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Cruella's Cars

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This page is move protected The subject of this article is involved with the Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is a vehicle The subject of this article is involved with 1920s England The subject of this article is involved with the Land Without Magic The subject of this article is involved with Storybrooke The subject of this article is involved with the Underworld The subject of this article is featured in Season Four of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Five of Once Upon a Time

Good thing I had my brakes serviced, darling. I do hate getting blood on the car.

—Cruella De Vil to Maleficent src


Cruella De Vil's Cars, the first one formerly known as Isaac's Car, are vehicles featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They first appear in the twelfth episode of the fourth season.

Cruella's cars are based on Cruella's car from the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians and Cruella's car from the Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians.

History

Before First Curse
The car somehow ends up in the possession of Isaac, the Author, in 1920s England. He drives it to Madeline's house to interview her and uses it to drive Cruella De Vil, her daughter, to a restaurant to be interviewed. After he uses his quill and ink to give Cruella powers, he loans the car to her so that she can return to the mansion and confront her mother. Cruella never returns it. ("Sympathy for the De Vil")

After Second Curse

After her arrival in the Land Without Magic, Cruella De Vil manages to buy a replica of the car that Isaac gave her.[1]

In Great Neck, Long Island, Cruella has her assets seized by the FBI while her husband is arrested and taken away. When Mr. Gold and Ursula show up to convince her into coming with them to Storybrooke, she activates the garage door to unveil her car. Lured in by Mr. Gold's promise to help her regain everything she's lost, Cruella lets them into the vehicle. On the journey to Storybrooke, she stops the car at a drive-in to order fast food as Ursula follows suit, but Mr. Gold declines and doesn't order anything. Reaching a road in Maine, Cruella and Ursula step out and watch as Mr. Gold retrieves a tie from a tree, which he used to mark Storybrooke's location, but the town is invisible and cannot be entered without magic. In his plan to get the women in, the two call Regina, seeking shelter inside the town, after changing from their villainous ways. While the Chernabog is loose in Storybrooke, the ladies help figure out how to defeat it. After the beast is destroyed, Cruella and Ursula wait near the car for a response from Regina, who promised to allow them in if their advice worked. From the other side of the border, Regina tosses a scroll, which Cruella picks up. Stepping back into the car with Ursula, she unrolls it and reveals Storybrooke. Driving in, Cruella halts the car near Regina, thanking her for being generous, before revving the vehicle down the road. ("Darkness on the Edge of Town")

The villains decide to revive Maleficent, and to throw the heroes off their trail, they steal a box from the pawnshop. From their own car, David and Emma see the women exit the store and drive off. After calling Belle at the pawnshop, they learn a box is missing, to which David flags down Cruella's car and searches the vehicle. Secretly, David steals the totem in the box and then pretends to have found nothing suspicious in the car. Let off the hook, Cruella and Ursula reenter the car and depart. ("Unforgiven")

Regina, going undercover to infiltrate the villains' inner circle, succeeds in joining Cruella, Maleficent, and Ursula. However, since the ladies are still skeptical, Cruella drives all of them to railroad tracks and stops the car on it as an oncoming train approaches. Regina must placate their doubts and prove she is not a hero by not saving them from danger, but instead, she waits until the train almost hits the car, before teleporting the vehicle away. Having bet that Regina would act accordingly, Cruella asks Maleficent to pay up for the lost bet, to which the latter forfeits a necklace. The trio believes she's gotten too soft, but then Regina devilishly suggests leaving and stirring up trouble elsewhere, an idea the women are all up for. After a night of drinking and damaging public property, Regina is finally let into the trio's plans to find the author and change their stories so the villains win and the heroes lose. For the mission, she meets up with Maleficent outside the library, where they ride in Cruella's car, which has been enchanted to drive automatically. Emma, with Regina's prior consent, follows them in her own car. When Cruella's car stops outside Marco's wood shop, Maleficent tells Regina to kidnap Pinocchio, who they'll interrogate about the author. As the latter waits outside, Regina heads in, putting Marco and Pinocchio to sleep, and walks out with the boy. Desiring to handle the situation alone from this point on, Regina purposely leaves behind her phone so Emma can't track her anymore. The car then takes all three to a cabin in the woods, where Regina discovers Mr. Gold is back. ("Enter the Dragon")

After Mr. Gold has reverted Pinocchio to August, Ursula goes outside and stands by the car as she listens to operatic singing on the radio until Cruella asks her to come back into the cabin. When August forfeits knowledge about a door the author is trapped in, Mr. Gold goes with Maleficent and Regina to the sorcerer's mansion to look for it. Cruella, left behind to guard their captive, is knocked unconscious once Emma and her parents storm the cabin to rescue August. She later wakes up to see the heroes gathered around as Ursula and her father reconcile, which leads her to believe the latter has been a double agent this whole time. Escaping without anyone's notice, Cruella drives her car and finds her allies as they are returning from the mansion. Stepping out, she reveals to them that Ursula has betrayed them to the heroes. ("Poor Unfortunate Soul")

Reporting back to the villains, Regina shows them a photo she took of the book illustration from the storybook, which they need to free the author. Hoping to obtain the page itself, Maleficent puts the whole town to sleep before Cruella drives them to the apartment to search, but they find nothing. At Mr. Gold's suggestion that Henry has it, they all exit and begin heading to the car for a trip to the sorcerer's mansion. Mr. Gold opts out, citing he has business elsewhere and leaves the ladies to procure the illustration from Henry, who gives them a fake duplicate of the image. The vehicle is then taken for a spin to the pawnshop, where the women meet Mr. Gold outside. Recognizing the image as a forgery, he immediately suspects Regina and orders Maleficent to put her to sleep before they take her to the vault for questioning. ("Best Laid Plans")

Driving down a road, Cruella halts her car when she sees Maleficent standing in her way. After Cruella exits the vehicle, Maleficent confronts her about previously lying that her child died. Cruella casually recounts how she and Ursula left the child to die in the woods, although they took her dragon egg and used it to remain youthful. Furious at the confession, Maleficent promises that her death will last days, before morphing into dragon form. However, Cruella quickly subdues her with persuasion magic and compels her into taking a nap. As Maleficent goes to sleep, Cruella steps back into her car and drives off. With plans of making Emma kill the Author, Cruella uses Pongo to lure Henry into an alleyway, where she pulls up in her car and orders him to get in. Later, after giving Emma the chance to kill the Author or she'll kill Henry, Cruella parks her car in a remote area and ties up the boy as Pongo keeps watch on him. While she is distracted playing a game on her phone, Henry frees himself and runs away, prompting her to send the dog after him, as she follows to catch up with them. ("Sympathy for the De Vil")

After Third Curse

By the time Storybrooke citizens are preparing a celebration to welcome the people from Camelot, Cruella's second car has been put up for sale. ("Dreamcatcher")

As Emma arrives at the Underworld with allies to rescue Hook, she spots a replica of Cruella's car as it passes on the street, with her realizing Cruella is driving it. ("Souls of the Departed")

After persuading Henry to revive her with the Author's Pen, Cruella takes him for a drive and gives him instructions on how to sense the quill's presence in the Underworld. Henry spots something in the woods and prompts her to stop the car. ("The Brothers Jones")

Once James, disguised as his brother David, overpowers Emma and Robin Hood in the woods, Cruella drives up in her car and exits to join James. They later seize Robin's baby daughter and drive their hostages to the dock. There, James and Cruella prepare to shove Emma and David into the River of Lost Souls, only for David and Hook to intervene. ("Sisters")

Trivia

On-Screen Notes

Disney

  • The model and black and white design of Cruella's cars are similar to Cruella's car in the Disney live-action film 101 Dalmatians (in the novel, the car has the same color palette, but it is painted in black and white stripes). ("Darkness on the Edge of Town" et al.)
  • The license plate of Cruella's second and third car is DEV IL. This is a reference to the live-action film 101 Dalmatians, featuring Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil. ("Darkness on the Edge of Town" et al.)
  • Cruella's jerky way of driving is a reference to the eponymous' character's driving in the animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians. ("Darkness on the Edge of Town" et al.)
  • In the novel, as well as the Disney live-action film, Cruella's car is black and white. In the animated Disney film, Cruella's car is red with black trim. Cruella's mother Madeline's car is similar in design and color to Cruella's car from the animated movie.[5] ("Sympathy for the De Vil")

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 TwitterLogo katie (@katie) on X, formerly Twitter: @AdamHorowitzLA How was Cruella's car in the LWM? If she came from 1920's England then moved to the EF? (November 11, 2015). (backup link; the user's account and the original post have been deleted) (archive screenshot, created when the user's Twitter handle and real name were listed differently)
    TwitterLogo Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) on X, formerly Twitter: @seadevilslays she bought a replica in the real world (November 11, 2015). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
  2. ↑ File:412Title.png
  3. ↑ Victoria Smurfit Talks Taking On Cruella De Vil In 'Once Upon A Time'. Access (March 8, 2015). “Complimenting her striking "Once" wardrobe is that dramatic two-toned hair, high, painted on eyebrows and steep cheekbones, and Victoria's Cruella is now showing off the whole striking, high-fashion package, as well as her slightly minimized haughtiness (she's trying to convince Regina and the gang she’s changed) as she motors from street to street in a Zimmer Golden Spirit. And Victoria is enjoying every minute in the classic automobile.”
  4. ↑ David H. Goodman and Jerome Schwartz on the Season Four Blu-ray-exclusive Audio Commentary for "Sympathy for the De Vil"
  5. ↑ File:418MadelineSighs.png
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