Finally, the French resistance leader Charles de Gaulle would be a Citroën Avant, as “this was the car resistance leaders always drove in war movies.” On the War Itselfĭuring the real World War II, we parachuted in tanks and the like, so in some respects, the Cars war might have looked similar to our own. Emperor Hirohito of Japan, meanwhile, would likely be a Mitsubishi Zero, the famous Japanese dive bomber, which allows Hirohito, who was considered a god, to fly high above his people. “Neville Chamberlain would be a very specific 1928 Morris Minor, ” Woodadge says, explaining that the elitist, outdated car is a perfect fit for Great Britain’s first, failed leader during the war. The Tucker would also end up embroiled in controversy, much like our 33rd president. For President Harry Truman, I say he would be a Tucker, a forward-focused car for a president who defined a new, post-war age. To round out the American cars, Woodadge thinks Eisenhower would have been a Jeep, as Eisenhower transitioned well from a general to a president who pushed for the Interstate Highway System. Hitler would have hated that, so it’s sort of a nice revenge.”
It’s also the perfect irony that the Beetle became associated with hippies and free love. “It was a Nazi idea to have an economical car for his Reich, and that’s where the Beetle came from. “The idea behind the Volkswagen Beetle was that it was Hitler’s car for the people,” explains Woodadge. “He was something that looked good that wasn’t.” After a bit of research, I decided on the long defunct Italian luxury brand Isotta Fraschini, which disbanded shortly after the war and was never quite as well built as a Lamborghini or Ferrari. “Mussolini would have to be some flashy Italian car that was underpowered and ultimately unreliable,” Woodadge says. “Stalin would have to be something oppressive that showed he had power and that nothing could touch him.” “The Russian T35 tank was a very industrial, ugly-looking, brutish tank that came out of Stalin’s factories, which is why it would be right for him,” Woodadge says. ” Roosevelt was an elite, so a luxury car makes sense, yet Woodadge points out that he was also perceived as being accessible to the people, so a convertible made by Ford - the most “American” of American manufacturers - would suit him well. The Lincoln K-Series was in many ways the first “presidential car,” and FDR had one nicknamed the “ Sunshine Special. That is what Churchill was about as well - his image was that he was one of the people and that the people brought him to power.”įranklin Roosevelt as a Lincoln K-Series. Actually, you can’t make Spitfires out of old frying pans, but it was a successful PR stunt that inspired many. “With the Spitfire, there were campaigns in Britain where the people were encouraged to give their old frying pans to be melted down to make Spitfires. For the leader of Great Britain, Woodadge makes a case for the Spitfire, not only because Churchill was known as a spitfire himself, but because “it would have to have been something that the British people could look up to,” he tells me. Winston Churchill as a Spitfire Fighter Plane. Who Would Be What in the Cars Version of World War II? For example, what did the battles look like? Who won the war? What weapons did they use, and how did they fire them? And perhaps most interestingly, what kind of cars were all of the war’s major historical figures?įortunately, I found a World War II historian who was willing to play along - Paul Woodadge, a filmmaker, author and battlefield tour guide - and map out all of this with me. With that alone, there’s a ton to unpack. So, according to Disney, Sarge is officially a World War II Jeep, which means that World War II officially took place within the Cars continuity. One of the most complicated things about Cars, however, is the existence of the character Sarge, who Disney officially describes as follows : “Sarge, a 1942 WW2 Willys Army Jeep, is the most patriotic resident of Radiator Springs.” Like, are there humans around, or were there ever? If not, who built the cars and why do they have door handles? Do the cars reproduce ? And if so, how? There are a lot of weird, unexplainable things going on in Pixar ’s Cars universe.