Die Uhrenreinigung

Classic Disney short teaming their three stars of the time: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. This time the trio are supposed to clean a clock at the top of a high tower in the middle of a big city (presumably New York City since one of the mechanical figures that rings the clock bell is the Statue of Liberty). They each run into some difficulty and even danger, as you might expect, but it's all light and fun. Goofy's near-falls had my head spinning, though. The animation is gorgeous! Well-drawn characters and backgrounds, exciting action, and jaw-droppingly beautiful Technicolor. Great voice work from Clarence Nash, Pinto Colvig, and Walt Disney himself. Lively, bouncy music from Paul Smith and Oliver Wallace. It's a fantastic cartoon, imaginative and funny. It's totally deserving of its reputation as one of the best shorts these three starred in together.

I love Clock Cleaners and always have done. The animation has so much detail(like with Goofy close to falling you do feel authentically dizzy due to how everything moves) in the scale of everything on screen and the backgrounds are gorgeously coloured. The music is full of energy as you would expect, and the story while simple is always engaging and crisply paced. Other than the animation, it was the characters and the gags, combining silliness and danger, that made Clock Cleaners. Mickey is as likable as ever, though I do find Goofy with his clumsiness and confusion and Donald with his frustration and temperament funnier in a way. The gag where Goofy stumbles around the top of the clock tower, eventually falling down, walking in a daze across a rope, falling only to jump back up off a flagpole and knock Mickey back inside is my all-time favourite Goofy gag, and the shot of the Mickey, Donald and Goofy in the gears of the clock is priceless also, but the best one is the one with the spring talking back when Donald gets irritated. The visual humour and dialogue never fails to make me laugh, but due to the fact you don't always understand what Donald is saying and the fact it was thought he said a bad word in this exchange caused for it to be censored. In a nutshell, a wonderful cartoon, one of the trio's and Disney's very best in my opinion. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This short features Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as clock cleaners cleaning a very tall clock tower (possibly Big Ben). What was interesting about this short was that each of the three characters had some sort of problem. Mickey kept trying to get a nesting stork out of the clock and the stork wouldn't cooperate, Goofy was hit on the head by a figure resembling the Statue of Liberty and knocked unconscious, and Donald was having troubles with a spring that seemed to talk back to him. In fact, Reverend Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association thought he heard Donald say a naughty four-letter word that began with the letter "F" followed by the word "you" to the spring. He succeeded in getting Wal Mart to remove all copies of a video containing this short off of their shelves and return them to Disney. Donald was actually saying "Says you!" to the spring. Interesting to note that.

This is a truly magnificent cartoon, with the real star being the clock, with a strong supporting effort from a sleeping stork. Mickey, Donald and Goofy are fine, but the detail work on the backgrounds and the design of the clock are exceptional. The gags are hilarious, if somewhat familiar (probably because they've spurred frequent imitation by others) and the ending is priceless. Various bits are reminiscent of some great silent comics like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, particularly the opening shot and an extended bit featuring Goofy on walkabout. Well worth having. Most highly recommended.

'Clock Cleaners (1937)' is a short film that sees Mickey, Donald and Goofy clean up a giant clock, contending with various challenges as they do so. These challenges include a stubborn sleeping stork, a cheeky broken spring and, most hilarious of all, a shockingly serious concussion. It's a highly entertaining piece, one that moves quickly and has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Most of its hilarity ensues in the second half, once Goofy has become goofy thanks to a hefty whack on the head (see the aforementioned concussion), but that doesn't imply its first half is weak. Having said that, the thing does lack an overall flow, seeming like a few set-pieces rather than an actual narrative. Still, it's a lively and enjoyable time overall. It's great fun. 8/10.