Automobile Month: Mater Private Eye

Well folks,  we have one last day here in Radiator Springs. Today I'll be taking a look Mater Private Eye. This is one of the shorts from the series, Mater's Tall Tales.  The basic premise of each  of these shorts is  that someone bring up something and that reminds Mater of something that he supposedly did and the story seems far fetched but in the end, it turns out to be true. First, the trailer. Yes, there is a trailer for this short.

Episode Title

"Mater Private Eye"

Just as with all my other episode reviews,  I decided to take a look the episode title.  Not much to say here about the title other than it lets us know what to expect and that it is pretty bare bone but most of the titles in this series are like that but I think this is the most straight forward title from any episode of this series.

The Plot

As I stated above,  these shorts typically start out with someone saying something that reminds Mater of something that he once did and in this case, McQueen is at Flo's V8 Cafe and states that he is running a bit low on air in his tires and then Mater states that he thought that he solved that case and then he goes into the story of how he took down a counterfeit tire ring.

Characters

I have decided to break this down into Main Characters, Supporting characters and then I'll end it with the Villains. Please note that I will not be listing the voice actors as I couldn't find all of the names listed but do know that Larry The Cable Guy does return to voice Mater in this short but Owen Wilson doesn't voice McQueen in this short or any of the season 1 or season 2 shorts. Though that is due to change as he has signed on to voice McQueen in season 3.

Main Characters

Mater Private Eye (Mater) 

In this short, Mater is shown as a Private Eye and when his story starts we see him in his office reading many different newspapers and that is when he comes across a newspaper that is talking about a counterfeit tire ring. Then Tia (one of the twins from the first film) comes in  and tells Mater that her sister has been carnapped and that she has been working for Big D.  Mater responds like a hard boiled detective and acts rather serious, which is a nice contrast to the Mater we see in the films.  Though this is just a story, it was nice to see Mater can be more than just the fun loving goofball we see in the movies. Here as a private eye, he is rather serious and won't take any crud from anyone.  This short made the idea of Mater as a Private Eye work nicely to their advantage.  They kept it simple and they made him feel like he was an homage to old school detectives. It worked out rather well in that area.

Mia & Tia (The Twins)

Now as I stated when talking about Mater, The Twins were involved in this short.  Now if you don't recall who they are, they were the girls that groveled over McQueen at the start of the first film and honestly there was nothing there to talk about with them. This short however gives them a little bit of character development.   You see instead of just being the fangirls that scream "We love you Lighting!", they have more to do as Tia is the one that gets the investigation in motion as she comes to Mater, to let him know that her sister has been carnapped. While not much emotion, we see something as she is distraught over the disappearance of her sister and she eventually ends up turning on Mater to go work with Big D as it is the only way for her to save her sister.  In this short, Tia also serves as an old flame for Mater. Apparently the used to date and it appears they broke it off on a rocky area.  Mia's role isn't as big as her sister's in this short but she does help get the story going as she is the one to be saved but other than that, she doesn't do much.

Supporting Characters

Laverne

Now the first character, Mater come across is Laverne, a showgirl that performs at Big D's nightclub. When Mater firsts asks her of Mia and Big D's whereabouts, she acts as if she doesn't know anything but after Mater offers her some whitewall tires, she reveals her true feelings about Mia and how she hated her.  Though Mater isn't able to get much information from her. One funny aspect about this character is that she tries to hit on Mater.  Mater either seems disinterested or oblivious as he doesn't make any moves back.   She isn't the short very long but she is an all right character. 

Stinky

Mater meets Stinky after he been kicked out of Big D's club and Stinky serves as the informant for this short as he is the one that tells Mater where he needs to go to find Big D and Mia.  Now other than giving Mater the information, he doesn't do to much. Though there is a funny moment where Mater is trying to figure out what Stinky is saying and he keeps getting the words wrong.

Lt. Lighting McQueen (McQueen)

Now in the context of the tall tale, McQueen doesn't play too big of a role that is until near the end of the short when he comes in to arrest Big D as he is presented as being part of the police force.  Now McQueen doesn't come into the story until McQueen asks what happened next in the story. Mater replies with   "Like you don't know, Lt. Lightning McQueen!"  instead of the usual saying he has and this is one of the rare shorts in this series, where McQueen doesn't get hurt as that is a running gag in this series that something bad usually happens to McQueen. I actually appreciate the fact that they did not do that here because I was growing tired of seeing that gag. 

The Villains

Clyde

Clyde is Big D's main cronie  and he doesn't like Mater snooping around.  He hates folks who get to nosy and according to the tall tale,  Clyde is the reason that one of Mater's headlights go missing.  Now sure we have the cliche of the little guy acting tough but I feel that it is pulled off well here and the way, Clyde talks is pretty funny if a bit hard to understand at times.   

Big D

Big D is the main baddie in this short and unlike Chick Hicks, I feel that he actually fits the description of villain. Even if this is just a short and he is a one-off character, he poses a real threat as he almost kills Mater by drowning him .  He is the one that carnapped Tia and he forced Mia to work with him in order to save her sister.  Now part of me wishes that his role in the Cars universe was expanded beyond this one short as I think it would be neat to see what other types of stories could be told with this character.  He may not have many lines in this short but even in the way, he presents himself, he comes across as evil and a real threat.  In a way, I wish he had more screen time in this short but I actually appreciate the  buildup to this character as it made me wonder, where are they going to go with this character?

My Final Thoughts

I have seen many of the Mater's Tall Tales and I have enjoyed a good majority of them but this one to me has the best story.  It is a nice homage to the classic old detective stories. If your a fan of Cars or of Mater,  check this out and if you also like mysteries, you might get a good kick out of this. Now  this short can be found on YouTube. In fact, here is a link the short.

Mater Private Eye 

All right, it's time to pull out of Radiator Springs and join me tomorrow as we drive on down the road to take a look at Goofy in two classic driving shorts. Over the next 2 days, I'll be taking a look at Freewayphobia and Motor Mania.