As a seasoned content creator at cars.edu.vn and a self-proclaimed automotive expert, I need to address a critical issue that has plagued the world of Cartoon Cars for far too long. It’s a matter of principle, a hill I’m willing to die on, and it concerns the very soul of vehicular anthropomorphism: Where are the eyes on a cartoon car supposed to be?
I’m drawing a line in the sand today. The eyes of anthropomorphized cars are, unequivocally, the headlights, NOT the windshield.
There are no exceptions to this rule. Depicting cartoon cars with eyes in the windshield is simply wrong. And yes, Pixar, this includes you. While your contributions to animation are undeniable, you have unfortunately misled an entire generation by placing eyes on the windshields of the characters in Cars. Can this damage be undone? Perhaps, but it would require a complete overhaul, a cinematic mea culpa in the form of remaking Cars and Cars 2 to even begin to correct this fundamental flaw.
Let’s clarify what we’re discussing. Anthropomorphism, in this context, refers to giving human characteristics to non-human objects – specifically, how we perceive cars in cartoons, toys, and even in real life, as having faces. Our brains are naturally wired to find faces everywhere. This phenomenon, known as face pareidolia, explains why we readily interpret the front of a car as a face.
When we look at a car’s front end, we instinctively see a face. Cars are typically bilaterally symmetrical, much like a human face, and possess a comparable number of features. This makes it easy for us to assign eyes, a mouth, and sometimes even a nose to various car parts. Think about the simple smiley emoticon 🙂 – it’s a testament to our innate ability to see faces even in minimalist representations.
While I might begrudgingly excuse very early car cartoons, perhaps those predating widespread headlight use like Tex Avery’s One Cab’s Family, anything created after the standardization of headlights that opts for windshield eyes is fundamentally misguided. It’s not only visually jarring but conceptually flawed. The windshield is merely a transparent barrier for the driver’s vision – empty glass. Headlights, while not actual eyes, structurally resemble eyeballs far more closely than a flat sheet of laminated glass. Even on cars with split windshields, the windshield-eyes concept remains tenuous.
One might argue, as perhaps Pixar did with Cars, that windshield eyes were chosen to sidestep the question of human presence in a world populated solely by sentient vehicles. The Cars universe is indeed inhabited entirely by living cars. Fine, I accept that premise. However, this raises even more perplexing questions. Why do these cars have seats? Or steering wheels, door handles, dashboards, or pedals? For that matter, why do they even have windows or greenhouses at all? Shouldn’t they logically be reduced to low, rectangular, doorless slabs? This line of reasoning exposes the weakness of the windshield-eyes argument, not strengthens it.
Moreover, if the windshield houses the eyes, what becomes of the headlights? Are we to ignore them entirely? Pretend they are merely symmetrical moles or growths? Attempting to disregard the headlights only results in a bizarre, two-faced effect, a characteristic unfortunately prevalent in nearly every car depicted in Cars.
Even cars with retractable headlights pose no problem. Simply pop the headlight covers open, and voila, instant eyes! Quad headlights, too, work perfectly as expressive eyes. Regardless of the headlight configuration, they invariably read as eyes far more convincingly than a windshield.
My strong stance on this issue has become particularly relevant now that I have a child. Our home is filled with anthropomorphic toy cars. Disturbingly, about half of these toys perpetuate the windshield-eye fallacy, while thankfully, the other half correctly utilize headlights as eyes. I refuse to let my child grow up with this visual misrepresentation. I want him to look at a car’s front and see a face – be it friendly, determined, or even angry. It’s a fun, natural way to interact with the automotive world. If we condition children to seek eyes in the windshield, we limit their perception to only specially manufactured, promotional cars dictated by entertainment corporations seeking profit. We cannot allow them to steal our inherent ability to see faces in cars!
Consider the Austin-Healey Sprite pictured above. If you fail to see those headlights as the eyes of this car’s cheerful, upfront face, then you must be an alien, or perhaps simply dishonest, or both. You deceitful extraterrestrial! Return to your bizarre planet where vision is achieved through a featureless panel on your forehead. And please, take these Cars 2 DVDs with you as you go.
This story was originally published on December 26, 2011.
