Mickys Polo-Team

It's a polo match that pits Movie Stars vs Mickey Mousers. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harpo Marx, and Charlie Chaplin are the movie stars. Mickey leads The Goof, Big Bad Wolf, and Donald Duck. There are a myriad of movie and cartoon characters in the stands.

This is an animated colored short. Its greatest value is that it's like a time capsule of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It has many of the classic Disney characters and the old Hollywood stars of that era. It's also a load of fun.

Now playing is a polo match between "Movie Stars" and "Mickey's Mousers." On the stars team is Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harpo Marx and Charlie Chaplin. Playing for Mickey's team is Mickey, "The Goof," Big Bad Wolf and Donald Duck. Jack Holt is the referee.

In the crowd are such luminaries as Porky Pig, W. C. Fields, Minnie Mouse, Eleanor Roosevelt, Shirley Temple and a bunch of other famous people. That is fun to look at, trying to spot as many people and caricatures as you know.

The players are introduced. Those intros are funny. For instance, Harpo comes out on a ostrich, Chaplin uses a cane instead of a polo stick, etc.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the rest of the cartoon, the last 65 percent, is not very funny. We see some Laurel & Hardy bits, some Harpo stuff and Donald Duck get pummeled by everyone. None of it is very funny.

A good premise and a great start but overall, a disappointing animated short.

Had this Disney cartoon been made a decade later, this would have probably been seen as a rather poor cartoon, as the plot itself and gags aren't all that great. However, for the 1930s (when most short cartoons were pretty lame compared to those from the golden days at Looney Tunes and MGM), it's pretty good. The animation and colors in particular are very nice. Plus, from a historical point of view it's both a great opportunity to see the older style Goofy and Donald characters which look far different from how they look now. And, also from a historical standpoint, it's a great chance to see many of the stars of the day lampooned as cartoon characters--making many cameos (that, again, aren't all that funny). You'll see many recognizable ones such as Clark Gable, W. C. Fields, Chaplin, Harpo Marx and Shirley Temple, but also many of the older stars who are unfortunately forgotten today, such as Harold Lloyd, Jack Holt and Edna May Oliver. Not super funny, but fascinating and worth a peek.

This is possibly the second-most caricature laden short (after Mother Goose Goes Hollywood) that Disney ever did and they aren't just playing polo, either. Half the fun is spotting familiar faces (cartoon characters and caricatures of celebrities), while the other half is watching the strangest polo match ever put on celluloid! Every time I've seen this one, I wonder what various celebrities thought of this one, if they saw it at all, particularly what Clark Gable may have thought! Very visual, with the gags principally being sight gags and the Disney principals taking a back seat to the caricatures. Well worth watching. Most recommended.

I've never seen humans drawn so ugly. Not so much the Polo players like Laurel and Hardy (I always like them) but more the spectators in the audience. I don't know who that huge-headed, bulbous-eyed guy was supposed to be but he freaked me out.

Anyways, it's Disney stars vs Real Actors in this Polo match (A rather odd choice of sport. Was it popular in the '30s?) and nothing really funny happens. Sure there are a couple of clever moments but, like far too many Disney toons, it's all a set-up for everything to come crashing down.

Vividly animated as it may be, it's still a bit too boring and doesn't hold up against Looney Tunes when it comes to hijinks.