Mickey's Polo Team

This is an OK celebrity cartoon. The early versions of the Disney characters oppose a group of early stars in a polo match. Things move a hundred miles an hour. The game is rather pointless, just an excuse to show off the characters. So we don't really have much of a plot like some of the similar efforts. The caricatures are a little weaker than some I've seen, but it's still worth seeing.

Had this Disney cartoon been made a decade later, this would have probably been seen as a rather poor cartoon, as the plot itself and gags aren't all that great. However, for the 1930s (when most short cartoons were pretty lame compared to those from the golden days at Looney Tunes and MGM), it's pretty good. The animation and colors in particular are very nice. Plus, from a historical point of view it's both a great opportunity to see the older style Goofy and Donald characters which look far different from how they look now. And, also from a historical standpoint, it's a great chance to see many of the stars of the day lampooned as cartoon characters--making many cameos (that, again, aren't all that funny). You'll see many recognizable ones such as Clark Gable, W. C. Fields, Chaplin, Harpo Marx and Shirley Temple, but also many of the older stars who are unfortunately forgotten today, such as Harold Lloyd, Jack Holt and Edna May Oliver. Not super funny, but fascinating and worth a peek.

This is possibly the second-most caricature laden short (after Mother Goose Goes Hollywood) that Disney ever did and they aren't just playing polo, either. Half the fun is spotting familiar faces (cartoon characters and caricatures of celebrities), while the other half is watching the strangest polo match ever put on celluloid! Every time I've seen this one, I wonder what various celebrities thought of this one, if they saw it at all, particularly what Clark Gable may have thought! Very visual, with the gags principally being sight gags and the Disney principals taking a back seat to the caricatures. Well worth watching. Most recommended.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

MICKEY'S POLO TEAM (Mickey, the Goof, the Big Bad Wolf & Donald Duck) enter the field against some of Hollywood's funniest fellows - Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harpo Marx & Charlie Chaplin.

This very enjoyable little film features excellent animation and lots of laughs. The Disney artists get to display their skill at caricature, with all of the movie stars being perfectly recognizable. Frenzied & flustered, Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) dominates the proceedings, leaving no doubt as to who was the top toon at the Disney Studio. It's humorous to watch the various Disney characters act with complete equality alongside their Hollywood counterparts - the unspoken, and very true, assertion being that their fame was as big as any flesh & blood inhabitant of Tinsel Town.

Notice how all of the riders have a mount (not always a horse) which is a reflection of the player's personality - the Big Bad Wolf and his steed are both dastardly, Donald and his mule are both stubborn, Harpo's ostrich is as zany as his master. Babe Hardy's frustrations with his gigantic horse are very funny.

The fun isn't confined to the field - there's plenty going on in the stands. Hollywood's biggest star, Shirley Temple, is there with her buddies the Three Little Pigs. Irritable W. C. Fields is seated with Greta Garbo, Harold Lloyd, Eddie Cantor & Charles Laughton - costumed, naturally, for his title role in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933). Meanwhile, Edna May Oliver is regretting her decision to sit alongside Max Hare, and, most hilariously of all, Clarabelle Cow is taking advantage of her close proximity to do a little sweet romancing with Clark Gable.

Polo was very popular among the Movie Capital's male celebrities, including Walt Disney. It not only provided great exercise & excitement, but also a kind of elitism, as only the wealthy had both the leisure & the funds necessary to devote to the sport. Jack Holt, who serves as referee in the cartoon, was an avid real life polo player.

It was originally planned to depict Will Rogers as part of the Hollywood team, but after his tragic death in Alaska on August 15, 1935, the Disney animators replaced him with Harpo.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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.

Now playing is a polo match between "Movie Stars" and "Mickey's Mousers." On the stars team is Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Harpo Marx and Charlie Chaplin. Playing for Mickey's team is Mickey, "The Goof," Big Bad Wolf and Donald Duck. Jack Holt is the referee.

In the crowd are such luminaries as Porky Pig, W. C. Fields, Minnie Mouse, Eleanor Roosevelt, Shirley Temple and a bunch of other famous people. That is fun to look at, trying to spot as many people and caricatures as you know.

The players are introduced. Those intros are funny. For instance, Harpo comes out on a ostrich, Chaplin uses a cane instead of a polo stick, etc.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the rest of the cartoon, the last 65 percent, is not very funny. We see some Laurel & Hardy bits, some Harpo stuff and Donald Duck get pummeled by everyone. None of it is very funny.

A good premise and a great start but overall, a disappointing animated short.