Das tapfere kleine Schneiderlein

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

A BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR, mistakenly acclaimed as a great champion, is sent to stop the depredations of a fearsome giant who is terrifying a tiny kingdom.

This is one of the truly classic color Mouse films, featuring excellent animation, sly humor & some genuine thrills. This vivid, fast-moving reinterpretation of the Brothers Grimm tale gave Mickey one of his grandest adventures and he obviously relishes his return, albeit briefly, to the top of the Disney heap. Without Donald, Goofy or Pluto to steal the limelight, Mickey proves to be a most dashing hero. Miss Minnie's involvement in the cartoon is mainly to add encouragement to Mickey's resolve and provide a reward for his heroics. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's squeaky voice.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

Not my favourite, but up there. The animation is mostly excellent with beautiful colours and fluid backgrounds. The character designs aren't quite up there, but they are acceptable. The music has always been one of my favourite assets about these Silly Symphonies, and because it is so jaunty and energetic here Brave Little Tailor is no exception. The writing is funny with the parts with the giant amusing and I loved it when Minnie kisses Mickey and the story is charming. Mickey is a very cute and likable hero, and all the support characters make an impression while never bland. All in all, a great cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This time Mickey is starring all on his own, with no back-up. And for a change he's actually got a good story instead of the usual 'disaster' plots. In this cartoon, he plays a tailor who, through a series of misunderstandings, is sent on a mission by the king to take out a giant who is about to pound on their village. Princess Minnie is his reward so obviously he's going to oblige no matter how impossible that mission may be.

Shock horror, there are actually some laughs and Mickey manages to hold our attention instead of making us drift away. The gimmicks and imagination are very good and the ending in which the villagers use the sleeping giant as a power source is very clever.

Definitely one of the best Mickey shorts.

This short, nominated for an Oscar for 1938, is the best color Mickey Mouse short, certainly and maybe the best short ever starring this most illustrious of rodents. Because of a misapprehension of a simple declarative sentence, our stalwart sets out on a course to become a somewhat reluctant hero. Well-executed and with Disney's usual attention to detail, this is an excellent cartoon, but it had the great misfortune to come out in the same year as an equally marvelous cartoon (also made by Disney) and so did not bring home the statuette for Walt. Most recommended.

Mickey Mouse is a tailor in a fairy tale town that has been ravaged by a giant. One day he kills seven flies, all at once. His bragging is mistaken for a claim to have killed seven giants with one blow. He is charged with the task of killing the aforementioned ogre. He is promised great wealth and the princess (Minnie) if he can do the job. He struggles to avoid the task but is soon out there in no man's land. Of course, the giant appears and it is his job to use his skills to accomplish things. The town is wonderfully colorful and the animation excellent. It never ceases to amaze me how brilliant the animation is in something produced in 1938. Very good job.