Susie the Little Blue Coupe

If you would like to see this gem of a film, it appears as a bonus on the DVD of Disney's "Ichabod and Mr. Toad", but you have to work for it. On the menu, go to "games" and take the trivia test. If you answer all the questions correct, you will be treated with a viewing of "Suzie, the Little Blue Coupe"! If you are a fan of the children's books by Bill Peet, you will love this story. Before Peet was a published author, he was one of the top story men at Disney. Not only did he work on classic features like "Dumbo", "Sleeping Beauty", "Peter Pan" and "Lady and the Tramp", he also wrote a number of short films like "Suzie". These include: "Goliath II" (the story of a 6 inch tall elephant) and "Lambert the Sheepish Lion". His storytelling sensibilities are unmistakable in these films and bear his mark like a signature. Peet left Disney around 1965 to write children's books. He died in 2002.

This is a very neat Silly Symphony, following the life story about a little blue coupe named Susie. The plot takes you on an intriguing and entertaining look at the life of Susie, from her first purchase to her traffic adventures, and from her declining motor health to her stop on the junkyard.

The cartoon has great, colorful animation, and nice narration from Winnie-the-Pooh voice actor Sterling Holloway. There's also a nice mixture of comedy and touching moments. Great Silly Symphony!

Grade A

This is a sentimental little story of a blue car that is so cute to start with, but which suffers from what all cars do. She begins to age and to rust and to fall apart. It is also a story of identity. But in the end, it is youth that takes over, giving her a new lease on life. It's about second chances and the love that creates them.

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

Sweet & stylish, SUSIE THE LITTLE BLUE COUPE lives a happy life with her owner until wear & tear makes him trade her in for a younger model.

This is a very agreeable little film, with plenty of good humor & fine animation and once again illustrates Disney's adeptness at giving sympathetic life to an inanimate object. Susie's story was written by Disney animator Bill Peet and is very similar to those he would later author as a celebrated children's author. As always, Sterling Holloway makes the perfect narrator.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

Can't believe how long it took this long to see Susie the Little Blue Coupe, especially considering being a huge lifelong Disney fan. Didn't even know about it, until coming across it quite by accident reliving some childhood favourites on Youtube.

Now this viewer wishes they came across it sooner, for it is a lovely Disney short that is deserving of more exposure. As always, as with the Disney cartoons of the 50s and before, the animation is wonderful and perhaps the component that makes Susie the Little Blue Coupe. It is so colourful, so fluid, so detailed, so smooth and Susie is nicely designed and a visually appealing character. Another great asset is the music score, which is lively and characterful as well as beautifully orchestrated, especially the title theme. It is easy to mistake it for the music of Oliver Wallace, though Wallace's music tends to enhance the action just a little more.

Sterling Holloway narrates with just the right amount of restraint and he is also entertaining to listen to. Thankfully he is not overused or distracting, and he is certainly not overly didactic. Stan Freberg's contribution is even more important with the voicing of multiple characters and sound effects and shamefully he isn't credited in the title credits. Susie the Little Coupe has a very poignant story, where it is easy to feel sympathy for Susie (mainly because it is heart-breaking to see her suffer as much as she does. That said, it does amuse as well, really enjoyed the inside joke with reference to Bill Peet with the Peet's Ice truck that Susie drives behind. And it also inspires in its portrayal of real life, showing that you can stay strong no matter how bad the circumstances are. The story is expertly paced and Susie is immediately identifiable as a character, her suffering portrayed very affectingly.

Overall, a lovely and underrated Disney gem. 10/10 Bethany Cox