“John Lasseter also unveiled additional info around the Disney Channel-slated “Cars Toons,” which will feature different tall tales being told by Mater. These cartoon shorts will be appearing on-air, on line and before Disney movies in the next few years.

Lasseter showed the crowd the first of “Mater’s Tall Tales,” which has the character explaining to Lightning that he was once a fire truck. Future installments will feature Mater as an Evil Kneivel-like dardevil, and a matador.”

First shorts to air on Toon Disney include:

Monday, Oct. 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, Oct. 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, Oct. 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.

The Disney Channel will present all three shorts on Saturday, November 1st, and they’ll be on ABC Family beginning Tuesday, December 23rd during the network’s annual “25 Days of Christmas” programming.

Gee, it would be fun to see Mater as a fire truck with Mia & Tia as firehouse dalmatians … whoops, did I say that out loud?

I know what you’re thinking – it’s been HOURS since they have released anything for this CARS thing … if only we had a SECOND Expanded Universe to buy diecasts for … so, yep, not one Expanded Universe but TWO of them (the other being Storytellers).

So, to be clear, the CARS TOONS Expanded Universe lineup will be mostly Mater ‘dream’ adventures and based on the shorts airing on ABC Family, Toon Disney, & the Disney Channel. We will have these CARS Toons shorts throughout the year and we’ll keep you posted when they air and of course, the diecasts that accompany them. You can see the first five listed #111 through #115 …

The STORYTELLERS Expanded Universe lineup is based on the “prequel” storybooks and that diecast CARS line will be a Target exclusive.

Again, these are NOT EXCLUSIVES but no word on when the CARS themselves will be in the stores. Because of the late production schedule, the sculpts were just finalized so it’s looking like 2009 – probably the first quarter … so once less thing to look for this holiday 🙂

To see more pictures of the inside of the Collector’s Guide booklet, check out the other post coming tonight/tomorrow.

CARS TOONS info via ANIMATIONMAGAZINE.