Mickey's Mellerdrammer

In this cartoon, Mickey and his friends put on a play of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." We've got Mickey playing Uncle Tom, Minnie playing Little Eva, Clarabelle Cow playing Eliza, a fleeing slave, and Horace Horsecollar as Simon Legree. I thought this was a pretty interesting short because I watched a version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in my history class when I was a junior in high school. In the story, Little Eva is the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner. After Tom saves her from drowning, the owner buys him, but he is later sold to the evil Simon Legree. In the cartoon, however, it starts off with Uncle Tom and Eva singing and dancing to "Dixie." Minnie shouts "Oh look, it's Simon Legree!" In the real story, Eva did not know Simon at all. Several fun gags were when Clarabelle is getting ready, she takes some soot out of the bottom of an oil lamp and rubs it on her face to make her look like an African American. Mickey puts a firecracker in his mouth and it explodes in his face, making him look like a black as well. Whenever Horace walks on stage, the audience takes his role as Simon Legree too seriously and throw fruits and vegetables at him. This is a great short for any Disney fan to watch.

This is no ordinary Mickey Mouse short. In Mickey's Mellerdrammer the star player and his friends stage their own production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's hugely popular anti-slavery saga "Uncle Tom's Cabin," so right away you know this is a cartoon of special historical interest, and one that treads in highly sensitive territory.

During the 19th century there were numerous stage versions of Stowe's novel being performed nationwide, the most popular being the one written by George L. Aiken (1830-1876). This adaptation was a good old-fashioned barn-stormer featuring one-dimensional characters, flowery dialog, melodramatic excess, and exciting spectacle. The show premiered in 1852 and was still touring the provinces a half-century later, long after the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. Even rural folk who were inclined to regard the theater with disapproval were familiar with pious old Uncle Tom, wicked Simon Legree, fun-loving Topsy and the angelic Little Eva, and generations of Americans thrilled to the climactic flight of Eliza across the ice floes, pursued by bloodhounds. There was more to the play than spectacle, however. Stowe's novel was a major influence on anti-slavery sentiment in the U.S., and the play spread the word further. Times and public taste changed rapidly as the 20th century rolled on, but even as late as the 1930's many older American still cherished memories of seeing "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on stage. I don't know if Walt Disney was among those who saw the show as a child-- although I'd be surprised if he didn't --but in 1933 he and his animators devised this nostalgic tribute to the experience. In Mickey's Mellerdrammer Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Goofy, and the gang present their own budget-challenged rendition of the show for a raucous crowd in a barn converted into a theater for the occasion.

In this context there's no point in discussing Political Correctness; this, after all, is a cartoon that opens with Mickey and Clarabelle Cow in their dressing rooms applying black-face makeup for their roles. You'll have to decide for yourself whether this cartoon is something you're comfortable watching. From the purely historical point of view this film gives modern day viewers a latter-day perspective (i.e. that of the early 1930s) on a popular entertainment phenomenon that had already spanned eight decades, a phenomenon of considerable socio-political significance. Lincoln himself joked that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" started the war. Even in such a brief and light-hearted treatment as it receives here, the material has weight. We witness something that goes back much further in time than the '30s, something meaningful that packs a lot more emotional heft than a routine movie of the period, certainly more than the average cartoon. In any case, we don't see much of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" itself. A couple of Aiken's famous lines are quoted, but the filmmakers were more interested in the strenuous efforts of the actors and the backstage crew to put on the show against all odds, and in the uninhibited response of the audience. There are lots of good gags, mostly based on the ragtag production values of the show staged by Mickey and his pals: the sets are makeshift, field hands are played by wooden cut-outs, and even the bloodhounds are fake. Theater buffs will enjoy such devices as the offstage horse whose galloping is suggested by rhythmic drumming, the cardboard "ice floes" operated by bicycle pedals, thunder mimicked by potatoes rolling across an inverted wash-tub, etc. Other bits are more typical of gags found in old cartoons, such as the patron asked to remove his large hat who reveals an even larger head of hair.

This film is available in a DVD set of black & white Mickey Mouse cartoons, where it was placed with several others in a separate section called "From the Vaults" containing works of a controversial nature. The officials of the current Disney organization who okay'd the release of Mickey's Mellerdrammer deserve thanks, for this film has genuine historical value and shouldn't be suppressed. Anyone with an interest in American history, race relations, and the 19th century stage will likely find it of interest. Not to mention cartoon buffs, of course!

"They don't make 'em like the used to"---that's a phrase that people USUALLY use in order to say how great things used to be years ago. However, in the case of "Mickey's Mellerdrammer" is means quite the opposite!! I truly think this is one of those shorts that the Disney Corporation wishes would just go away--and people would forget about this one. But, thanks to folks like me and wmorrow59 (who did a terrific review for this film), we won't let you forget! This cartoon begins with Mickey and Clarabelle donning black-face. It seems that the gang is putting on a performance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"! Sure, this isn't at all politically correct today, but back in the 19th century it was a HUGELY popular book and play. But the sight of seeing Goofy and the rest in black-face is certainly stunning--and a reminder of just how far we've come as a society that now this sort of thing isn't to be laughed at...just seen with absolute shock!! All in all, if you can ignore the racial elements (and who can?!), it's not a terrible cartoon it's also a sign of the times. I sure hope the cartoon isn't totally buried, as it is a nice history lesson on our past. Maybe not a GOOD one, but a lesson nonetheless.

I've always liked Mickey(though I do prefer Goofy and Donald) and I love Disney. Mickey's Mellerdrammer is not one of my absolute favourites but I still find it a lot of fun. It is somewhat routine in terms of story with a chaotic ending where you know what's going to happen, and I don't think everybody is going to get past the stereotypes, back then it would okay I think but now I think people will be shocked and rather sensitive to them. These aside, the animation is great, you always expect crisp backgrounds and clean colouring as well as character designs that are not too stiff, and Mickey's Mellerdrammer is no exception to this. The music again is wonderful, lively orchestrated and very energetic, this component has always been one of the best in these shorts and once again there is no problem at all. Mickey and Minnie have immense likability and their chemistry is genuinely sweet without being overly-so. Clarabelle is a pleasure to see as is Horace in an atypical villainous role, for someone who's always liked these two and consider them very underrated this was a real treat. The gags are what drive Mickey's Mellerdrammer and all of them are spot on, even the numerous ones in Clarabelle's fleeing through the rainstorm sequence when the whole scene goes by very fast. The firecracker, real dogs in fake dog costumes and the cat jumping on Clarabelle crossing the river on ice as well as being pursued by hounds sequences are hilarious. Overall, not everybody is going to be a fan, but I do really like it though I can see why people wouldn't. 8/10 Bethany Cox