Caça à Baleia

This is a cartoon that features, in a rare move, all three of Disney's biggest stars: Mickey, Donald and Goofy. They work on a ship and each run into scores of mishaps. Mickey couldn't get his bucket of water to dump into the ocean; Donald's can't have a moment's peace during his lunch break; and Goofy is having trouble firing a cannon. Things get worse when they run into a whale that resembles Monstro from Pinocchio.

It's a story full of slapstick comedy and misadventures. Good for laughs but I think it leaves you wishing that the three guys would get a break from all the misfortune once in a while. Even though this is labeled a Mickey Mouse cartoon, he doesn't have any dialog in the short and Donald and Goofy take more center stage in the plot. In addition, the animation is great and the voice talents of Clarence Nash and Pinto Colvig brought charm and uniqueness to the characters.

Grade B

Not a classic by all means, but great fun regardless. Mickey doesn't feature that much here, but Goofy and Donald have plenty to do and as pretty much always are peerless. The animation is done in a very nice fluid and colourful visual style, and the music is rousing and clever. Also prevalent are some interesting sight gags, and the whale is a great point of interest. When it comes to cartoon whales I prefer Willie from Willie the Operatic Whale and Spot from the Little Mermaid series, but this whale is memorable. The story is simple and a tad predictable but only occasionally, but it is effective mostly. The voice acting is well done, with Clarence Nash coming off best.

Overall, nicely done and entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey, Donald & Goofy go looking for the elusive leviathan.

THE WHALERS is an excellent little film, with lots of laughs and topnotch animation propelling its plot. Outside of a hilarious sequence attempting to empty a bucketful of bilge, Mickey has very little to do. The Goof & the Duck dominate the proceedings - delightfully. Donald's frustrations with hungry seabirds and Goofy's ineptitude with the harpoon cannon are just two of their misadventures. Clarence Nash supplies Donald's unique voice.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

MADE AT WHAT was possibly the zenith of the Disney "Team-Up" cartoon shorts. The sub-genre is exemplified with such titles as THE CLOCK CLEANERS, ALPINE CLIMBERS, LONESOME GHOSTS and HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY. Although these short subjects featured ample on-screen time by all of the trio (and sometimes Minnie, herself), they were officially MICKEY MOUSE Cartoons and belonged to that series.

AS WAS THE case with others like it, THE WHALERS zeroed in on a particular occupation, activity or other area of human endeavor and went from there. Usually the early sequences of the cartoon would feature Mickey, Donald or Goofy isolated in solo activity against any one of a topically specific adversary. After each character does his time in she spotlight, the action switches to their joint efforts and how they ultimately wrap it all up.

KNOWING THAT THE sensitivities of our people were far different in the pre-war year of 1938 than today in the 21st Century. Therefore, the subject of Whaling as a livelihood or even an Industry would generate little or no opposition as to its being a fit topic for "family viewing." The notions of Animal Rights, potentially Endangered Species and ecological co-dependence were a long way off.

IN THE PARTICULAR case of this short the trio is challenged by their equipment, some frisky sea-birds, the weather and ultimately a semi-anthropomorphic Sperm Whale. And this is indeed the only whale to make an on-screen appearance.

OTHER THAN THESE truly minor criticisms, we must say that THE WHALERS is enjoyable and quite lively. The color work is rich and a fine example of how the animation art had advanced in the past decade. Likewise, the musical scored had made similar strides in keeping up with the visual aspects.

ALTHOUGH WE MUST put this to the rear of the class of the team-ups, it isn't so far back as to render it unfit. After all, Schultz, whenever there is any sort of classification or grouping, there will be some who are fetter than the others and some who aren't quite as funny, action-filed or "classy" even!

ONE INTERESTING FACT that we must make note of concerns the cast of Voice Actors. While Clarence Nash did his best Donald Duck and Pinto Colvig did likewise for Goofy, Mickey's lot in this film was to remain silent throughout. It must have been that the Mouse had a special guy to create his dialog, a highly exclusive man indeed. And his name was........drum roll.............WALT Disney!

WE CAN ONLY surmised that Uncle Walt was unavailable, due to some important business to take care of (Schultz says maybe Mr. Disney was playing hookie that day!)

Mickey, Donald and Goofy are whale hunters? How disgusting! But this was made back when Disney was non-PC. Which is really how it should have stayed if you don't mind me contradicting myself.

Obviously, because of their clumsiness, they aren't actually going to kill any whale and you can bet your bottom dollar that their whaling ship ain't gonna be afloat by the end.

In the usual hijinks Donald is tormented as seagulls eat his sandwiches and Goofy can't fire a harpoon to save himself (am I the only one who saw pretty strong phallic imagery with that cannon?) and Mickey does...nothing. Why is this even categorised as a Mickey cartoon? The bit inside the whale is cute, the rest never rises above adequacy.