Vacaciones Hawaianas

Hawaiian Holiday (1937)

*** (out of 4)

This all-star Disney short isn't a masterpiece but there are certainly enough funny moments to make it worth viewing. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald find themselves in Hawaii on a vacation and while Mickey and Minnie dance away, the rest don't find the stay too pleasant. First of all, Goofy tries to go surfing but the water wants nothing to do with him. Second you've got poor Pluto running to a crab. Thirdly, Donald gets a bit too close to the fire. While the "story" isn't all that strong, there's no question that there are some hilarious moments to be had here with the highlight clearly being the sequence between Pluto and the crab. The beating poor Pluto takes is downright hysterical at times and especially as we see him just not being able to figure out what's going on. The animation is quite good throughout so fans of the characters will certainly enjoy this one.

I remember when I was small and I saw this short, at the time it was my favorite short. One of the best Disney shorts. Highly recommend. Same very funny.

The title could be the synopsis, too: Mickey and his pals are on vacation in Hawaii. There is no plot, we simply see the characters engaged in activities appropriate for the islands. This being a cartoon, the fun also contains its quota of mishaps: Pluto has issues with a starfish and a crab, Donald lights his fanny on fire dancing a hula, and Goofy has a recurring headache trying to catch a wave on an uncooperative surf. Animation from this era often seems slower when compared to the breakneck pacing perfected by Bob Clampett and Tex Avery in the 1940s, but this time the unhurried gait fits the material perfectly. A Hawaiian vacation has to be mellow for us to appreciate the lush colors and meticulous backgrounds that occupy each frame. Noteworthy is the "split-screen" action above and below water level as Goofy searches for his surfboard (while under water, Goofy's animation is especially "fluid"). The real disappointment is Mickey himself. By 1937 he was already the "hole in the doughnut," and having Minnie carry him by hula-dancing to his slack-key guitar only draws attention to his lack of comic potential. What she ever saw in him is anyone's guess.

I downloaded this cartoon from archive.org, as it's apparently in the public domain--a rarity for old Disney cartoons. However, why I downloaded it was because it indicated that this one had been banned--presumably for offensive content. Now THAT had my curiosity piqued--especially since I've seen this cartoon playing at the Disney resorts on their closed circuit TV--so it can't exactly banned! In fact, after watching it I noticed two things--there was absolutely nothing offensive about it AND despite the site saying it was from 1941, the film actually came out in 1937. Now for 1937, this was a very good film--with typically exquisite animation and backgrounds (the best of any studio at the time) and a nice sense of fun. Watch this one and see Pluto deal with a nasty crab and Goofy try (very unsuccessfully) to surf at Mickey, Minnie and Donald frolic on the beach. Well worth seeing.

An amusing cartoon that points up the major flaw with Mickey: he's just not very interesting. He's talented, graceful and so forth, but too much in control of any situation and lacks anything like an amusing character. The Disney solution was to give him a strong supporting cast, including Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto -- with his girlfriend, Minnie, in a grass skirt, dancing the hula. But in the following couple of years, the three supporting characters would each be given his own series of starring shorts, and Mickey would find himself largely out of a job, eventually turned into a corporate icon.

In the meantime, take a look at this one.