'Mater' to star in 3 TV cartoon shorts

BURBANK, Calif., Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Disney Channel, Toon Disney and ABC Family will air a series of animated shorts featuring the character Mater from the movie "Cars," studio officials announced.

The world premiere of Disney-Pixar's "Cars Toons," directed by Oscar winner John Lasseter, is scheduled for Oct. 27 on Toon Disney, The Walt Disney Co. and ABC Television Group said Thursday.

Two other episodes are to air on Toon Disney later that week.

Disney Channel will present all three shorts throughout the day Nov. 1 and ABC Family will run them starting Dec. 23 during the network's annual "25 Days of Christmas" programming event, the company said.

Lasseter directed "Cars," "Toy Story 2," "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story."

Victor Navone and Rob Gibbs are co-directors of the series of "Cars" shorts. Kori Rae, an associate producer on "The Incredibles" and "Monsters Inc.," is the producer.

Disney-Pixar's "Cars 2" is scheduled to be released in summer 2011.

Disney said "Cars" is among the fastest growing franchises for Disney Consumer Products and is on track to generate $2.5 billion in global retail sales of licensed merchandise in fiscal year 2008 -- or $5 billion in sales since its box-office debut in 2006.