A charming animated short following the life of Susie, a little blue car, from her shiny showroom debut through neglect and decline to a happy rescue and rebuild. Bill Peet contributed the story work for this anthropomorphic tale, one of several shorts on which his gift for giving inanimate and animal characters real personality came through.
The film held a personal connection for the Peet family. As Bill Peet Jr. recalled: "After the making of Susie, my father bought a sky blue Studebaker convertible. It was one of those with a nose that looked like it should have a propeller on the front. It was the first car I learned to drive. When we moved, the Studebaker's little engine didn't have enough power to make it up the hill to our new house."
His contribution
Bill developed the story for Susie, shaping a wordless narrative carried entirely by the expressiveness of a car. The short's blend of sentiment and gentle comedy, and its sympathy for a small mistreated character who finds happiness in the end, runs straight through Bill's later picture books.
Story sketches
- RELEASED
- June 6, 1952
- DIRECTOR
- Clyde Geronimi
- BILL'S ROLE
- Story
- RUNTIME
- 8 min