I Due Cavalieri Di Minni

Another weekend, another film on the Disney Plus "Short" film section. This time we're back with the main man Mickey and a 1929 short that feels quite unusual, given what comes afterwards.

Both Mickey and Pete arrive to try and pick Minnie up for the local barn dance. Mickey has his trusty horse and cart, but Pete has a brand-new Motor Car. Minnie has her head turned by the Motor Car, but when it breaks down, she returns to Mickey. At the dance though, Mickey has two left feet and she shifts her attention back to Pete. Mickey comes up with a unconventional solution to the problem.

What seems wild about this particular short is that, spoiler alert, Mickey actually loses. Pete, rather than the villain, doesn't actually come off that badly. The breakdown isn't his fault and all he does is point out Mickey's underhand tactics. It also makes Minnie come off rather badly too, flipping between her suitors like some common floozy!

Visually it's OK. It's an early one so again the character models aren't quite settled. It's another one where the score and sound effects feature heavily. It's not bad, by any means, but it's a bit too weird to really recommend.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey & Pete both vie for fickle Minnie's attentions at THE BARN DANCE.

This humorous little black & white film is propelled largely by the soundtrack; music mavens will recognize 'The Old Grey Mare,' 'Mendelssohn's Spring Song' & 'Pop! Goes The Weasel' among the tunes played. This very early Mouse cartoon shows one of the rare instances in which Mickey loses to Pete in the game of romance.

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 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 simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This is a very early Mickey Mouse cartoon. The version I saw was not the original form, as it had been colorized (not bad looking--most black and white films colorize well).

This film features Mickey and Pete (who is a cat in the earlier Mickey Mouse cartoons). The film consists of Mickey stealing Minnie away from Pete as well as Mickey's behavior at the barn dance. Surprisingly, although Mickey is the star, he's rather mean to Pete and Pete is amazingly civil. Pete is not the cranky guy he was in STEAMBOAT WILLIE and you kind of feel sorry for this big guy, as Mickey is pretty nasty to him--unlike the beloved Mickey we know today. Plus, in a scene that would not please PETA, Mickey is also a bit mean to his horse. Oh, well--it's an early Mickey cartoon and they hadn't yet hit their lovable stride.

Overall, typical animation and quality for an early short, though the story lacks the charm of most of the films in the series.

Mickey once again sells his best intentions to get a date with the fickle Minnie. He has a rival in Pete and Minnie doesn't seem to have any hesitation spending time with him. There are some funny dance things, especially when Mickey puts a balloon in his pants after stepping all over Minnie's feet. This is a pretty minor offering with little new produced.

The Barn Dance (1929)

*** (out of 4)

Nice Disney short has Mickey Mouse showing up Minnie's house to pick her up but competition is there for her as well. Mickey and Minnie end up at the dance but of course the third wheel shows up to try and take her. THE BARN DANCE isn't a classic film and it's certainly far from being as great as STEAMBOAT WILLIE but fans of the characters will still want to check it out. What's really so great about these early Mickey shorts is the animation, which was really taking on a life of its own. Even though this was just the fourth Mickey short, there's no doubt that you already came to love the little guy. His drawing is much better here and there's no question that the charm was at a high level even if he does do some naughty things here.