El Pequeño Torbellino

Mickey is drawn to Minnie's freshly baked cake. He agrees to clean up her leaf strewn yard. It all goes wrong when a tiny whirlwind arrive causing all kinds of trouble.

This is an eight minute short of classic Mickey. He's essentially alone with a bookend of Minnie. It's a fun classic time. I don't think it's one of the more iconic ones. It's pretty simple. I do like the whirlwind calling on the leaves. The animation has the classical beauty. This is cute.

'The Little Whirlwind' is one of my favorite Mickey movies in which he stars solo (actually, Minnie is in this one too, but only in a supporting role)!

In this short film, Mickey cleans Minnie's yard in order to get some of her fresh cake, but soon has to struggle with the title-giving whirlwind, who tries to undermine his efforts.

I especially like this one because Mickey hadn't developed yet into the rather boring everyman, he even gets to be pretty angry and irascible in his fight with the whirlwind - a character trait that normally applies more to Donald (who I prefer in Carl Barks' comic books), but bears far more fruition here, because it makes Mickey a more well-rounded character.

Speaking of 'round': This is the first (of only a few) movies in which Mickey's ears are working in perspective. (And - strangely enough - buck teeth, which they got rid of after this short.)

The animation is outstanding (by veteran artists Fred Moore, Les Clark and Ward Kimball, among others)! Not just are the Mouses very well animated and dynamic; I find it also amazing how the artists were able to breath life and give character to a nature phenomenon like wind! Furthermore, the music is incorporated in a smart way.

I wish they had continued to develop Mickey Mouse in the way they started to with 'The Little Whirlwind'; to me, only 'Symphony Hour' (1942) and the 90's 'Runaway Brain' come to mind.

This is like a follow-up to the Disney cartoon, "The Band Concert," where the notorious tornado makes a reappearance, chasing Mickey away as he attempts to help Minnie clean up her yard so he could get a helping of a cake Minnie baked. Along for the wild ride is a mini-tornado (evidently the offspring of the adult one) who spends the majority of the cartoon playing tricks in the yard and annoying poor Mickey. It reminds me of a naughty little kid getting away with murder.

It's a funny little cartoon with great animation and featuring one of Mickey Mouse's later designs. It's another cartoon that I remembered from my childhood fondly - always remember that little whispering sound the little twister makes and the blasting of William Tell Overture that was played when the big twister shows up. Wished Mickey didn't get so much bad luck in this one, but, oh well - it's still not a bad cartoon.

Grade B-

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

THE LITTLE WHIRLWIND which blows into Miss Minnie's yard stirs up nothing but trouble for hapless Mickey.

This very humorous little film features good animation & a lively plot. Movie mavens should find the big Mama Whirlwind sequence to bear more than just a passing resemblance to the storm which shakes things up in Disney's 1935 classic THE BAND CONCERT, including the use of some of the same music from Rossini.

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.

In the late 1920s through the 1930s, Mickey Mouse was a HUGE hit for Walt Disney. Inexplicably, however, the studio decided to re-tool Mickey starting with "The Little Whirlwind". Gone was his old look and costume and in its place was a more rubbery contemporary look. In addition, Mickey acted different starting with this cartoon...and much of the old edgy qualities of Mickey were gone.

When the film begins, Minnie is making a cake. Mickey happens along and smells it....and Minnie informs him he must do yardwork before she'll share it with him. But when Mickey tries, a seemingly intelligent tiny tornado thwarts his efforts.

The story here just made little sense. A tiny tornado and dancing leaves....not much in the way of a nemesis like Pete! Not a particularly enjoyable nor well written film. A noted drop in quality (though the artwork was great) compared with the usual Mickey fare.