BLAME IT ON DISNEY

By Debbie Bulloch



Today is already November 6 and I cannot believe that the year is almost at an end. It just seems like it was yesterday when Glo and I together watched the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl game between USC and Penn State. Oh well, as the Romans used to say - Tempus Fugit!

I also cannot believe that six days have already passed in November and I have not written a single article for the blog. In my defense, I could argue that in the past few days I have been very busy (which I have). The truth, however, is that for some odd reason I have been feeling rather lazy; too lazy to do one of the things that I enjoy the most – writing. Now that the time has changed and it gets dark right after the sun goes down at around 5:30 p.m., I just feel like crawling under the blankets and just go to sleep. Maybe that is the reason bears and other mammals hibernate – lack of sunlight.

Perhaps I just need something to get the creative juices flowing once again. That “something” happened today, when I took my car in for service.

Like most American children, I was “raised” on Disney. Trips of Disneyland, reading Disney storybooks and watching Disney movies and animated shorts were all a big part of my life as I grew up in Southern California. Disney animated films had an especially strong influence in me.

I have always had a strong attraction to the visual arts, especially movies. As a child, I was absolutely captivated by the stories that Walt Disney and his studio of world-class animators brought to life on the theater’s big screen. I can still vividly recall images of Pinocchio being chased by Monstro, the whale, Cinderella’s magical transformation from a cleaning girl to the belle of the ball and Sleeping Beauty’s Prince Charming bravely fighting off the wicked witch who had assumed the shape of a fearsome dragon.

One area where the imagination of the Disney Studio’s animators shone brightly was in their series of animated shorts. If a feature length animated movie is like a novel, then an animated short is like a poem. In an animated short, like in a poem, there is no waste – every frame of the animated short is important, there is no room for “fudging.”

One of my favorite Disney animated short is “Susie – The Little Blue Coupe.” This is the story of a little blue car and her “journey” through life as she goes from a cute and much beloved new car to a neglected and abused “has been” junker to, at the end, a once-again loved and cherished car. I remember the first time that I watched “Susie,” I went from joy, to tears and back to joy during the film’s eight minutes running time.

As an adult, I understand full well that the desire to engage in anthropomorphism is a dangerous fallacy. A car is made of metal, plastic, and fluids. As a child, however, I did not see Susie as an inanimate object. In my child’s eyes, Susie was very much alive, like a pet or even a baby – and when Susie cried and shivered in the cold, I cried with her.

Such is the stuff of a child’s bright-eyed innocence and creative imagination.

DISNEY - Susie The Little Blue Coupe



This morning something happened that made me think of Susie, the little blue coupe. First thing in the morning I took my car (a coupe itself – I guess childhood influences are hard to leave behind) to the mechanic for a service. Normally I wait around for the mechanic to finish working on the car and then I drive to work. This time, however, there were a few things that the mechanic wanted to look at so he asked if I could leave my car with him until the end of the day. Of course, this meant renting a car to go to work.

I called the local car rental agency and they told me that they did not have anything available in the morning. They told me that they would have some more cars coming in at noon, but they had nothing at the moment. It was just 8:00 a.m. and I was in no mood to waste half a day waiting for a rental car. My mechanic is an “old school” mechanic; he is as talented at diagnosing and fixing problems, as he is courteous to his clients. Seeing my dilemma, he offered to let me use one of the “stand-by” cars that he keeps just for this kind of situations.

Not keen with the prospect of sitting around the shop’s waiting room for half a day, I happily agreed to use the “stand-by” car. That is, until I saw what the “stand-by” looked like. Seeing the look on my face my mechanic apologized for the car’s condition. “My other cars are out, this is the last one I have left for the day,” he said. “I know it looks tatty,” he added, “but it runs fine and it won’t give you any problems.”

The car in front of me was a W126 Mercedes 420 SEL. Back in its heyday, the 420 SEL was right at the top of the Mercedes line, just one short step below the might 560 SEL. The “S” class Benz, and especially the 420 SEL and the 560 SEL, was (and still is) the vehicle of choice for top executives, movie producers, the rich, kings, dictators and other heads of state.



This particular 420 SEL parked in front of me had seen better days – it was far, far from its formerly glorious heyday. The car’s paint was peeling off and there were a couple of dents on the side. When I opened the door, I saw that the interior was not in much better than its exterior. There were holes in the seats, there was a certain musty smell and the carpets were stained.

When I looked at the car, I almost did not get in. I must confess that I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to maintaining my cars. My father, who came from the land of Benzes, BMWs, Volkswagens and Porsches, instill in me a deep respect and appreciation for all cars, especially Mercedes. We never owned a new Benz. My father was way too practical and frugal to buy a new car. “Let someone else pay for depreciation,” he lectured me, “buy a used car in good shape, buy it cash, take good care of it, and you will save money in the long run,” he would add. So, instead of new Benzes, we always had older, but lovingly maintained, cars form the land of Stuttgart.

I looked at the big, dirty Benz and I immediately thought about Disney’s little blue coupe. Here was a car than when new must have put a big smile on its first owner’s face. But through neglect, the car now looked sad and forlorn. I got inside and I adjusted the seat and the mirrors. Then, with a turn of the key, the car’s powerful V8 engine roared to life. I love the sound of a well-tuned engine; in spite of its tatty looks, this Benz’s engine sounded like it had just come out of the factory.

I well know the dangers of anthropomorphism. A car is a car and a toaster is a toaster; to see them, as anything other than objects made out of metal is to risk a quick trip to the insane asylum. But in some unknown and inexplicable ways, I just felt that the big Benz was eager and happy to go places with me. I exited the mechanic’s shop and headed for the nearest freeway.



As I drove on the freeway, I was amazed by the big car’s ability to lap up the miles and weave in and out of rush hour traffic. It was like riding an old horse and expecting it to be tired and lame, and then finding out that the horse still has fire in its belly and wants to gallop and not just walk.

As I got closer to the freeway off ramp that would take me to my office I got an idea. What if I do not go to work in the morning and instead take the old car out for a spin. The moment that the idea formed itself in my head, I felt the car’s engine surge forward (here I go again, anthropomorphizing). I passed the off ramp to my office and instead took another road – a road that would take the old "guy" and me over the Santa Monica Mountains and directly to Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).

This morning was a foggy and slightly cool morning. As soon as the Benz and I hit PCH, the engine surged ahead, eager to run loose. Mechanics will confirm that cars run better in cool, foggy days because cool air is heavier and richer and burns better in the cylinders. I suppose that is true – it may even explain how eager the car’s engine felt under the throttle. For me, however, there was something far less prosaic at work here:

This venerable old-timer was just happy to be back on the road, especially out on PCH with the roar of the ocean on one side and the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains on the other side. So my new “friend” and I happily tooled along the way, enjoying the cool ocean breeze. By the time we passed Mugu Rock, the car drove and felt like new. I exited on Las Posas Road and then proceeded to drive inland, next to fields where workers busily picked the autumn harvest. The big Benz seemed to love the change from the ocean view to the farm view. Its engine just hummed along, lapping up the miles.

When I finally returned to the freeway and headed back to my office, the old-timer seemed a little sad. But I think that he “understood” full well that I have work commitments and so he went along with me, back to my office.

When I finally returned to work, I parked him under the shade of an old oak tree. Once inside my office, I could look out my window and see the old-timer “snoozing” under the tree’s generous shade. I do not know whether the light was playing tricks on me, but somehow the car’s old, dull paint seemed brighter and shinier. The old Benz, dare I say it, looked younger and happier – just the day he must have looked like that day, many years back when he sat on the dealer’s showroom while people around him ooh’ed and ahh’ed in admiration.

It is almost the end of my workday and I just got a call from my car mechanic. He says that my car is running fine and that I can come and pick him up anytime I want. As I spoke dot the mechanic I looked out the window and saw the old 420 SEL staring at me, like a big, lost puppy. I looked at him and I told the mechanic that I am going to keep the 420 SEL overnight and will return it to him in the morning.

I think that I am going to be late for work again tomorrow. The old Benz and I have a breakfast date tomorrow morning at Paradise Cove.

I am sure that the big Benz will enjoy one more trip to Malibu.

NOTE: Walt Disney had an enduring fascination with cars, trains and airplanes. Here, from Uncle Walt’s Disney studios is a look at what cars might look like in the future (from a 1940’s perspective). Please note that some of the design features depicted on this animated short were, in fact, available in some of the cars of the time. For example, the car with the “step-down” interiors (at 0:45 minutes into the clip) was in fact a real car. In the early 1950s the Hudson Car Company developed a car with “Step Down” interiors (though not as exaggerated as in the Disney short). This design feature, found only in the Hudsons of that era, made the car wider and lower than the competition. As a result, Hudsons had superior handling characteristics. The company’s Hudson Hornet with its powerful flathead straight-six engine and the Step-Down design’ superior handling made the Hornet a fearsome competitor – it dominated NASCAR competition for many years.

DISNEY - Cars of Tomorrow



A Hudson Hornet police “cruiser” (Doc Hudson, voiced by the late Paul Newman) was predominantly featured in the Disney-Pixar film, “Cars.”

DISNEY – PIXAR – Cars