I've made it no secret that I love Cars and today, I've decided that over the next few weeks to dedicate Monday to all of the Mater shorts. Starting with Mater and The Ghostlight. Mater and The Ghostlight was the first Mater short and it was created for the DVD release of Cars. The Ghostlight was briefly mentioned in the first film and this is further explored upon in this short.
The Plot
The plot is admittedly a bit simple in that Mater had been playing pranks of the residents of Radiator Springs and the town wanted to get back at him. This all starts when the residents meet as Flo's V8 Cafe and Mater scares McQueen and then says something about McQueen about looking like he just saw the Ghostlight and Sheriff tells Mater not to joke about the Ghostlight and then McQueen asks what is the Ghostlight and Sheriff goes into telling the story of the Ghostlight and it seems to freak out everyone especially Mater and it works as it makes him think that the Ghostlight is chasing him. This is after Guido and McQueen attach a lantern to Mater's crow and then it just becomes a chase of Mater driving through town. Now I'll admit that the story here is a bit light as it relies more on comedy as do most of these shorts but this one moreso than the later shorts that I'll be looking on down the road. It's an all right story but it is a little thin to be honest.
Plot Device
Lantern (Ghostlight)
The lantern serves an important role in this short as it is what makes Mater think he is being chased by the Ghostlight. This was funny to see and it was a lot of fun. I also really love the look on Mater's face as to say "Hey, wait a minute". When he's coming the realization that it's not the Ghostlight.
Characters
Now I won't be covering all the characters in this short and just instead focusing on Mater and Sheriff. With that out of the way, let's go.
Mater voiced by Larry The Cable Guy
Mater was pretty funny in this short as he always is and one thing that I liked about this short compared to the others in the Mater's Tall tales, is that while those usually end with someone namely McQueen getting hurt that didn't happen and instead Mater had to pay for his actions and the consequence was hysterical. This may sound odd but out of all the Mater shorts, this one is the most down to earth but then again I think that is because it isn't part of the Tall Tales line up and those are so over the top and while still funny, the humor in this short comes from a different place.
Sheriff voiced by Micheal Wallis
Sheriff plays an important role in the short even if you don't see him often in that he is the one that tells the tale of the Ghostlight and this plants the seed in Mater's head that the Ghostlight does exist. Now while he was the one that told the tale, it was rather obvious that everyone was in on it.
My Final Thoughts
Now this is a good short, not my favorite Mater short. That title still belongs to Mater Private Eye (which I'll be reposting my review of that along with Air Mater (ugh) and Time Travel Mater) as a part of this retrospective. It's a fun short and rather funny but the humor in this short is different from the other Mater shorts while the latter shorts are over the top, this one feels more subdued. Join me next time, when I take a look at...
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