Charlene "Charley" Davidson- The Brains of the Outfit
Name: Charlene “Charley” DavidsonAge: 25
Hair Color: Auburn/Brown
Fur Color: N/A
Eye Color: Green/Blue
Bike: Blue/Silver street bike
Mother: Samantha Bimmins
Father: Joel Davidson
Siblings: Candy (sister), Robert (“Robby”; brother)
Other Family: Various aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.
Likes: working on cars, cheesy romance novels, putting Vinnie’s ego in check, theater, chivalry, rock n’ roll, long walks on the beach
Dislikes: Plutarkians, Vinnie’s rampant ego, constantly having to eat hot dogs and root beer, having to constantly rebuild the walls and windows of her garage
In life, we’re constantly adjusting to the curve-balls life throws us. Charlene “Charley” Davidson had always thought herself particularly adept at that. When all the other little girls in her hometown wouldn’t let her play with them, she quickly became her brother Robby’s shadow and began following him everywhere. When her father had a heart attack and she was forced to quit college temporarily to help take care of him, she not only did it but managed to graduate ahead of the rest of her class. And when she was forced to open her garage in the rundown, seedy section of Chicago, she coped and made it a lighthouse in a sea of desperation.
But when life threw her four curve balls named Throttle, Modo, Vinnie, and Bingo, Charley realized that there were certain things that were beyond her ability to deal with.
Charley’s life had been rather uneventful up until that point. The youngest child in a lower-middle-class family of five, she had always been the spunky, independent one who liked playing with her father’s power tools. Although her tomboy ways annoyed her old-fashioned mother, Samantha, to no end, Charley’s father, Joel, encouraged her natural gifts for understanding the inner-workings of machines. When she decided to go into automotive work, he was thrilled. Despite a tumultuous romance with long-time friend “Asphalt” Jack McCyber, Charley finished school and opened her own garage.
Then, one night, when she faced losing her beloved Last Chance Garage, her life was saved by walking ego Vinnie VanWham and the other Biker Mice From Mars.
Instantly, Charley’s life changed. Whereas once her greatest concern had been making enough to buy groceries for the week, it now became an issue of “how to avoid being kidnapped or put in danger by the supervillain of the week.”
Still, Charley has managed to cope. She knows she is one of the Biker Mice’s few human allies, and the only one they are in constant contact with. The mechanic grudgingly picks up their mail, brings them dinner, and acts as a bridge between them and Earth. When the Biker Mice come across something in their adventures which they don’t understand, from dinosaurs to Shakespeare to medival chivalry, Charley is there to act as interpreter.
Although she acts annoyed with them, and is often frustrated by the things they do, Charley does love the Biker Mice. She playfully judges their macho behavior as “childish” and “adolescent”, all the while getting a kick out of their playfullness. She makes fun of them frequently, all good-natured teasing, which the Biker Mice are quick to reciprocate. And she’s forgiving, to boot. No matter what they do, from breaking her walls to making a mess of her kitchen to making her the focus of Limburger’s efforts to destroy Chicago, the Biker Mice always find a way to redeem themselves in her eyes. When their game of street hockey left the Last Chance in a sorry state, Throttle, Modo, Vinnie, and Bingo became stunt-mice on a movie Lawrence Limburger was directing (actually cover to give him free reign to destroy Chicago in the name of “special effects”) (“Danger is Our Business”).
The mechanic is also able to see beyond the surface of a person and find what’s underneath. When the villainous Hard Rock, who the Biker Mice are determined to grind into the pavement, appears in Chicago claiming to have changed, only Charley believes his claims that his girlfriend Darla has turned his life around (“Hard Rock). In the end, she turns out to be right. Later, when the Biker Mice’s mentor, Stoker, is revealed to have lost his edge in fighting because of his age, she comforts him and makes him realize that he can still contribute to the Martian Resistance (“Caveat Mentor”).
She doesn’t exactly seem to mind the attention he gives her, either.....
Charley has, despite herself, become more and more attracted to Vinnie as time goes on. Although she knows he can be obnoxious, childish, and annoying, as well as egocentric and too macho for his own good, the mechanic has found something charming behind all that. Initially, she didn’t care for his piss-poor attempts at romance. In “Rock N’ Ride!”, she is clearly offended when he calls her “sweetheart” after they’ve just met. But by “Once Upon A Time On Mars Part Three”, she not only doesn’t mind, she forgives him when he accidentally calls her by his old girlfriend’s name. It seems ironic, given that Charley loves to cut down Vinnie’s ego and make fun of him (the baby picture incident in “A Scent, A Memory, A Far Distant Cheese” comes to mind) that she has come to care so deeply for him. But then again, love is weird. And besides that, her feelings have been, behind all Vinnie’s posturing, reciprocated.
Although she claims that she was better off before she met the Biker Mice, Charley obviously enjoys the life she’s led since more than the one she had previously. Working on alien technology (the mice’s motorcycles, their spaceship for scrap, Plutarkian spacecraft) has increased her mechanical knowledge, and the need for decidedly different weapons (rewiring Modo’s arm in “Once Upon a Time On Mars Part One”) has given Charley a chance to exercise her natural creativity in ways she might never had a chance to in every day-to-day life.
And, to a degree, she clearly likes the adventure. Frequently, she helps the Biker Mice out during their escapades (so many episodes I can’t name them all), following along or coming up with her own, independently-executed scheme. In “Big Trouble”, Charley joins in the battle at the golf course despite the mice’s warnings to just watch from the sidelines. She’s even destroyed Limburger Tower herself (“Back to Mars Part Three”), something the Biker Mice usually take care of themselves.
Of course, this heroic lifestyle has its disadvantages. As mentioned before, Charley’s garage has taken some heavy hits from the Biker Mice’s foes and the mice themselves. And, in the tradition established by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ April O’Neil, Charley is constantly being kidnapped by Limburger’s goons, Greasepit, or any supervillain that comes along.
Despite this, however, Charley remains cheerful and willing to help her hairy heroes take on any threat that comes at them.
Heroes: Joel Davidson
Advice: “It’s a long walk back to Eden, so don’t sweat the small stuff.”
Animation Voice: Leeza Miller-McGee, who I had honestly never heard of before this. I thought for awhile that she might be the same Leeza that has the morning talk show, but they don’t sound alike. Also, they have different last names.
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