I might have seen this short when renting 'Cars' a few years ago but had forgotten about it. Upon renting the first volume of Pixar shorts on DVD, I watched it to refresh my memory but I didn't find it as engaging as 'Jack Jack Attack,' 'Burn-E' and 'Dug's Special Mission.'Two of the strongest aspects are the song 'Behind the Clouds' that opens and closes the short and the lovely fluorescent-coloured lighting that sufficiently illuminated the dark sky for the most part but some shots are too dark and not detailed enough, especially those when Mater is left alone and is scared of what he thinks is the ghost light. There a a few clichéd moments such as the record scratch when the police car mentions the ghost light, the false alarm situation of Mater thinking the cute lightning bug was the ghost light and a slow-motion scream. The dialogue was a tad simplistic and at one point repetitive, but I liked the upbeat-to-slow country music playing after the generic-sounding scary music. There were also some laugh-out-loud moments such as Mater playing tricks on the other cars and trying to scare them, especially Lightning McQueen hoping Mater wouldn't scare him, the brief appearance of the cow tractors (they made me laugh in the main feature) and Mater not noticing the Screaming Banshee after the opening credits. Overall this is one of the weaker feature-related Pixar shorts but its music is mostly worth a listen and the lighting is on the whole beautiful. 7/10.

"Mater and the Ghostlight", made by Pixar dinosaur John Lasseter and the rather-new Dan Scanlon, is an okay little short-film with the main protagonists from Cars and can make for a decent watch during Halloween for example. It's the last movie ever with screen legend Paul Newman. The first 90 seconds or so, we just see all the characters, like a fire-fighter car watering a bunch of flowers etc. Then it enters scary territory as one of the cars tells his very own little horror story and we see it brought to life not much later.People often say the Cars films are Pixar's weakest and this one here is probably the equivalent when it comes to their short-films. Of course, it's not totally bad at all. The animation is great as always and I liked the "the scream of what?"-twist towards the end. This was pretty funny. Otherwise, it's not really a must watch unless you're still very young or you really loved the Cars movie.

Mater and the Gaslight is definitely not bad, but other than the animation really there is nothing special I particularly find about it. The animation is indeed gorgeous, like with all of Pixar's other work, not only beautiful in the colours but there is a sense of atmosphere too, the music fits wonderfully, the Ghostlight is creepy and the voice work especially from Paul Newman and Michael Wallis is great. However, it all feels rather routine, apart from the sight of Mater shaking and looking scared, there is never really anything that across as funny or moving, and the rather thin story holds few surprises. I also have an issue with Mater, I find him much better as a supporting character than a lead, by all means his appearance is not as problematic as it was in Cars 2, but he is rather bland here. In conclusion, worth watching for the animation but it is just lacking for me in humour, charm and heart. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I have seen this short twice and both times I was bowled over by the gorgeous computer-generated animation. Clearly, Pixar is THE studio that sets the animation standard. However, I think this film has a strike against it from the outset and that is because the CARS characters aren't as endearing or timeless as many of the other Pixar creations. They lack the "cuddly factor" or depth of some of the other characters and so, at least to me, it doesn't stack well with the MONSTERS, INC., UP!, RATATOUILLE or INCREDIBLES (among others).As for the short, it's about Mater and how cowardly he is. The others make up a ghost story and Mater freaks out. It's all great fun for the kids, but adults probably won't love this film unless they are car aficionados or NASCAR fans. To me, it all seemed pretty routine--aside from the great animation.