Jasper and Horace's truck is a vehicle owned by Jasper and Horace in the 101 Dalmatians franchise.
Design
Animated Films
In One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the truck is the primary vehicle of Jasper and Horace, the former always being the driver. The truck is a dark brown colour and somewhat resembles a Citroen 2CV and is right-hand drive like most real-life European vehicles of the era and had manual transmission. The truck's cab was very cramped and it had no windows or doors and it was implied to not have heating as Jasper and Horace were very cold when driving the truck during the winter season. It is in very poor condition as evidenced by its broken fender and headlight as well as a cracked wing mirror on its right hand side. It also had a spluttering engine, implying that the pair had owned it for a very long time, the steering wheel was easily torn off by Horace and the truck itself fell apart following a collision with Cruella's car during the final chase. Unlike Cruella's car, the truck was not as resilient to damage due to its weaker build. Despite this, the truck could still manage an average top speed as proved when Jasper and Horace sped away after stealing Pongo and Perdita's Dalmatian Puppies, when they followed the tracks of Pongo, Perdita and the ninety-nine puppies after they had escaped from the De Vil place and during the aforementioned final chase. As mentioned before, the truck is completely destroyed beyond repair after hitting Cruella's car and as such it does not make a reappearance in the sequel.
Live-Action Films
In 101 Dalmatians, it is a 1982 Ford Transit MkII, but it is still used for the same purpose as in the original animated film. While they are at a pub, having dognapped the puppies, Whizzer tries barking from the truck, alerting Kipper, who informs the animals on the farm about it. While they are at Hell Hall, some raccoons and squirrels are seen tinkering with it. One squirrel chews its wires (heavily implied later on to be vital components for the truck's heating system) under the open hood, while one raccoon places a walnut in its exhaust. When they hear its horn, they notice the animals and chase them off. It initially has starting problems, although they're resolved after Jasper presses the gas pedal hard enough to force the walnut out of the exhaust, right into Horace's mouth (as he had been investigating the exhaust at Jasper's orders). It eventually bursts into flames (presumably due to the Squirrel chewing on the wires earlier) when Horace attempts to turn on the heater (due to having caught frostbite from falling into a frozen lake earlier).
Television Series
Jasper and Horace are shown to have two trucks in 101 Dalmatians: The Series, one of which looks closer to their normal one, and also a scarlet pick-up truck.
In "Best of Show", to make sure Vendella wins, they lock Lucky, Rolly and Cadpig in the truck. Fortunately, they are able to operate its buttons and manage to get it to open.
In "Close But No Cigar", they drive the truck to look for Cruella's winning ticket. They chase the Dalmatians all the way to a pie factory, but crash the truck into the factory's mixer.
They also appear in the truck in "UnLucky", pretending to be from the telephone company.
The scarlet pick-up truck appears in "Oozy Does It", where the Dalmatians sneak into it to learn where the ooze is coming from. They flatten the tires before Jasper and Horace get back to Hiccup Hole to dump more of the ooze. This allows the Dalmatians and the animals of the Dearly Farm to dig a trench, leading the ooze towards Villa DeVil. In "Roll Out the Pork Barrel", Rolly and Mayor Pig take a delivery of kibble from the back of the truck and send it rolling into the swamp.
They also appear in the truck in "Jurassic Bark", where they look around the Dearly Farm, trying to find Cave Pup.
Other
The truck also appears in Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, where we see Jasper and Horace discuss if the Dalmatians are working with Merlin. The guests use the Sorcerer's Crest on the back of their spell cards to cause the truck to explode.
A truck of the same model is also seen in The Aristocats, owned by The Milkman, which Thomas O'Malley, Duchess, Toulouse, Marie and Berlioz sneak a ride on. This is a possible use of recycled animation, considering the time setting of the film. The Milkman uses it as his milk truck and it is coloured blue with the steering wheel in the middle as opposed to the right side. It is also in much better condition with no damage but still has the rickety engine. Unlike Jasper and Horace's truck, which was started by the use of a key, The Milkman's truck featured a hand crank which would be needed to start the truck.
Gallery
Trivia
- In the 1996 film, there were three trucks used. At one time, all three were at Walt Disney World in Florida. Yet now there is one left while the location of the other two remain unknown. The existing one remains sitting on the Studio Backlot Tour at Disney's Hollywood Studios, albeit in bad condition.
- In the 1961 version Jasper is the only one who drives the truck but in the 1996 version Horace is seen driving it once while he and Jasper wait for Roger and Anita to leave for their walk with Perdita. Then Jasper drives it the remainder of the film.
