Get a Horse!

As a huge fan of classic Disney and as someone who likes a lot of their modern stuff(though there have been a fair share of misfires), Get a Horse was really delightful and while Frozen is a great film and one of their best since the Renaissance this short that preceded it was even better. The animation mixes black and white classic animation and colour CGI, with the crisp and fluid black and white and the colourful and vibrant CGI that moves more naturally than that on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse it not only looks great but it is very cleverly used as well. The soundtrack is lively and with beautiful orchestration and themes that you'll recognise immediately. The sound effects are well-incorporated, some from the very early stuff that are preserved quite well, and are not misplaced or bizarre-sounding. Get a Horse has humorous dialogue and a story that is from start-to-finish boundless fun and energy and it's as clever as the animation too. Just as good are the gags, they're reminiscent of classic Disney but there is also a very modern Disney vibe, so it will appeal to anybody, child and adult, regardless of where abouts they were born. All the characters engage, with a delicious villain in Pete and Mickey who has the kindly quality he has now and also the heroic character in the old classic Disney. Minnie is sweet as well, and it was great to see Horace and Clarabelle, two characters often neglected(or they were for a long time before House of Mouse came on the scene). The voices are fine too, though it was initially a tad odd hearing (modern) Pete voiced by someone other than Jim Cummings, like the sound the original voices are well-preserved. All in all, delightful and recommended without any hint of hesitation. 10/10 Bethany Cox

When the film begins, you don't think it's a CGI or 3-D film. It looks like a Mickey Mouse film circa 1929--complete with scratchy film stock! However, when the baddie, Pete, tosses Mickey THROUGH the screen and he becomes a full-color 3-D character, you know you are in for something unique! What's next? See the film--it's well worth it.

This is an interesting case where it turns out that I liked the short more than the feature film it accompanied. In the case of "Get a Horse!", it was shown before the Disney CGI film "Frozen"--a moderately enjoyable full-length film. However, the short was indeed magical and appeared to be a real work of love. I say this because the folks who made the film did a great job of trying to replicate the exact look and sound of the very early Mickey Mouse cartoons--something that is no small feat! Unlike most 3-D films I've seen, I think it's very important you try to see "Get a Horse!" in 3-D. This is because rarely has another 3-D film tried so hard to incorporate this sort of camera-work into the film (another exception being the underrated "How to Train Your Dragon"). Most 3-D films, to me, seem as if they just tacked on the 3-D at the end and didn't plan for the use of 3-D all along (this is especially true of the live action 3-D films).

Overall, a wonderful little film that no doubt will get nominated for Best Animated Short for the Oscars. If it doesn't, I'll be incredibly surprised as the film isn't just fun but an amazing film technically.

UPDATE: I just saw this short again as part of the Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts show in selected theaters. Although it was NOT shown in 3-D this time, it didn't really seem to matter. Why I am doing this update is that in comparison to all the other nominees, "Get a Horse!" is light-years better. And, because it's so far superior I am changing my original score from 9 to 10. What a wonderful film and I like the rather playful and fun nature of the short.

When me and my movie theatre-working friend went to watch Frozen at the place he works at, this cartoon short was attached to it. Begun in the old school black-and-white drawn phase with the original screen dimensions, when Mickey is thrown off the screen, he becomes a 3-D computer-generated color character filling the rest of the current outlines of the frame. And with that, the real fun begins as many tricks suddenly become possible with various ways of turning the screen-or frames-whichever way one wants it to go! I also was surprised that Walt Disney himself was credited with the voice of his famous mouse before finding out here that the studio not only used vintage tracks of his from previous cartoons but also those of Marcellite Garner for Minnie and Billy Bletcher for Peg-Leg Pete. I found most of the thing quite creatively funny so on that note, I highly recommend Get a Horse!

When I first heard there would be a new Mickey cartoon, I was extremely hyped up and what really got me into it was the fact that it would feature Uncle Walt's archival recordings as Mickey Mouse, and it would mix hand-drawn animation with CGI. When I finally saw it, I was very pleased with the outcome. The comedy is genuine with the imaginative slapstick we loved in the classic Mickey shorts, no gross-out gags whatsoever. It even includes a few pop culture visual jokes like the Apple ringtone and Horace's Captain America T- shirt(usually, it would ruin animated adaptations of the beloved classics *AHEM* The Lorax, but here it worked cleverly). The visuals are also groundbreaking, it is fantastic what they do with combining two different animation mediums. Overall, Get A Horse! was an adorable, hilarious, and faithful short that celebrates the history of the mouse we all know and love in so many inventive ways possible.

'GET A HORSE!': Three Stars (Out of Five)

A Disney animated short film that debuted in theaters before the blockbuster 'FROZEN'. The movie is 6 minutes long and is both computer animated and hand-drawn. It's also in black-and-white and color and was released in both 3D and regular 2D versions (like the movie it plays with). It was directed by Lauren MacMullan and features archive voice recordings of Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse! It's the first Mickey Mouse cartoon since 1995's 'RUNAWAY BRAIN' and tells the story of Mickey going on a wagon ride with his friends (Minnie, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow) when the antagonist Peg-Leg Pete attacks them. Mickey and Horace are thrown out of the movie world (and into the theater) where they fight Peg-Leg by flipping the theater screen (and rotating gravity inside the movie). The film is amusing and fun and very reminiscent of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. Should be nostalgic for fans of the iconic Disney character and entertaining for new (younger) viewers as well!

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