00:06Mater is the greatest best friend that anybody could ever have.
00:11He's sincere. He doesn't lie to you. He tells you the way it is.
00:14He's all those folks that you know right away that you can be friends with them.
00:19He's a complex character, actually. He's just very genuine.
00:26The story of Mayer starts back on a trip on Route 66, early in the development of cars.
00:34Joe Ranft, the co-writer, head of story, co-director of the movie, and I...
00:38Welcome to Route 66. See y'all later. Bye now.
00:42And we turn this corner in Galena, Kansas.
00:46And there in this old abandoned gas station were these rusty trucks and cars.
00:52And one of them was this tow truck.
00:56And I caught Joe looking at this tow truck.
01:00And there was something about it that just touched Joe.
01:04That really, really touched him.
01:06And he started drawing.
01:09And at the time we had this truck character and his name was Zeb.
01:12And he was just supposed to be kind of a hillbilly truck in town.
01:15And Joe was doing the voice for the scratch.
01:17You know, one time there was this pickup named Betty who lived next door.
01:21I used to crash into her just to make her angry.
01:24But then I started wondering if maybe I crashed into her just so I could talk with her.
01:28That pureness and that earnest of heart he has is Joe.
01:32The sort of non sequitur, weird, bizarre, sometimes creepy humor that was very Joe.
01:36He won three piston cups.
01:39He did what in his cup?
01:40This feeling that Joe put into it kind of became Zeb, what was Zeb, and then became Mater.
01:45You know, I used to crash into her just so I could spoke to her.
01:49He's got the biggest heart.
01:50He is funny as can be.
01:52Anybody feels like, oh yeah, you know, Mater would be a fun guy to hang out with.
01:56He's happy.
01:58He makes people happy.
01:59He'll make you laugh.
02:00And I like to make people laugh.
02:03In October of 2001, I went to Charlotte, North Carolina, to Lowes Motor Speedway.
02:09And they took me to a place called Redneck Hill, a small rise in the middle of Lowes Motor Speedway.
02:15And there they introduced me to the self-appointed mayor of Redneck Hill.
02:21A guy by the name of Mater.
02:22My name's Mater.
02:25Mater?
02:26To a Mater without the toes.
02:28I said, you know, Mater.
02:30Yeah, like Toe Mater, but without the toe.
02:33So now how'd you get that name?
02:35Well, when I was a little old feller, I was raised up on the farm.
02:38And if I wasn't eating the tomato eyes, I'd throw them at the hogs, just terrorizing everything I could.
02:42So when we were developing this tow truck character, we had a tentative name that we were, like, not too
02:48happy with.
02:49And I thought, what about Mater?
02:51And I said, I'd be on her.
02:53We'll talk later, Mater.
02:56Later, Mater.
02:57That's funny.
02:59Ah!
02:59It's a combination.
03:00The character is, you know, a big part of Joe Rampt, the real Mater in Charlotte, North Carolina, and, of
03:06course, the amazing actor, Larry the Cable Guy.
03:09I feel beautiful.
03:13Hey, everybody.
03:14How do I look?
03:15When I go to do Mater, it's just basically me.
03:19Oh, buddy.
03:20I've been up there for two hours.
03:22But, boy, it's worth it.
03:24I love Pertnere.
03:26Do that again.
03:27I grew up with people that talked like that, and all my friends talked like that, you know.
03:32I come from a farming community and was just pretty laid back.
03:35And if anybody asked, we was out smashing mailboxes, okay?
03:39That's great.
03:41I'll be honest with you.
03:42I'm not drywalling a house.
03:45So, to me, this ain't difficult.
03:48When you've got a vocal performance that's as good as what you get from Larry the Cable Guy,
03:52it's almost like half your work is done for you.
03:54You know, take what was funny about the dialogue and make it even funnier through the body performance.
03:58Oh, getting cozy at the cone this week.
04:02Bob Pauley designed Mater, and we wanted to do an in-house design for him, inspired by trucks from the
04:08mid-'50s.
04:09You can just feel like a very simple American pickup truck from a time, you know, from a long time
04:15ago.
04:15And then little things we did on Mater, like none of the tread patterns match.
04:18He has all mismatched tires on him. Some of them are balding.
04:22A lot of rust in places, mismatched parts, broken parts.
04:24And yet, it all kind of works together.
04:28The kind of patina and wear and richness of texture that you get only with kind of being out in
04:34the sun and the rain.
04:36These guys have kind of earned their paint jobs.
04:38It's like they're merit badges of time and history.
04:40They have this kind of authenticity to them.
04:44Mater was kind of a very specific type of rust.
04:46This western-style rust that J.L. talks about, which is the upward facing.
04:51The sun bakes the paint off, and then the rust comes from the outside in.
04:57Sort of smooth, velvety rust, if that makes any sense at all.
05:02East Coast rust is more created by dampness.
05:07Mater has a lot of extra articulation and movement ability over other characters.
05:12You know, he's got the cab and he's got the bed, which allows you to sort of move the two
05:15things independently.
05:16So sometimes you can treat it like a dog's tail, or you can treat it like hips if you want
05:20to wiggle his hips.
05:21And then he's got the toe arm that he can actually do things with.
05:28He's definitely the cartoonist of the car's characters.
05:31And his face, it's instantly, like, funny, and there's so much character just in his mouth.
05:36When you're drawing him, at least he's a fun character to draw.
05:39The way his wheels can go out and turn make it way easier for there to be more expression.
05:45And then his toe hook and the crane, like...
05:47You can create silhouettes that are, like, express more.
05:54Mater's not exactly the smartest chip in the, uh, you know, uh, cookie box.
06:02See what I mean? I'm Mater! I don't even know what I'm talking about!
06:05Mater's not the smartest guy in the world, but my Mater's got great common sense.
06:09He's a silly, goofy guy that you don't seem to take too seriously,
06:13but every once in a while he would be the character that would say something that actually is kind of
06:17deep.
06:17He doesn't care what he's like on the outside.
06:20It's what's on the inside that makes him so rich.
06:32I don't think he's a liar. Mater's a storyteller.
06:35And there's a difference, because there's no harm in it.
06:37It was a UFO, and I know, because I done seen one long.
06:41He's the kind of character you really expect to embellish about his past
06:44or come up with some crazy idea or story.
06:47Well, I was a big rock star.
06:49I used to wrestle truck bigger than that.
06:52Roger, dodger, roger.
06:54It doesn't matter if Mater's in Europe or Mater's in Russia
06:57or Mater's in Radiator Springs.
06:59Mater will always be Mater.
07:01In your Mater door!
07:04He is what he is, and he is who you like.
07:11You look so sideways, you've got eight to, overIX.
07:13I've had to celebrate and see the I'm proud of of a veteran from the Burbara.
07:13Speaker 2 I am humbled and tahu by the inevitability of his work.
07:20Speaker 3
