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A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey, Minnie & friends are enjoying their afternoon ON ICE - until prankster Donald Duck suddenly finds himself in terrible peril...

Plenty of action & humor make this one of the Mouse's best cartoons and he generously shares the spotlight with his costars. Pluto's trouble on the slippery surface is great fun, but Goofy's attempts at ice fishing are hilarious. Sharp-eyed viewers will spot a mistake during the opening shot when Horace Horsecollar & Clarabelle Cow are in the foreground for a few seconds - at the same time they can also be spotted in the background as part of the large group of skaters darting about. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's squeaky voice, while Clarence "Ducky" Nash does the honors for Donald.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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 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 simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This cartoon probably works best around the holiday season. It's very busy animation indeed as most of the Disney favorites go ice skating on a frozen river (!). Mickey impresses Minnie with his skating acrobatics, Goofy (dressed in awful hillbilly gear) tries to fish using tobacco instead of worms and Donald torments poor old Pluto by sticking skates on his paws and watching him fall all over the place.

Donald soon gets what he deserves when a huge gust of wind takes him and his kite/sail thingy off the edge of the waterfall (which mysteriously has not frozen even though the river has). Mickey tries to rescue him but succeeds only in humiliating Donald further. But he did deserve it this time.

A very cozy cartoon for Xmas time.

Mickey and the gang are all here, each of them having their own misadventures on ice. Mickey attempts to show off his ice-skating skills to Minnie; Goofy attempts to ice fish; Donald straps skates onto Pluto and laughs at him slipping; and Donald then gets a taste of his own medicine.

It's a somewhat funny little cartoon and it's nice seeing many of Disney's most memorable characters on the screen together. I got some chuckles out of it and the story is perfect for the entire family. The animation is good and the pacing is just right.

Not the most entertaining cartoon I've seen, but it's still good fun.

Grade B

Another classic Winter/Christmas Disney short. The film features an infamous Pluto vs Donald segment. I found it interesting how different the animation is from this (1930s) to even the Fab Five of the 1940s.

This cartoon STILL is a great looking cartoon nearly 80 years later! Yes, despite coming out in the mid-1930s, the quality of the animation and gorgeous Technicolor make this a timeless classic.

The film is set during the winter and all the favorite Disney characters of the day are in the short--Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy and even Clarabelle and Horace! The characters get into all sorts of trouble while ice skating--and the film is jam-packed full of cute vignettes and laughs that still hold up today! Well worth seeing and a great representation of the best Disney was capable of in the day. In fact, compared to Disney shorts of the 40s and 50s, this one is actually superior overall--especially because of the great backgrounds.