Los Tres Mosqueteros Ciegos

The concept of this short film is a mix between the literary work The Three Musketeers and the children's song Three Blind Mice. The result is a good, quite entertaining short film, with good animation and good character designs. One thing that can be credited is that it seems that this short film had served as inspiration for the animated version of The Three Musketeers, which starred Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It is because of the similarity that the title of the short film has with the movie and the cat that tries to catch the mice resembles Pete. That makes this short film also something interesting to watch because it is in some way comparable to the animated feature film of Mickey and his companions. The truth is another interesting piece of animation that is worth watching out of curiosity. My final rating for this short film is an 8/10.

Not surprisingly, "Three Blind Mouseketeers" finds three blind mice dressed up like Musketeers. Now this begs the question 'Who would want blind musketeers in the first place?!' as well as 'What qualifications did these mice think they needed to be expert swordsmen?!'. Perhaps they'd listened to a few Zatoichi films--all I know is that the premise is bizarre to say the least.

Eventually, a nasty cat arrives and plans on eating the Mouseketeers. Now this SHOULD have been incredibly easy. Yet, somehow, these little guys manage to outsmart the cat--mostly because the cat is an idiot. After all, blind rodents shouldn't pose much of a challenge.

Like any Disney short of this era, the animation is superb. The story is decent but not a lot more. Worth seeing but certainly not among Disney's best at the time.

"Three Blind Mouseketeers" comes across as a possible inspiration for the Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote cartoons, as the cat sets traps for the mice, who avoid them without realizing that they're in danger. Since I always preferred the Looney Tunes to any of the Disney stuff, I have to go with Wile E. Nonetheless, I did like that end sequence. In the end, the best version of "The Three Musketeers" is the 1973 and 1974 back-to-back movies directed by Richard Lester (they were planned for a few years earlier and Lester was planning to cast the Beatles, but that fell through and he assembled a different cast).

Anyway, this one's OK as entertainment. A piece of trivia is that Pinto Colvig, who did one of the voices, is best known as Goofy's voice.

Not really much to spoil. Old school Disney short revolving around three blind Mouseketeers, who walk into Captain Cat's many booby traps, but somehow come out on top, and outsmart that wily fat cat. For 1936, it's as much fun as a short can be, and it certainly entertains! The animation is great for its time, and I wouldn't have picked it for being in the 30s. More like the 40s, or at least, that was my initial impression. Enjoyable! There is not much more I can say about this short animated piece, other than I watched it via 'The Rescuers' DVD, so if you are interested in old school Disney shorts, it's worth a look.

***1/2 out of *****

Three Blind Mouseketeers (1936)

*** (out of 4)

The title characters - three blind mice - are hated by a large cat who plans to capture them no matter what it takes. The cat comes up with some very clever traps but will the mice be able to avoid them while at the same time taking the cheese? The traps used in this Disney short were decades ahead of the SAW series that's for certain. With that said, this here is certainly an entertaining short but I think it falls well short of being a classic. Still, there is some great stuff here including the music score, which really pumps you up as you watch the film. Another major plus are the four characters as the three mice are certainly likable and the cat is such a good villain that you love to hate him. I think the first portion of the short works best as we see the mice trying to steal the cheese.