Topolino nella jungla

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey shows true JUNGLE RHYTHM in the wilds, making merry music using the bodies of various & sundry creatures.

This early black & white Mouse film is almost completely plotless, its action entirely driven by the soundtrack. Music mavens will recognize 'The Blue Danube,' 'Aloha Oe' & 'Yankee Doodle' among other tunes.

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.

Inexplicably, this cartoon short finds Mickey in the jungle. And, like most of the early Mickey cartoons, there is an absence of dialog and lots of music. While today this all seems pretty campy, it was state of the art in its day.

For the most part, there really isn't any plot--just lots of jungle creatures parading past the screen--singing and dancing like they are on stage. Then, you get to hear Mickey sing--and it's pretty sad--but fortunately he mostly avoids singing and plays various animals like musical instruments--and abusing them a bit in the process.

Far from a classic, there is still an odd charm about this. And, interestingly, Mickey once again plays (among other songs) "Turkey in the Straw"--the same tune he played in "Steamboat Willie" the year before--which was the first cartoon with sound.

This is not a bad little musical, with Mickey playing all sorts of instruments with a band of animals in the jungle. There's quite a bit of toe-tapping music, including the Blue Danube, Turkey in the Straw, Aloha 'Oe, and Yankee Doodle.

There's really not plot to the cartoon, just plenty of songs and dances.

Grade B-

Tiger dances, monkeys dance, birds dance, mickey dances, and that's the whole story. Maybe it was good in its day, but its length might still be a problem. A film that features only music and dancing should not be long, but it keeps repeating it again and again to an extent that it becomes boring.

I would say that half or more of these early Mickey Mouse cartoons involve his turning animals and inanimate objects into musical instruments. Here he faces off with dangerous characters but subdues them with tunes. He also seems able to pull their whiskers or twist their bodies without consequences. This one is loaded with these clever manipulations and comes across pretty well. No plot. Just Mickey doing his thing.