L'avion fou

Plane Crazy (1928), the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, offers modern viewers a vision of the character which has been eclipsed by a more family friendly rendition. The old school Mickey was a rascal and a jerk, always looking to cause trouble. Here we see him rough-housing other animals in a barnyard and forcing a kiss on a reluctant Minnie Mouse, something modern Mickey would blush to do.

Ub Iwerks' animation is fantastic and chaotic. Around this time, the stiffer animation of the early 1920s/late 1910s was giving way to the looser movement which would reign supreme in the 1930s.

Plane Crazy is not as mesmerizing as Steamboat Willie (1928), but it sure is a lot of fun and a great time capsule.

ORIGINALLY PLANNED AND executed as a silent, PLANE CRAZY is the true first appearance of MICKEY MOUSE. It was held back and not released along with its following installment, THE GALLOPIN' GAUCHO until the release of the revolutionary and game changing STEAMBOAT WILLIE. The latter cartoon was of course the first sound cartoon short.

BEING THAT TODAY'S honored movie, PLANE CRAZY does come across as a little movie that it is torn between two worlds. In this case, it has all of the signs of the strictly visual silent; but the addition of the sound effects and dialogue (such as it is) may well be in effect an overkill of screen storytelling.

THIS MAY WELL not have been as readily apparent at the time of release; owing to the fascination that was generated with all of the publicity of Mickey Mouse just talking. Furthermore, all of the animation that was made from the various studios suffered from the same malady. It would take several years of film technique evolution to "modernize" the overall look of the characters, backgrounds and rendering of the sight gags depicted in a typical outing.

THE GENISES AND indeed the very reason for doing the cartoon with aviation as the subject as in PLANE CRAZY was the popularity of Charles Lindbergh's solo crossing of the Atlantic in the previous year of 1927. This is no subtle or subliminal message, as Mickey does actually display a photo of "Lucky Lindy" at the very beginning. Mickey even attempts to style his hair to look like Lindbergh's tonsorial work of art.

AS FOR THE cartoon's storyline, Mick builds a plane, it crashes and immediately destructs into an impossibility of a salvation project. Undaunted, Mickey immediately converts an old, broken down jalopy into a new plane. Enter the female of the species. Minnie Mouse, making what is her real and true first appearance, presents the young aviator with a good-luck horse shoe and gets a ride in the airship as a reward.

FOLLOWING MANY INFLIGHT type gags Mickey's amorous intentions are revealed and he is rejected with a slap. Minnie bails out, using her unmentionables as a makeshift parachute. Meanwhile Mickey safely crash-lands. The twosome parts the scene in less than happy and lovey-dovey relationship. Mickey pitches the horseshoe away, but it promptly returns to catch him around the neck in a boomerang fashion.

ONCE AGAIN, THIS short does not seem like much when viewed now; but, once again, back in the day.................. '

Plane Crazy is the very first film with Mickey and Minnie so the animated short is of some historical value. As far as the animation itself, it is just plane crazy. Mickey builds a plane and takes Minnie with him for the ride. Once they are up in the air Mickey comes on way too strong for Minnie so she ends up jumping out of the plane. In the end, Mickey got what he deserved.

It's not a great film but is a little entertaining - It's a good watch to see the beginnings of the famous couple.

7/10.

Although "Steamboat Willie" was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released, this one was actually the first Mickey ever made. In fact, it was a silent film when it was first produced, but it was released after sound had been added. I remember the first time I saw this cartoon was on a video that I had rented in 1st or 2nd grade. I didn't really care much for it at the time, but now I like it. This and many other Disney animated shorts will entertain people of all ages, 3 to 103, all over the world.

This is where it all began. 'Plane Crazy (1928)' – and not 'Steamboat Willie (1928),' as is often claimed – marks the humble debut of Mickey Mouse, perhaps the most recognisable and beloved cartoon character ever created. This little rodent was originally envisioned as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a successful character designed by Walt Disney for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios. Mintz had demanded that Disney take a pay-cut, shortly after reminding him that he personally held copyright of Oswald, and had already contracted most of Disney's employees. To Mintz's surprise, the ambitious animator and businessman instead struck out alone, animators Ub Iwerks and Les Clark among the few who remained loyal to him. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon was released on May 15, 1928, in California, where its reception was initially rather lukewarm. The animation itself is not particularly notable, but the jokes are clever, funny and amusingly mean-spirited. Mickey's following would grow, however, and more than anybody – not even the forward-thinking Disney – could ever have anticipated.

At least in his first year, Mickey wasn't much of a gentleman. For one, he wasn't averse to harassing livestock if he could get some benefit out of them – here, a turkey is robbed of its tail feathers, and a cow is grabbed by the udder, which tastefully spurts milk everywhere. Mickey decides that he wants to be an aviator, though his knowledge stretches little beyond how Charles Lindbergh ("Lindy") styled his hair. This dangerous hobby is no doubt fuelled by a desire to impress Minnie the Mouse (here also making her debut), but, when she doesn't respond as planned, Mickey coldly forces a kiss out of her. Disney claims that inspiration for his character partially came from Charles Chaplin's tramp character, though there's very little of that here: the look of pure mischievous evil on his face after being romantically rejected by Minnie is almost frightening! 'Plane Crazy' was originally released as a silent cartoon, but, following the success of 'Steamboat Willie,' it was re-released with sound effects and synchronised music.