This Friday at 9:30 PM ET/PT on Disney Channel, a new episode of Disney/Pixar’s Cars Toons premieres. It’s titled Unidentified Flying Mater, and the short follows Mater’s discovery of a UFO named Mator. Here’s a clip from the episode, which was directed by John Lasseter, and co-directed by Rob Gibbs.

John Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and director of animation masterworks like Toy Story and Toy Story 2, recently answered questions posed to him on Facebook and Twitter. The question answered below was “what advice do you have for an aspiring animation student?” Lasseter asks that we don’t forget to study the basics (drawing, design, animation fundamentals, film grammar, story, etc…):

The trailer for Pixar’s newest film Up is up!  The visuals in this new assembly are rich and beautiful, but it’s not very clear what the movie is about (IMDB says it’s a “coming of old age” story with a seventysomething hero, alongside his clueless wilderness ranger sidekick). Pixar has taken many gambles in the past that have paid off well and having a 70 year old star in this next CGI yarn seems like their latest risk.  But Up, which is directed by Pete Doctor (Monsters, Inc), will probably be like every other Pixar film – and that’s GREAT!  As we await the Summer 2009 release, we’ll be watching closely for more trailers and sneak peeks – so keep your eyes aimed at Lineboil.