Le tourbillon

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.

'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-

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.

One of my personal favourites of the early 40s Mickey shorts. I in general love the great animation and characterisations of the characters involved, and both of those are evident in The Little Whirlwind. The short starts off in a familiar fashion, with Minnie setting a baked cake on the window ledge and Mickey in want of it, but instead of being entirely predictable it works as setting the tone and meat of the story very well. The animation is wonderful, I loved the vibrant colours and the detail of the backgrounds and Mickey and Minnie are a little more refined and rounded in their designs, in a way more familiar to us. If I had to single out my favourite piece of animation, it has to be when Mickey is peering at the window, the head swelling/shrinking complete with ripples was really a genius image. The music is energetic and beautifully orchestrated, adding to the pace and humour of the short. The story is simple but never dull or predictable. For one thing, Mickey with a little whirlwind at this point had never been seen before in Disney shorts, and also when reading the title and the premise you'd immediately think Daisy and Donald, it was a refreshing change to have characters less obvious filling the roles. The gags are great, the best being when the little whirlwind develops the leaves in a march, and the increasing destruction caused by it and his mother provided some real meat to the short and without Mickey saying a word. Every bit as good are the characterisations. The whirlwinds are very well animated and really add much to the short. Minnie is not in much, but the ending is her funniest bit and it is a classic. Mickey is the star here though. I loved that he was in the spotlight rather than just a supporting character, with his frustration, his determination to do his best and his chuckling and shrugging of the shoulders as he keeps going he is a character you immediately relate to. All in all, a real breezy treasure of a Disney short. 10/10 Bethany Cox