Mater Mondays: Moon Mater

Hello & welcome back.  Well, folks we are closing in on the home stretch here.  As you see this is the last new review for a Mater short in this event. Oh, don't worry we still have 3 shorts left.  However I've already reviewed those 3 on their own. Nevertheless I'll still post them as a part of Mater Mondays with some slight revisions and there will also be a Mater Mondays Top 6 along with one final article where I give my thoughts on this entire series overall and touch upon some things that I may have neglected in the actual reviews. There, I'll also touch upon the canceled Mater shorts.  I should mention that this short and the next two coming up unlike other shorts in this series didn't premiere on TV but rather on DVD.  Moon Mater and Mater Private Eye made their debut on the DVD release of Mater's Tall Tales  and Air Mater debuted on the DVD/Blu-Ray release of Cars 2. 

The Plot

The plot here is one that I  enjoyed.  Also this is one of the few times in the series where the short does not open at Flo's.  Instead McQueen and Mater are driving around and see the moon. Then Mater goes on to tell McQueen about his time up there.   I loved this because it was too funny and Mater saw a car that needed towing and took him to Florida.   There we see him reach what I assume is Cape Canaveral and we see that one of the astronauts err autonauts as they are called in this short is stuck on the moon and this world's NASA known as NASCA  needs a tow to bring the car back down.   Mater goes through some training and then hops aboard Roger, the space shuttle that takes him to the moon and he tells Mater that he's going to love it there. There we meet our autonaut, Impala XIII, who gives Mater some  instructions on how to get him out of there but Mater doesn't understand the big words and says about I just give you a tow.     Afterwards, we see Mater and McQueen have become heroes.  Oh, sorry  forgot to mention McQueen's appearance as he came in after Mater saved Impala and they were rocketing back to earth.   At one point, Mater even makes an appearance on a talk show and if you know late night legends  you should be able to pick up on who the host is supposed to be.  

Any guesses?     Oh, yeah I should also bring up the Mia &Tia appearance.  Honestly, I think this one makes the least amount of sense as they appear on the loading bay for the rocket at the elevator.    To me, that just seems odd.   

You know,  the more I look at it.  I think the Mia & Tia cameos are something in this series that really bug me as they feel unneeded.  As they don't serve much purpose except for Mater Private Eye but we will get to that next week.    All in all, this wasn't a bad short.  It was a lot of fun and an enjoyable watch.

Characters

Now I'll be breaking this down into Main & Supporting. With that out of the way, let's get going.  

Main Character

Mater voiced by Larry The Cable Guy 

Per usual,  I love the look of Mater in this short and I really have to say that I love the situation that Mater is placed in here as it feels like a fish out of water story.    Honestly, this is one of the only times that I've felt that in any of these shorts.  I think the big thing that I like about this short is that it just feels simple in how Mater is just doing his job. Sure, it may be on the moon but Mater is a tow truck and Impala needed a tow and Mater was the guy for the job. 

Supporting Characters

Roger - Voice Unlisted 

Roger was a cool character.  I kinda wish that he was in the short a bit longer as I liked him.   He came across as a guy who just loved his job and was happy to share the experience with someone new.  I mean look at him, he just looks so happy to be doing this job. 

Impala XIII  - Voice Unlisted 

From the little bit, we saw of Impala XIII,  I  could tell that he was a tough guy who took his job seriously. Okay wow, I'm so slow.  How did I not put together that Impala referred to the Chevrolet vehicle of the same name.  This entire time,  I was trying to figure out why it said Chevrolet on his hood.   Yeah, I'm just going to pretend like that didn't happen.      

McQueen voiced by Keith Ferguson 

  

Again like with Mia & Tia, McQueen didn't have much to do in terms of the story but I've grown accustom to him appearing in random spots throughout the shorts and this one does use the McQueen Gets Hurt gag or so it seems as he's going faster than Mater when they are in space with their rockets but he doesn't actually get hurt. Rather he just falls into the ocean.   Not too bad, really and really he didn't have very many lines here.  Still, it's always nice to see him.  

My Final Thoughts

Overall, this was a fun short.  I would highly suggest this one as it's a blast to watch.   In terms of the story being told here compared to some of the others in this series, it feels simple and sometimes simple works.  As seen here.  It's just a fun ride that I didn't mind taking.  Now there's been a slight change.  I know that I said that I was going to post my older reviews but I've decided to move on and make this the last  Mater Mondays review as this has been delayed and I'm ready to move on to my next project.  So next week, I'll post the final two Mater Mondays back to back. So join me next Monday for My Overall Thoughts on Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales and then Tuesday, Top 6 Mater Designs.