The Jazz Fool

The Jazz Fool isn't one of the Mickey Mouse cartoons that people go 'Oh, yeah, I LOVE that one!' But then it isn't presenting itself as anything super ambitious; it's something that has some fun ideas, and is there to show Mickey having a good time at the piano. The most creative parts of this involve actually some of the other characters or, you know, 'things'; it's hard to forget the clothes that come off the hanger to dance around, or the cow who takes out its teeth and uses them as xylophone keys and proceeds to make one of the best musical moments of the whole thing.

In this short, Mickey is playing in his 'Big Show' for the animals in the audience, and plays the piano in such a way that it's practically abuse (!) By the end the piano gets its just desserts, but for the most part this short almost acts like one of the Silly Symphony shorts (or a prototype of them); just showing characters having some dilly-dallying to swinging music is enough for five minutes sometimes.

This is not a bad little cartoon featuring Mickey and a host of other Disney characters, playing instruments, including a feisty piano, to some really catchy tunes. Not much of a story here, but a nice musical number that is sure to enchant the younger audience.

Grade B

I happen to love Disney and Mickey Mouse, and I did want to like The Jazz Fool more than I did. The Jazz Fool is not terrible, far from it. But at the same time it didn't feel all that special. The animation is mostly fine, there is some ugly character animation of Mickey at angles, but the backgrounds are at least crisp and the barns are less run-down than they have been in other Disney cartoons of this time. It was Mickey's facial expressions that were the most impressive thing in this regard, the anger, frustration and happiness are done so simply with raised eyebrows, turns of the mouth and the direction of his nose and shoulders but at the same time with so much expression. The music is lovely, with some lively tunes and Gershwin-like riffs interestingly arranged. It is at its catchiest when Mickey and Horace arrive at their destination at first. There are some fun bits like Horace playing even his teeth and shoes in perfect synch to the music, Mickey spanking the bum of the piano and the piano even retaliates by biting Mickey on the bottom. Mickey is very likable, as is Horace. Sadly, the story is very thin, two-thirds of it is literally Mickey just playing the piano and giving it a hard time. The gags are not very imaginative either, and not all of them hit the mark. Mickey's piano solo is almost exactly like a repeat of The Opry House. All in all, nothing amazing but worth a look. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox

I assume that with this title, the Disney folks were parodying the title of the sound sensation "The Jazz Singer", though the film itself has nothing to do with this Jolson film. Instead, it mostly consists of Mickey entertaining the audience by playing the piano in a jazzy fashion. However, several times as he plays there are riffs that sound strongly inspired by George Gershwin. The music is all very pleasant but there just isn't much to the film. As a result of it having no plot and a lot of songs, it doesn't stand up as well as other early Mickey toons. Worth seeing for die-hard Mickey fans and film historians but pretty easy for others to skip.

This is a stunning little cartoon. I know that the levels of animation had not been met, but we can already see the genius that is Disney. First of all, there are a series of performances by farm animals as they use their various physical attributes to create percussion, strings, and brass. But the highlight here is when Mickey takes the stage to become the "Jazz Fool." His battle with his piano to produce a really catchy number is priceless. We can see his character develop and shine.