Yes yes yes, Disney is still chuggin’ away…though with perhaps a bit less heft than before. We have this new, unnamed wave hitting shelves, with 4 re-releases and 3 brand new Character Cars. I suppose this is Hot Wheels giving stragglers a chance to play catch-up, though 4 cars is hardly a dent in the 7 previous series. But ok, 3 is better than none, right?
- Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves)
- Pongo (101 Dalmatians)
- Bruce (Finding Nemo)
An interesting but reasonably balanced list…we’ve got Snow White from Disney’s original Golden Age, Pongo reppin’ the company’s Silver Age (not an era we’ve seen many cars from), and then Bruce – technically a product of Pixar – from a relatively new era dominated by CGI.
Snow White has been transformed into a neo-classical automobile and it’s a great fit for her elegance, innocence, and her legendary status amid the entire history of animation. They’ve got her colors down to a tee – the puffy shoulders over the back wheels, the yellow dress, the black hair and red bow and even the white color…everybody knows this is Snow White. Clean, simple, and iconic.
So…a Character Car based on a dog…feels familiar…meet Pongo. Ok, it doesn’t scream “dog!” right away but they do get straight to the “Dalmatian” aspect and you can start to see the ears swept back over the rear wheels. The bright red collar under the front definitively identifies him as Pongo…and not one those other Dalmatians. What really catches my eye is the paint. It’s like a metallic white, which really makes the whole thing pop out and look classy.
And then there was Bruce, a big-ass shark after some tiny-ass fish. He does have a couple of creepy moments in the film though, so I’ll give him that. In keeping with the theme of giving big dudes even bigger vehicles, Bruce is cruising around on 6 big ol’ wheels. He is appropriately big and bulky…and for some reason the base vehicle is essentially a pick-up truck and in the back there’s what appears to be a bitten surfboard and a mine! The strangest feature by far, however, is the mouth…with the faint red stain around the lips. I tried to chalk this up to anything but blood – especially on a toy – but it’s so blotchy and undefined that I really don’t see what else it could be. I mean I think it’s kinda cool, and blood around a shark’s mouth makes sense 100%, but yeah, a little odd for what is ostensibly sold as a “toy.”
And there we go, the latest goodies from Disney. It ain’t quite as cool as a full series, but I guess it’s like, what, a half-series? Yeah that works. Series 7.5. Maybe. I think the choices are solid and I do applaud the wide range of representation of 70ish years of animation, divided fairly equally (early 30’s, late 60’s, mid 00’s). So who’s next? Personally I really want to see an Ursula Character Car; I also think Hades would be pretty cool too. I’d love to see something from The Black Cauldron as well. I do hope they keep up with hitting lots of different movies because there are a lot of strong candidates yet to be covered: The Jungle Book, Cinderlla, Fantasia, The Sword and the Stone, and Pocahontas come to mind off the top of my head. Oh and The Three Caballeros – that was one of my favs as a wee youngin’.
Got any news on the Disney front? Know something I don’t? Wanna just speculate with me? Drop a comment!
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