Mickey's Rival

In this short, Mickey and Minnie are enjoying a picnic together. Suddenly, the super-annoying Mortimer arrives and ruins everything. To make it worse, he used to be Minnie's boyfriend...though why this sweet mouse would want to be around Mortimer, I have no idea. He's a total jerk and if wasn't for Mickey being such a nice character, he would have slugged Mortimer! Yes, Mortimer is that bad! Can Mickey manage to put this blowhard in his place?

Like the other Mickey cartoons of the 1930s, the animation is simply gorgeous...and far, far better than the shorts coming out of competing studios. Much of this is because Disney had bought exclusive rights to use Three-Color Technicolor and other studios at this time were either making black & white cartoons or using older and inferior color systems, such as Two-Color Technicolor and Cinecolor...processes that were not true color but painted everything in green-blue and orange-red hues. But a lot of the difference is the quality of the artwork...which is unrivaled. In addition to looking great, the story is clever and enjoyable and just show you how great these cartoons were back in the day. Well worth seeing.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

A picnic with Minnie is destroyed by the arrival of MICKEY'S RIVAL, the thoroughly obnoxious Mortimer.

This excellent little film features both terrific animation & lots of laughs. It is great fun to see the Mouse triumph over both his detested competition and the fierce bull which disrupts their outing. Mickey gets his squeaky voice from Walt Disney, who, it is interesting to remember, first planned on naming his wee buddy "Mortimer."

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 always pay off.

It's not the best Disney short film, but it's still good. Highly recommend.

In this Mickey and Minnie cartoon short, the couple are out in the country for a picnic. However, their quiet time together is interrupted by the cocky and loud-mouthed Mortimer Mouse, who swoons over Minnie and shows off his nice car. Needless to say, Mickey is jealous and an intriguing love triangle ensues.

It's a classic love competition between the three mice - even Mickey and Mortimer's cars were also in a little competitive bout. Mortimer proves to be a shallow and inconsiderate bully, making you want to root for Mickey. However, more chaos follows as a bull escapes his fenced-in area and wrecks havoc on the picnic goers. What results is pretty predictable, but the overall cartoon lacks some humor and action.

Grade B-

Mickey and Minnie are out in the country for a nice quiet picnic. But that's soon rudely interrupted by the arrival of Mortimer Mouse, who promptly gatecrashes their pleasant afternoon.

Mortimer is a loudmouth show-off with a big car, Minnie instantly swoons over him (how shallow is that?) even though he takes great pleasure in tormenting and humiliating Mickey. He even sets a mad bull loose on him, which destroys any remaining hope of a relaxing picnic. Chaos follows as per normal. Not that funny though.

Isn't it weird how much Mickey's car looks like Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?