Replacing the late Tomomitsu Yamaguchi (who voiced Mater in the first film), Kappei Yamaguchi—famous for voicing iconic characters like L in Death Note and Usopp in One Piece —brought a high-energy, lovable, and distinctly comedic innocence to the rusty tow truck. Mater’s southern American slang ("Dadgum!", "Git-r-done!") is notoriously difficult to translate. The Japanese dub handles this by giving Mater a slightly rustic, highly colloquial, and overly familiar way of speaking that instantly signals his country-bumpkin status to Japanese viewers.
In the Japanese dub, Mater’s dialogue is adjusted to reflect his "fish out of water" status in Tokyo. While he remains boisterous, the contrast between his Southern-style mannerisms and the formal Japanese setting is played up for comedic effect.
: Voiced by Tomomitsu Yamaguchi (popularly known as Gussan), a well-known Japanese comedian and actor.
One of the most celebrated aspects of the Japanese localization is the inclusion of the J-pop group .
Example excerpt (illustrative, not literal translation):
: You can find copies of the Japanese release (titled カーズ 2 ) on sites like CDJapan or Amazon Japan .