Topolino e gli spettri

Cartoons are tough to assign as genre, but this is one, with actual dancing skeletons and other tropes. Enjoyable if repetitive, but it's only 7 minutes or less. Great animation... FREE ONLINE.

I have always loved the Silly Symphonies and I do have a soft spot for the Mickey Mouse ones. While not my favourite, Haunted House is one of Mickey Mouse's better earlier efforts. There were moments where you can tell there was a Skeleton Dance influence such as a skeleton playing himself like a xylophone, but this didn't put me off at all. The animation very much adds to the atmosphere especially with the effective mix of light and dark shades, the opening is wonderfully eerie and the light-match sequence in the dark hallway is also a masterstroke, showing a depth to Mickey's face and emotions in a way that not many cartoons since have done so well. The music is both energetic and haunting, the story is swift and fun complete with a relevant and interestingly-choreographed dance routine and the gags are imaginative and well-spaced out. And I loved that Mickey is given more to do than usual here, he is a great character but can be bland if with a character like Donald. This is also one of two cartoons where I have seen so much depth to Mickey in terms of animation, the other being The Mad Doctor. The skeletons are wonderfully kooky. All in all, one of Mickey's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

When I first saw this Mickey Mouse cartoon on a VHS tape a few decades ago, the part I remember the most was when he was in the dark and his face looked like when Al Jolson put on his burnt cork makeup and he says, "Mammy!" I found that amusing then but I can understand why it wouldn't be so now. Moving on, this short is basically about Mickey entering the title place during a storm and encountering Death who makes him play the organ so the skeletons can dance. It's possible some of the animation was meant for the Silly Symphony cartoon The Skeleton Dance. Anyway, in both that and this, the numbers are pretty entertaining though Mickey takes a back seat here during that sequence. Still, The Haunted House is worth the look.

This animated short is cute but lacks the fun of The Skeleton Dance (1929). In fact, The Haunted House borrows quite a bit from The Skeleton Dance.

In this short we have Mickey who enters a house during a storm only to find out the house is haunted. A ghoul commands Mickey to play the organ while the skeletons dance. It's a fun watch for Halloween.

8/10.

"The Haunted House" is a very good Walt Disney cartoon, though I wouldn't place it among the best of the era. On the positive side, for a black & white cartoon, the animation is exceptional and the print is very crisp. On the negative, there's a lot of dancing...too much dancing.

The story begins with Mickey Mouse being beckoned into a haunted house. There, he meets a bunch of skeletons that force him to play the organ for them...at which point they all dance about the place. There really isn't much more to the story than this.

The cartoon started great but the sheer amount of dancing really became a bit tiresome...despite some amazingly good animation considering it was 1929.