Hawaiian Holiday

I downloaded this cartoon from archive.org, as it's apparently in the public domain--a rarity for old Disney cartoons. However, why I downloaded it was because it indicated that this one had been banned--presumably for offensive content. Now THAT had my curiosity piqued--especially since I've seen this cartoon playing at the Disney resorts on their closed circuit TV--so it can't exactly banned! In fact, after watching it I noticed two things--there was absolutely nothing offensive about it AND despite the site saying it was from 1941, the film actually came out in 1937. Now for 1937, this was a very good film--with typically exquisite animation and backgrounds (the best of any studio at the time) and a nice sense of fun. Watch this one and see Pluto deal with a nasty crab and Goofy try (very unsuccessfully) to surf at Mickey, Minnie and Donald frolic on the beach. Well worth seeing.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey & Minnie are enjoying their HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY, but the rest of the Gang are encountering troubles in Paradise...

Here is another very funny, excellently animated little film from Disney's Golden Age. The Mice have little to do with the plot but Donald's hula, Goofy's attempts at surfing and Pluto's encounters with a starfish & crab are very enjoyable. Clarence Nash supplied the Duck with his unique voice.

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.

The title could be the synopsis, too: Mickey and his pals are on vacation in Hawaii. There is no plot, we simply see the characters engaged in activities appropriate for the islands. This being a cartoon, the fun also contains its quota of mishaps: Pluto has issues with a starfish and a crab, Donald lights his fanny on fire dancing a hula, and Goofy has a recurring headache trying to catch a wave on an uncooperative surf. Animation from this era often seems slower when compared to the breakneck pacing perfected by Bob Clampett and Tex Avery in the 1940s, but this time the unhurried gait fits the material perfectly. A Hawaiian vacation has to be mellow for us to appreciate the lush colors and meticulous backgrounds that occupy each frame. Noteworthy is the "split-screen" action above and below water level as Goofy searches for his surfboard (while under water, Goofy's animation is especially "fluid"). The real disappointment is Mickey himself. By 1937 he was already the "hole in the doughnut," and having Minnie carry him by hula-dancing to his slack-key guitar only draws attention to his lack of comic potential. What she ever saw in him is anyone's guess.

There is not really a story to speak of in Hawaiian Holiday, but I did find it interesting to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto all in the same cartoon. And it is a great one. Hawaiian Holiday is vividly animated with the backgrounds well and truly luscious and the character designs all well drawn, even if Mickey's character design is not as rounded as it would be later. The music is energetic and sounds lovely throughout, while all the characters are engaging and the gags range from amusing to hilarious. Minnie doesn't have all that much to do, other than set the musical tone of Hawaiian Holiday, but she actually does that very well. Mickey is a likable character and has a good gag as a guitar player where his hands dance across the strings, but like Minnie he doesn't have much to do. Donald's main gag is very quick but is still one of Hawaiian Holiday's funniest moments, where the grass skirt he is wearing catches on fire. Pluto and Goofy are the ones actually who get a lion's share of the comedy. Pluto's cuteness and energy and his ability to resonate so much with the audience without saying a word is put to great use, and his encounters with the shellfish and the crab are very funny. If I were to say who was the funniest character of the five and who had the funniest moments, it would be Goofy on all counts. His attempts to surf are like a hilarious pre-view to what he would become chiefly famous for later, and it also shows what Goofy was best at, finding that something that is obvious to us is not so much for him. Overall, colourful fun with the Disney gang. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox

I remember when I was small and I saw this short, at the time it was my favorite short. One of the best Disney shorts. Highly recommend. Same very funny.