McQueen promising to meet each other at the finish line.

During the credits, Mater joins McQueen on a world tour before eventually coming back home.

### Cars 3

Mater returns in Cars 3 but in a smaller role compared to the first two movies.

Mater is first seen interrupting McQueen as he was preparing for a race. In the race, he shows up in the crowd, shouting him out with a larger yellow lightning bolt behind his head. Mater is then shown attending each one of Lightning's races and practice sessions, fulfilling the promise Lightning made to him after Axlerod was arrested. At most of the races, Mater wears a different big hat.

Four months later after McQueen crashed in the Los Angeles International Speedway race, Mater is one of the guys that bid farewell to him as he heads to the training centre.

Three days later on the night after Cruz left McQueen after training with her, Mater is seen back at Radiator Springs closing up his garage for the night; McQueen called him up and said he's going to try racing. Mater even gives Lightning the idea of seeking out Doc's old mentor, Smokey, in Thomasville.

Mater is seen again on Florida 500 for the final race four days later, with Lightning beginning the race. When the latter wants Cruz to replace him, Sterling disapproves explaining that she is only a coach. Mater then grabs him with his winch, saying he loves his different mud-flaps, and prevents Sterling from interfering. Mater cheers for Cruz as the winner screen updates with Lightning McQueen's picture as both co-winners. Mater was very glad to see him stick together with a partner and blames Sterling for his actions towards Cruz.

In the epilogue at Radiator Springs two days later, when Lightning was fully rebooted, Mater was in the crowd again. Mater was very glad McQueen had a partner, and so did the other members of Radiator Springs.

He is later shown to be at Thunder Hollow Raceway with Miss Fritter at a karaoke party during the end credits.

He is last seen after the Cars 3 credits. He’s the only character to be seen after the credits rolled. In a post-credits scene, Mater is singing a funny song and is cleaning in his lot, and when his iPad rings, he gets startled and jumps in fright then inadvertently knocks over his reception antenna along with tires falling from his shack's roof, and the FaceTime on his iPad goes dead, much to his dismay.

### Short Films

#### Mater and the Ghostlight

Mater is the titular protagonist of his short film.

One night, Mater plays a series of scary yet harmless pranks on his friends until a blue light begins to haunt him. Mater's final prank is his most successful: Lightning 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 from off of the roof of Flo's café, screaming behind Lightning, who then is startled and knocks over the pile of cans, revealing that the hook was actually from the sign of Mater's place of business, thus a decoy. Everyone starts to laugh at Lightning for falling for such a trick, and Mater says that Lightning looks like he's seen "the Ghostlight".

Sheriff sternly tells Mater not to mock the Ghostlight, a supernatural being of urban legend amongst the cars of Route 66. The Ghostlight is a big 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/metal skin. Sheriff continues to tell the story of a young couple lost in some area down Route 66, whose only remains were "two out-of-state license plates". He then concludes with an overly cheerful "Well, good night." The population of Radiator Springs then leaves within seconds, leaving a very nervous Mater all by himself in the dark.

As he reaches his garage, he is first frightened and pleads for mercy until he realizes it is a "lightning bug" (a tiny flying Volkswagen Beetle with bright headlights). As he relaxes, a bright blue glow suddenly appears behind Mater and he goes into a blind panic, driving around in a frenzy, first going along the main road, then going through the tractor field (past Frank), then around Willy's Butte, and doing a lock-strafe move after that, until he is completely exhausted. However, the Ghostlight was revealed to be a glowing blue lantern on Mater's towing cable hung up by Lightning and Guido to scare Mater to get back at him for the pranks he had pulled on them.

The short film ends with Mater finally collapsing on the road with the rest of the folks surrounding him, revealing the joke to him as retribution for the pranks he did to them. The credits roll and after them, there is a closing shot where the frightened Mater finds he has a huge construction monster truck-like vehicle behind him, snarling and carrying the license plate "Banshee." However, Mater does not realize who it is and warns it of the Screamin' Banshee before driving off, bidding the Banshee a good night. The Banshee is then left perplexed.

## Television Appearances

### Cars Toons

Mater is the titular protagonist of his TV short series.

Each tale begins with something or someone passing by Mater and Lightning, and Mater then remembers that "that" something or someone was there in his past, and then he goes on randomly telling Lightning something he has possibly done in the past (such as him once being a firefighter, a drift racer, a rock star, an astronaut, etc.). Lightning usually responds with a sarcastic "What?" or "Huh?" or "You have not," and Mater begins to tell him the story.

In the story, Mater finds himself in an inescapable predicament. When Lightning questions Mater over whether the events in the story have occurred, Mater responds, "Don't you remember? You was there, too!", and continues the story including Lightning's sudden participation (with many of the incidents making McQueen get hurt or injured in some weird way).

The shorts almost always end with Mater leaving the scene, often followed by other characters or references to the story that was being told, putting up a possibility that the story might be real.

Each episode includes Mia and Tia constantly fawning over Mater (except Time Travel Mater).

In Hiccups, Mater tries to get rid of McQueen's hiccups by putting his tow hook through a gap in Red's ladder and hanging McQueen upside down. Sally, however, gets him to stop and solves the problem by kissing McQueen. However, Sheriff gets the hiccups, and Mater attempts to get rid of them by kissing Sheriff, who tries to keep away.

Mater makes a silent cameo in Spinning, where he joins the crowd to watch Guido spinning his sign.

In The Radiator Springs 500½, Mater dresses up as a Hawaiian person for the "Stanley Days" celebration, getting ready to join a leisurely tour. However, before it can start, Sandy Dunes and his pals arrive to take part in a race against McQueen. As they line up at the start line, Mater gives them directions, telling them to go left when they head towards a herd of tractors in front of a fork in the path, over the rolling hills, past the Cool Pool of Tranquility, through the Tail Lights Caverns and Enchanted Forest, and back to Radiator Springs. As McQueen and the Baja racers zoom off, Mater dresses up as Stanley and leads the townsfolk on the leisurely tour. Mater and the townsfolk soon arrive back in Radiator Springs that evening but find no sign of the racers, unaware that they had taken a wrong turn at the tractors when Mater told them that turning left is right, which he meant "right" as in that it is correct. Eventually, the racers arrive, and Mater asks them if they enjoyed their leisurely drive, to which Sandy remarks that he never thought Stanley would do anything like when they went through all of the different locations compared to the ones on the actual route.

He was also scheduled to appear in the episode To Protect and Serve, although it is very likely that the episode was rather cancelled at this point.

## Disney Parks

Mater appears in Disney's Hollywood Studios, along with McQueen, both as "drive-around" characters and in a sequence added to Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show to tie in with Cars 2. Mater hosts Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and appears in Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.

Beginning in 2018, Mater wears his "Dracula Mater" disguise from Cars 2 during the Halloween season, while during the Christmas season, he wears a Santa hat. During safety protocols due to COVID-19, Mater does not drive around and remains stationary outside Fillmore's Taste-In.

Mater also appears in some Disney on Ice shows. A figure of Mater also appears at Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Paris, at the Cars Race Rally attraction watching over the action. A statue of Mater can also be found at Disney's Art of Animation Resort.