For many gearheads, it’s not about buying the most expensive or rarest car. That’s something Richie Rich or Daddy Warbucks does to flaunt wealth. For many working-class automotive enthusiasts, customizing a vehicle is a reflection of personal style, no matter what the car is. The folks at Pixar really understood this.
Following the success of the 2006 film “Cars” Pixar Canada was tasked with producing 11 animated shorts called “Mater’s Tall Tales” released between 2008 and 2012. The most popular episode was “Tokyo Mater” viewed 63M times on Disney Jr (TV) and a further 22M views on the Disney Jr YT channel.
The storyline is a classic tall tale: Mater and the Radiator Springs gang are hanging out at Flo’s V8 Café when the sound of 3 tuner cars drifting through town pierces the silence. While the Sheriff takes off in pursuit, Mater reminisces about the time he was an import.
Tow Mater spins a yarn about finding a stranded Toyota Century, a JDM vehicle named Ito-San, broken down outside Radiator Springs. Mater hauls him across the Pacific and ends up in Tokyo. While staring glassy-eyed at the neon lights and tall buildings, Mater backs into the front bumper of gang-leader and modified tuner-car, Kabuto.
Despite the tiny tap on the bumper, aggressive Kabuto feigns anger, and challenges Mater to a drift race at midnight. Ito-San explains to Mater that the race will be to the top of Tokyo Tower. While the winner will be crowned ‘King of All Drifters‘ the loser will be stripped of all customizations and modifications to become… ‘stock‘. The assembled Japanese cars gasp in horror!
This animated short is such a comical reflection of the whole Fast & Furious world. Tuner-car culture is centered on the notions of personalization and customization. A car owner transforms their ride into an expressions of personal style and performance. Therefore, to a tuner-car, the worst fate imaginable is to hit the factory-reset button. To be stock, to be unmodified, it’s worse than death. It’s like never having been alive to begin with.