Original release date: February 25, 1938

Rating: TV-G – G is for Goofy – and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven nautical minutes

Background: “Boat Builders” is the first Mickey short to be released after the nationwide debut of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Disney’s first full-length animated feature. It was a return to what Disney did best… hijinks with its star characters.

It came back around for reairing many times, including during an episode of the classic “Mickey Mouse Club” and back in theaters before some showings of the 2007 animated film “Meet the Robinsons.”

Review:

“Build your own boat – even a child can do it.” That’s what is at the bottom of the boat building instructions that the big three – Mickey, Donald, and Goofy – are looking at to start the short.

The trio pull the pieces of the boat out of its gigantic shipping crate and get to work. Mickey is wearing overalls instead of his classic red shorts.

Goofy does some hammer work, which not surprisingly ends with him getting hit in the face with a board numerous times and into a barrel of nails. It’s a funny gag, as he doesn’t notice what his butt landed in until he reads the word “NAILS” on the barrel.

Mickey installs the captain’s wheel while Donald tries to paint below. Every time Mickey turns the wheel – maybe feeling some Steamboat Willie flashbacks – it turns the part Donald is trying to paint, tying up poor Donald.

Goofy pops open the box labelled “figurehead,” noticing how beautiful the blonde mermaid figurehead is before she falls out. Yes, he thinks she is a real woman. Mickey carries off his new wooden girlfriend, causing Goofy distress.

Finally the ship – named the Queen Minnie – is ready. The actual Minnie does the ceremonial champagne bottle-into-the-ship hit, which causes the entire ship to fall apart from back to front. Oops.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

It’s cute and has some good humor. It looks really good, very likely due to some HD touchups. Watch it.

Original release date: December 24, 1937

Rating: TV-Y7 due to happy haunts materializing and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine spoooooky minutes

Background: Depending on how you look at it, “Lonesome Ghosts” was the last Mickey and friends short released before or after the debut of “Snow White.” If you go by the movie premiere date, “Lonesome Ghosts” showed in theatres three days later. If you go with the nationwide premiere date (the date used on this blog for release dates), it debuted shortly before the big animated movie.

Many consider this short to be the inspiration for many things Ghostbusters. For example, there is some ghostbusting. The line “I ain’t scared of no ghost” is heard in this short,” something very similar to the line from the hit song “Ghostbusters” which accompanied the movie.

“Lonesome Ghosts” has appeared repeated in Disney lore following this short, most notably in a handful of video games as somewhere to explore and with the ghosts as helpful characters.

Review:

We start with the lonesome ghosts themselves living in the house, noticing a newspaper ad for exterminators. They give a call to the Ajax Ghost Exterminators, also known as Mickey, Donald and Goofy. The ghosts feign voices and say they have ghosts, bringing the Ghostbu— I mean Ajax Ghost Exterminators right over.

Mickey brings a gun, Donald a net and Goofy an ax as they barge in to begin their work. It’s clear they are in over their heads before they make it in the door.

One ghost creeps up behind Mickey, scaring him all around the house. Mickey keeps getting close but can’t seem to catch any of them, instead sinking in a sudden amount of water.

Donald is next and takes a spanking from a ghost. There’s some clear blur in the animation of Donald that hasn’t been cleaned up and it is pretty distracting. In the end, Donald too ends up all wet.

Finally we have Goofy, proclaiming himself brave though we know otherwise. Goofy too faces a little of the blur in animation as it is clear this short hasn’t gotten the touchups a lot of the others haven’t. Goofy has the same struggle the other three have, being chased down stairs before crashing into a mountain of flour alongside Mickey and Donald. The three reappear, covered in flour, which scares the ghosts off.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Yes, watch it. It is a good short for Halloween time (despite being released on Christmas Eve) and is the usual Disney fun. The random blurring is distracting but probably isn’t that noticeable unless you’re looking for it. One ghost has a cigar smoking problem, which might bother some. He’s already dead, it isn’t going to hurt him further.

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.

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.

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.