O Avião do Mickey

If you go on YouTube, you're bound to find or two uploads of Plane Crazy, the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon produced by Walt Disney productions in 1928 (his way of finding a new character after losing Oswald the Rabbit at Universal). And while the short was originally done as a silent short - from a biography I read, Steamboat Willie was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon - it can now be watched with sound. On the one hand it's crazy to think that it would ever be silent considering how the music and sound effects and occasional voices for Mickey and Minnie (both from Uncle Walt) work so in sync and, really, perfectly with it all. And yet on the other hand it's easy to see how everything is told visually, without any real dialog being needed anyway (there is a moment where Minnie goes "Who, me?!" when Mickey asks her to go on the plane, but it could be left off just as well).

The gags come quick and fast, but the story is tight considering the suspense that happens once Mickey and Minnie get up in the air. Actually in a way this has more character stuff than in Steamboat Willie, which in that case was a little bit of story (the set up of Mickey as a captain and being chased by proto-Pete), but then with a lot of gags involving the playing of animals as musical instruments. Here it's all about this: what will Mickey get Minnie into next, and will he wise up and not be such a jerk? It's great to see an early Mickey short like this for a couple of reasons aside from the sharp quality of the animation - the timing of it all makes it, well, timeless far as storytelling goes, even with the old-school iris - one is that Mickey is not the perfect, bashful gentleman/mouse of later cartoons. He's actually kind of a jerk, and it's refreshing in that Bart Simpson way.

The second reason is how self-conscious the creators, Disney and Ub Iwerks, were in some of the visual gags. It may have one of my all-time favorites, one that lays kind of the blueprint for cartoons for decades to come: at one point Minnie decides she's had enough of Mickey's horsing around and gets up and leaves to parachute off the plane (luckily her dress will do). Mickey follows her off, and we see him just suspended in the air, in a straight line really, without anything showing him going down. It's only when HE realizes he's off the plane that he rushes back to get on the plane, only for it to crash. That is the magic of animated comic cartoons right there in about 15 seconds of celluloid: you don't know you're going to die until you notice it.

Plane Crazy is the very first film with Mickey and Minnie so the animated short is of some historical value. As far as the animation itself, it is just plane crazy. Mickey builds a plane and takes Minnie with him for the ride. Once they are up in the air Mickey comes on way too strong for Minnie so she ends up jumping out of the plane. In the end, Mickey got what he deserved.

It's not a great film but is a little entertaining - It's a good watch to see the beginnings of the famous couple.

7/10.

Plane Crazy (1928), the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, offers modern viewers a vision of the character which has been eclipsed by a more family friendly rendition. The old school Mickey was a rascal and a jerk, always looking to cause trouble. Here we see him rough-housing other animals in a barnyard and forcing a kiss on a reluctant Minnie Mouse, something modern Mickey would blush to do.

Ub Iwerks' animation is fantastic and chaotic. Around this time, the stiffer animation of the early 1920s/late 1910s was giving way to the looser movement which would reign supreme in the 1930s.

Plane Crazy is not as mesmerizing as Steamboat Willie (1928), but it sure is a lot of fun and a great time capsule.

ORIGINALLY PLANNED AND executed as a silent, PLANE CRAZY is the true first appearance of MICKEY MOUSE. It was held back and not released along with its following installment, THE GALLOPIN' GAUCHO until the release of the revolutionary and game changing STEAMBOAT WILLIE. The latter cartoon was of course the first sound cartoon short.

BEING THAT TODAY'S honored movie, PLANE CRAZY does come across as a little movie that it is torn between two worlds. In this case, it has all of the signs of the strictly visual silent; but the addition of the sound effects and dialogue (such as it is) may well be in effect an overkill of screen storytelling.

THIS MAY WELL not have been as readily apparent at the time of release; owing to the fascination that was generated with all of the publicity of Mickey Mouse just talking. Furthermore, all of the animation that was made from the various studios suffered from the same malady. It would take several years of film technique evolution to "modernize" the overall look of the characters, backgrounds and rendering of the sight gags depicted in a typical outing.

THE GENISES AND indeed the very reason for doing the cartoon with aviation as the subject as in PLANE CRAZY was the popularity of Charles Lindbergh's solo crossing of the Atlantic in the previous year of 1927. This is no subtle or subliminal message, as Mickey does actually display a photo of "Lucky Lindy" at the very beginning. Mickey even attempts to style his hair to look like Lindbergh's tonsorial work of art.

AS FOR THE cartoon's storyline, Mick builds a plane, it crashes and immediately destructs into an impossibility of a salvation project. Undaunted, Mickey immediately converts an old, broken down jalopy into a new plane. Enter the female of the species. Minnie Mouse, making what is her real and true first appearance, presents the young aviator with a good-luck horse shoe and gets a ride in the airship as a reward.

FOLLOWING MANY INFLIGHT type gags Mickey's amorous intentions are revealed and he is rejected with a slap. Minnie bails out, using her unmentionables as a makeshift parachute. Meanwhile Mickey safely crash-lands. The twosome parts the scene in less than happy and lovey-dovey relationship. Mickey pitches the horseshoe away, but it promptly returns to catch him around the neck in a boomerang fashion.

ONCE AGAIN, THIS short does not seem like much when viewed now; but, once again, back in the day.................. '

This is technically the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, having released a few months before Steamboat Willie. Here, Mickey builds a plane and takes Minnie Mouse (also her first appearance) for a joyride. But, the high-flying journey doesn't go near as Mickey plans as the plane sores to unbelievable obstacles and heights, leaving the two to fend for themselves.

Ub Iwerks did a great job animating the cartoon. While it does appear dated by today's standards, the cartoon does represent classic animation and true talent - none of these CGI stuff that we see in today's animated features.

Not a whole lot to the story, but it's an adventurous little tale nonetheless and is one of the more exciting black and white cartoon shorts from Walt Disney. It's a fine way to start off Mickey Mouse and his many adventures in years to come.

Grade B+