These short films are essentially a bridge between the first 'Cars' film and the second. In fact you could say that each short film is a concise analogy of the relationship between the two Cars films - they start out in slow-paced Radiator Springs and then branch out into far-fetched adventures. I would highly recommend watching these before watching Cars 2, they make the shift in tone much less jarring. Also the idea that Mater is always telling 'tall tales' becomes relevant in the second film.

I would not say that these are better than the two feature-length films, but they do suit their function more appropriately. The first film had good characterization, but for a children's cartoon there was not much action. The second film had a lot of action, but with less interest in the characters.

These are only intended as fun little sketches, and as such they work superbly. I had more laughs per minute than the feature films, with the highlight being a hilarious reference to 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'

Pixar is known for creating really good stories and putting them in animation. I noticed that in many polls on the Internet, Cars is one of the lowest voted options out of all of the movies. So it's no surprise that most won't find this series of shorts to be funny or at least Pixar worthy.

However, I must admit that they did a good job since they are shorts, cartoon shows, which kids will be watching. It doesn't need a fancy back story or anything. So the Pixar worthy-ness isn't essential.

I rate this 8/10 because of the humor with the shorts. The shorts are all genre's, so a rock band, going to the moon, being a hero, bull fighting, spy movies, even monster truck driving and wrestling! I laughed a lot during the UFO episode. Also, in the bonus features, one of the ideas was a stunt double, and the pun at the end with Mater saying why he doesn't do it anymore with "they do it in CGI these days" was classic! 8/10