Mickey Shorts

Clock Cleaners

1 Comment

Original release date: October 15, 1937

Rating: TV-G for wholesomeness and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine clean minutes

Background: “Clock Cleaners” is one of the most acclaimed Disney shorts of the early days.

It was voted the 27th greatest cartoon of all time and has seen many releases. However, those re-releases have been filled with controversy due to – who else? – Donald Duck.

As we all known, Donald can be a bit hard to understand. Two of his lines in this short – “says who” (which sounded to some like the F word was involved) and “snake in the grass” (which apparently sounds like “son of a…”) were censored and replaced in re-releases of the film after the theatrical release. More recent releases, including the Disney+ version here, have been released as it originally was in 1937.

Review:

One thing you’ll immediately notice is that this short hasn’t received the major HD cleanup that a lot of other shorts have. There are still plenty of film marks and other imperfections.

As the name suggests, clock cleaning is the name of the game. Mickey scrubs the outside of the large tower clock while Donald and Goofy work on the inside.

Coming in to work, Mickey finds a snoring stork on top of some fears. Instead of being nice and letting him sleep, Mickey harasses him, tapping on his beak and pushing him around in an attempt to toss the sleeping bird out the window. Mickey really isn’t as nice as we’ve been told. Eventually he succeeds, tossing the stork out the window… who swoops back in and tosses Mickey out the window.

Meanwhile, Donald hammers the mainspring of the clock (which I guess counts as cleaning?). I can see where he would be misinterpreted here with his “says who” line, but they say you hear what you want to hear.

Goofy ventures outside with a broom to clean the giant bell. He happens to be out there right at 4:00, as the clock strikes, its giant figures march out and ring Goofy’s bell.

Goofy, having had his mental bell rung, tumbles off the side of the building, only to be seen by Mickey who is cleaning the numbers of the clock. Mickey tries for the save which leads to some mid-air chaos. It’s a tough job cleaning clocks.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Absolutely you should watch it. It was the last Mickey short to debut before the release of Disney’s first full-length animated feature and it’s pretty funny.

Mickey Shorts

Hawaiian Holiday

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Original release date: September 24, 1937

Rating: TV-G with wholesome Hawaii fun and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight surfin’ minutes

Background: Mickey and the gang decide to take a trip to Hawaii in “Hawaiian Holiday.”

Of note, this is the first Disney short that was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The previous shorts were distributed to theatres by United Artists.

Review:

We begin on the beautiful animated beach of Hawaii, Pluto sniffing around as Minnie hula dances and sings to Mickey and Donald’s instruments. Goofy sings as well, gearing up his surfboard.

Goof runs out, jumps on the board… and the wave sees him and backtracks, causing Goofy to hit the ground. Then the wave comes back and throws him into chaos. Poor Goofy.

Meanwhile, Mickey gets into it with his guitar before playing some impressive four-fingered Hawaiian music. Donald has taken over hula duties, shaking his tailfeathers and warming them directly IN the nearby campfire. Anybody up for some roasted duck?

Pluto – in his earliest appearance on Disney+ as of this writing – starts chasing a starfish and, too, gets pounded by the waves. Goofy tries bodysurfing with the surfboard instead, having a lot more success until the wave starts acting a fool again. Pluto gets into an extended scene with a crab and if you think the crab does some pinching, you are right and have seen cartoons before.

Goofy finally masters surfing – or so he thinks – before making a bad landing on the beach, complete with Minnie singing and a clever surfboard-as-tombstone sight gag.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Yes, watch it! This is the first short on Disney+ (as of this writing) to feature all five of the “Fabulous Five.” It’s classic Disney.

Mickey Shorts

Magician Mickey

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Original release date: February 6, 1937

Rating: TV-PG due to I’m going to guess gunplay and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight magical minutes

Background: “Magician Mickey” is another famed Mickey Mouse short from the 1930s.

It has a bit of modern day cultural impact at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The Mickey meet and greet in Town Square Theater is based on Mickey being a magician, with the obligatory post-photo gift shop being themed to magic.

Review:

We begin with, not shockingly, a magic show starring Mickey (with curtain and lighting work being performed above by Goofy).

Magician Mickey makes a bird appear, which causes a certain other famed duck sitting in the balcony to mock him. Mickey makes water balloons appear, which Donald also tries to sabotage.

We get some lighting issues as Goofy makes a light bulb work by sticking his finger in an electrical outlet. This scene has been cut out of modern day airings but was left in tact for the Disney+ version.

Mickey makes more birds appear (which makes his act seem limited). Then he does a card trick that ends up making Donald throw a bottle at him. Mickey does magic, as one does, and sends the bottle right back at Donald. Donald is very angry about water for being a duck.

This causes Donald to march on stage – security was very absent at this show – and steal the magic wand. Mickey does some trickery and shrinks Donald down, doing tricks with him before putting him into a pistol and shooting him into a lightbulb. Magic!

Donald has had enough of Mickey being a competent magician and tries to start a fight with him, which naturally ends with Donald being turned into animals and other nonsensical tricks. Fireworks become involved and the entire stage is destroyed, Donald being blackened by fire and Mickey winning… I guess? The stage is destroyed.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

It’s classic Mickey and has Donald, so it definitely gets a watch it rating. There are better Mickey shorts on Disney+, but eight minutes of Mickey and Donald doing things are worth the time. There is the pistol incident and Goofy sticking his finger in a light socket that are probably teachable moments for children.

Silly Symphony

Three Blind Mouseketeers

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Original release date: September 26, 1936

Rating: TV-Y7 due to mousey swordplay and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine blind minutes

Background: This Silly Symphony, not shockingly, is based on both the nursery rhyme “Three Blind Mice” and the book “The Three Musketeers.” Knowing both of those will greatly help understand the joke here.

Review:

The Three Blind Mouseketeers sing about being themselves, using their swords to tap on the ground and find their way around. They are very stereotypically after cheese.

Outside of the mouse hole, we meet Captain Katt. Yes, he’s a cat. He seems to be very Pete-like. The Captain has set traps all over in an effort to catch the mice, hiding in a barrel to watch the fun play out.

The mice just happen to find their way out of their hole and miss the first trap, smelling cheese. One taps his way to a mousetrap, a second nears tea kettle with cheese in it, and the third finds cheesecake. They all three find ways to get their cheese and avoid the traps, sneaking pass the sleeping cat.

They find some hot dogs, mustard and buns as well as wine glasses, setting up a victory feast. The cat dreams of the wine being cannons, being jolted awake when the wine corks pop across the room and right in his face. He finds the mice feasting.

Captain Katt and his giant ax begin chasing the mice, who comically scurry across his room. After a back and forth battle, the mice gang send the cat running though the various traps he had earlier set up. Cheese for all!

Well, except for the cat.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

It is cute I guess, but it lost me to checking Facebook about halfway through the short. I shouldn’t get bored halfway through a nine minute short. Skip it.

Silly Symphony

Toby Tortoise Returns

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Original release date: August 22, 1936

Rating: TV-Y7 due to comical violence and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven fightin’ minutes

Background: “Toby Tortoise Returns,” as the name suggests, is a sequel to an early short starring Toby. In this case, it is the Silly Symphony “The Tortoise and the Hare.”

In addition to Toby and his hare nemesis Max Hare, other Silly Symphony stars such as the three little pigs and Big Bad Wolf appear.

Review:

We start immediately with the beginning of a boxing match between Toby and Max, the crowd cheering Max and laughing at Toby despite their history. They have drawn quite the crowd, so I hope they both pocketed some money from the promoter.

Max takes some early shots at the back of Toby’s head, followed by more to the front as the rabbits running the ambulance wonder if they need to offer help. Max takes a break to flirt with the same trio of bunnies from the first short before continuing to pound poor Toby.

Toby gets thrown out of the ring into the lap of Jenny Wren, a vixen of a sparrow from a Silly Symphony not yet on Disney+.

We take a break in between rounds as Max smokes a cigar and Toby aches. The bell rings and round two begins, Toby retreating inside his shell as Max does some Taz-level spinning. Toby decides to start taunting Max, saying “you’ll never catch me.”

This riles up Max, who reaches in to catch his hand on a mousetrap. He tries pouring water into the shell which, you know, isn’t going to bother a turtle. A bystander gives Max a box of fireworks, which doesn’t seem easy to bring into a sporting event. Max lights one up and throws it in the shell, which blows Toby to the sky and then back down to land some surprise assisted blows on Max. As you’d probably think, the fireworks continue to work for Toby, helping him land a win over Max.

I didn’t see anything culturally crazy. There are several instances of cigar smoking which probably wouldn’t make the cut in 2019.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Meh. It’s okay but nothing worth really watching. Let’s say skip it.

Mickey Shorts

Mickey’s Rival

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Original release date: June 20, 1936

Rating: TV-G for “gosh, why Mortimer?” and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight rival minutes

Background: “Mickey’s Rival” is yet another in the long catalog of Mickey shorts. It introduces the character of Mortimer Mouse.

There’s a little history here as Walt’s original choice for Mickey’s name was Mortimer. His wife, Lillian, suggested Mickey instead. In addition to this Mortimer, a totally different Mortimer was introduced in the Mickey comics as Minnie’s uncle.

This short’s Mortimer – rival Mortimer – has continued making random appearances in Disney shows leading all the way up to the current “Mickey and the Roadster Racers” Disney Junior show.

Review:

We begin with Minnie preparing a nice picnic in the park while Mickey dances near his car. A fancier car speeds by, stopping to introduce Mortimer Mouse. Mortimer has a Mickey look but much longer legs, towering over Minnie. He kisses her hand as Mickey struggles to get out of food that the racing car threw on him.

Minnie introduces Mortimer to Mick, a friendship Mickey has no interest in as the friend zone isn’t his favorite. Unlike Mickey, Mortimer does wear a shirt. Practical joke after practical joke follow and it is quickly apparent that Mortimer is a jerk. Mickey’s little car gets into it with Mortimer’s car as well, as you’d expect from cars with eyes.

Mortimer joins the picnic, much to the chagrin of Mick, and devours the turkey and makes Minnie laugh. Mickey really shouldn’t be letting this happen.

A nearby bull roars, as bulls do in areas with picnics, and Mortimer offers to go fight the bull for Minnie. Mickey isn’t impressed.

Morty keeps the bull at bay until the fence opens, running and jumping in his car. The bull charges Minnie instead, sending Mickey charging into action.

After quite the battle, one that includes Mickey’s car joining in the fight, Mickey of course wins and escapes. Mickey asks Minnie if she still likes Mortimer and she gives him a big “no,” giving Mickey enough assurance to continue through over half a century later without giving her a wedding ring.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

It’s worth a watch, so watch it. Honestly I faded out during the Mickey-bull battle, but it was entertaining enough and justice was done with some color and HD detailing.

Mickey Shorts

Thru the Mirror

1 Comment

Original release date: May 30, 1936

Rating: TV-Y7 due to Mickey hijinks and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine magical minutes

Background: Since its 1936 release, “Thru the Mirror” has been one of the most revisited Mickey shorts.

Besides being rereleased about a dozen times on various Disney retail releases, “Thru the Mirror” has been referenced in numerous Disney video games. Most notably, “Disney’s Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse” is based on the short. The hit game “Epic Mickey” also featured elements of the short in the beginning of one of the games.

Review:

We begin with Mickey sleeping well, having dozed off reading “Alice: Through the Looking Glass” and I assume imagining it would one day be a book worthy of Johnny Depp in crazy makeup.

Mickey’s spirit jumps out of him in dream land and goes through his bedroom mirror, discovering a similar bedroom but with living furniture. The footstool barks at him, the umbrella chases him, and the nutcracker… well, cracks nuts.

Mickey eats one of the nuts and grows to gigantic size before shrinking to miniscule, similar to the Alice story and movies. He gets to jump rope with a telephone – they once had cords, kids – and do a Fred Astaire-style dance with a tiny hat and a match.

Hijinks continue with Mickey marching with a deck of cards and playing a game of leapfrog with them. The animation is really fantastic in this short and the color – and HD upgrading – is shown off well.

Anyway, Mickey eventually decides to dance with the cards, doing a number with the Queen of Hearts. The King of Hearts does not appreciate it, jumping down and chasing Mickey with multiple swords. Mickey finds a tool of his own and a swordfight ensues, the King eventually calling all cards to chase Mickey. Not only does the deck he was dancing with chase him, but several other sets appear from throughout the room.

After trying to battle them, Mickey realizes he isn’t winning this fight and makes a run through the room back to the mirror. He gets into a fight with the globe before luckily growing back to size and jumping back through the mirror.

Sleeping Mickey, rejoined with his dreaming side, is woken up by an alarm clock, realizing it was all just a dream… much like that Nelly song from 2010.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

There aren’t many shorts I’ll give a higher watch it recommendation for, as this one is a classic, looks fantastic thanks to some HD work, and is nine straight minutes of entertainment. There isn’t a dull moment.

Silly Symphony

Three Little Wolves

1 Comment

Original release date: April 18, 1936

Rating: TV-Y7 and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine little minutes

Background: “Three Little Wolves,” a Silly Symphony, is the sequel to “The Big Bad Wolf” which is the sequel to “Three Little Pigs.” It’s a bit of Disney going to the well more than they should, something the company would perfect in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

While loosely based on “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” some viewers have noticed much more symbolism than that. To quote a sentence on Wikipedia, “In the opening scene, the Big Bad Wolf is instructing his three rowdy wolf pups in “German”, pointing to a chart of pork cuts and saying ‘Ist das nicht ein Sausage Meat’, etc., reinforcing the interpretation that he is a stand-in for Adolf Hitler.” Yikes.

Review:

We do indeed start at the house of B.B. Wolf, talking German and teaching his three little wolves about he choice cuts of pork. Maybe he just has good taste. He knows both English and German which is quite impressive. The wolves are pesky and even sing the “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” song.

Naturally the little pigs are doing the same, Overalls Pig doing housework and the other two doing obnoxious things. They find a wolf alarm and blow it, causing Overalls Pig to go into panic, grab his gun and head to the alarm site. There was no alarm, just obnoxious pigs instead.

“Some day the wolf will getcha,” Overalls Pig warns. The other two, having never learned a lesson a day in their life despite two previous shorts, just laugh. Meanwhile Big Bad and Little Bads creep in, Big Bad eventually taking on a Bo Peep-style costume. Somehow the two dumb pigs DON’T NOTICE it is the Wolf, I assume at this point because they are idiots, and lead Big Bad Peep to her three missing sheep, all who are very wolf-like.

The sheep wolves lead the pigs directly into their house, the pigs don’t notice and I’m at the point where they deserve to be eaten. They blow their wolf alarm and wrestle with the little wolves. Overalls Pig hears it, prepares… and then waves them off, knowing how they play.

Big Bad prepares a fire for the pigs, having tied them up in a pan, while one of the little wolves blows the horn in celebration. The pigs, having developed brains at some point, challenge the little wolf to blow the horn. He blows and the pigs call it a “sissy blow,” which leads to Big Bad himself blowing it so loud the world hears it.

Overalls Pig comes in a mustache, another clear disguise, and traps Big Bad in his new “wolf pacifier” invention. The wolf pacifier basically beats him up, then tars and feathers him followed by a nice shot out of a cannon. Little wolves go chasing after the wolf as the pigs march out, Overalls Pig carrying the Wolves’ granny bloomers as a flag.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nope.

Should you watch it?

Skip it unless you’re intrigued by war symbolism, in which case you should read up on the short on Wikipedia and then watch to compare. There was really no need for a third short in the series.

Silly Symphony

The Golden Touch

1 Comment

Original release date: March 22, 1935

Rating: TV-Y7 and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: ten golden minutes

Background: “The Golden Touch” is a Disney Silly Symphony take on the story of King Midas.

There’s a bit of a backstory to this one. Walt Disney himself decided to direct this one, having not directed in five years and unhappy with the job other directors were doing. He was disappointed with the result of his own performance here and told his workers they couldn’t talk about it.

Well Walt, here we are talking about it. Sorry, boss.

Review:

We start with King Midas and his cat counting money and singing. Midas sings a song about being rich, his disinterest in women and wine, and his love of money. He does not sing about his creepy mustache.

Goldie the elf appears, offering Midas the golden touch, demonstrating it by turning the cat gold and back. Midas offers his kingdom, gold, and everything else for the golden touch. Goldie offers the rebuttal of the golden touch being a curse and the root of all evil. Midas isn’t listening, of course, and is given the golden touch.

Midas attempts to display the powers of the touch on his cat, running into a tree in the process and turning a tree, apples, and flowers gold in the process. He continues through the kingdom making things gold, like a birdbath, a fountain, and even one of his teeth.

He finds out what a curse this is as he sits down to eat, with first his fruit and then corn, his drink, and a turkey all turning gold. He can’t eat!

Midas goes mad, seeing a gold skeleton of himself and locking himself in his counting room. He begs for Goldie to reappear and rescue him from his golden curse. Goldie comes back and laughs at him, taking all of his gold, his royal outfit, and leaving him with a plain ol’ burger with onions.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Not a one.

Should you watch it?

I could go either way, but let’s say “watch it.” It’s a good cautionary tale and isn’t as bad as Walt himself apparently thought it was.

Mickey Shorts

The Band Concert

1 Comment

Original release date: February 23, 1935

Rating: TV-Y7 due to Mickey hijinks and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine musical minutes

Background: “The Band Concert” is one of many popular Mickey Mouse shorts released by Disney.

It was the first Mickey short to be released in color and landed in third place – the only Disney entry in the top five – in the “50 Greatest Cartoons” book.

The short has been seen time and again in Disney history. It is the inspiration for Mickey’s PhilharMagic at The Magic Kingdom in Florida and the Silly Symphony Swings at Disney’s California Adventure in California. It has also been featured in video games like “Kingdom Hearts” and “Disney’s Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse.”

Review:

We begin at what seems like an ending with Mickey and his hand receiving a round of applause. This, however, leads them into the music of “William Tell.”

This is where I note that Mickey’s band includes illustrious entertainers as Goofy and the Three Little Pigs. As Mickey gets this ragtag group of characters playing, hot dog salesduck Donald Duck appears yelling “hot dogs!” and jumping on stage with his flute. He is quickly the most entertaining one on stage and a dang fine flutist.

Mickey, jealous mouse that he is, breaks Donald’s flute… then Donald’s backup flute… then Donald’s backup to the backup flute. Mickey is, again, kind of a jerk.

To their credit, the band doesn’t lose a step. Donald finds another flute and plays near Goofy, who throws him and his menagerie of flutes into an ice cream stand. Donald really does have too many flutes. He plays again, unfortunately attracting a bee into the flute. Donald and the bee spar while the band plays on. The bee lands on conductor Mickey’s head, leading to Donald lobbing ice cream right at poor Mickey’s head.

The bee decides to harass Mickey instead, causing him to conduct out of order and cause the crew to play out of tune. The bee tries to attack Horace Horsecollar, who uses his cymbals to miss it and smack poor Goofy on the head.

The next performance is “The Storm,” a song that wears out the band and even causes Horace to strip. A real storm in the form of a tornado eats up the surrounding farm and entire house, something the band doesn’t notice. The crowd does, running along with the benches. Ever the professionals, the band keep playing as they get sucked into the tornado. The band plays through the tornado dropping them to the applause of Donald.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

This is a big watch it pick. Donald makes everything better and this is truly one of the most classic Disney shorts.

Riding in the Disney time machine to review everything Disney from 1928 to today!

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