'Cars Toons' premieres on Disney Channel 10/27

[ALIASd]

Cars Toons
Coming In October To Disney Channel

September 26, 2008
AnimationWorldNetwork

The world premiere of Disney-Pixar's "Cars Toons," a new animated short series directed by Academy Award-winner John Lasseter, and starring Lightning McQueen's rusty but trusty friend Mater, will be presented on Disney Channel, Toon Disney and ABC Family beginning Monday, October 27.

"Cars Toons" are directed by John Lasseter, (director of CARS, TOY STORY 2, A BUG'S LIFE and TOY STORY). Victor Navone (animator on CARS, THE INCREDIBLES, FINDING NEMO and MONSTERS, INC.) and Rob Gibbs (story artist on CARS, FINDING NEMO, MONSTERS, INC. and TOY STORY 2) are co- directors. Kori Rae (associate producer on THE INCREDIBLES and MONSTERS INC.) is the producer.

The shorts premiere as follows on Toon Disney (all times ET/PT):

Monday, October 27 (6:56 p.m.): RESCUE SQUAD MATER -- Mater is a fire truck that rescues Lightning McQueen from a burning building. When McQueen is rushed to the hospital, he discovers that Mater is a doctor, too.

Tuesday, October 28 (6:57 p.m.): MATER THE GREATER -- Mater is a famous daredevil who does all kinds of stunts. And Lightning McQueen becomes an unwilling participant in Mater's greatest stunt ever.

Wednesday, October 29 (6:57 p.m.): EL MATERDOR -- Mater is a famous bulldozer fighter in Spain. He's so good, he's able to fend off multiple bulldozers at once. Lightning McQueen joins Mater in this tall tale just as things are at their worst.

Disney Channel will present all three shorts throughout the day on Saturday, November 1. ABC Family will present the shorts beginning Tuesday, December 23 during the network's annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming event.

AWN Headline News

[Alice's Wonderland]

Sounds cute! I'll have to watch for them.

[Mr. Yeti]

Will they feature Larry the Cable Guy? Or will they be more of a silent cartoon?

[ALIASd]

Gibbs & Navone Rev Up Cars Toons


Bill Desowitz gets under the hood of the new Pixar interstitial series with co-directors Rob Gibbs and Victor Navone.

October 29, 2008
By Bill Desowitz
AnimationWorldNetwork

Cars Toons came about when John Lasseter had a group of
Pixar story guys come up with story ideas for the Cars characters.
All images © Disney/Pixar.

This week marks the premiere of Disney•Pixar's Cars Toons, a new animated short series on Toon Disney, directed by John Lasseter (Cars), chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. The first trio of shorts, dubbed "Mater's Tall Tales," focuses on lovable tow truck Mater and his hero fantasies as a firefighter, daredevil and matador in, respectively, Rescue Squad Mater (aired on Monday), Mater the Greater (aired on Tuesday) and El Materdor (airs tonight at 6:57 p.m.). Disney Channel will present all three shorts throughout the day on Nov. 1. ABC Family will present the shorts beginning Dec. 23, during the network's annual "25 Days of Christmas" slot.

AWN went under the hood of Cars Toons, so to speak, with co-directors Victor Navone (animator on Cars, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc.) and Rob Gibbs (story artist on Cars, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 2).

Bill Desowitz: So how did Cars Toons come about?

Rob Gibbs: I started on it last summer with a small group of story guys and basically the marching orders from John Lasseter were to come up with some ideas for Cars characters. And out of that one of our animators, Bobby Podesta, pitched the idea of "Mater's Tall Tales," where Mater tells a story of his past. And from the ideas that we had, we incorporated some of those, like the Rescue Squad one -- we had the idea to change Mater to the rescue truck instead of Red. And it grew from there. We had six months for development and we narrowed it down to the three that we produced.

Victor Navone: And we have another dozen or so other ideas. But we thought these were the strongest.

full interview at:
Animation World Magazine