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Get a Horse! (2013)

*** (out of 4)

This winning short from Disney was originally released and played before the FROZEN feature. The story is quite simple and Mickey and Minnie are trying to battle Peg-Leg Pete who eventually throws Mickey off the "movie" and into the movie crowd. Once in the crowd Mickey has to use some imagination to try and rescue Minnie who is still in the movie. GET A HORSE! was rather remarkable to see on the big screen because it starts off in B&W just like the original Mickey Mouse shorts and I thought this was a great way to show younger kids a bit of the past. Once the characters start falling from the movie, Mickey then turns to color and he even makes the screen wider to fit today's movies. For the most part I thought this 6-minute short contained a lot of wonderful imagination and especially once the characters were off the screen and seeing how they could defeat the villain. There were a lot of great laughs throughout the picture and especially with some of the harmless violence that was in so many of the original cartoons.

'GET A HORSE!': Three Stars (Out of Five)

A Disney animated short film that debuted in theaters before the blockbuster 'FROZEN'. The movie is 6 minutes long and is both computer animated and hand-drawn. It's also in black-and-white and color and was released in both 3D and regular 2D versions (like the movie it plays with). It was directed by Lauren MacMullan and features archive voice recordings of Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse! It's the first Mickey Mouse cartoon since 1995's 'RUNAWAY BRAIN' and tells the story of Mickey going on a wagon ride with his friends (Minnie, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow) when the antagonist Peg-Leg Pete attacks them. Mickey and Horace are thrown out of the movie world (and into the theater) where they fight Peg-Leg by flipping the theater screen (and rotating gravity inside the movie). The film is amusing and fun and very reminiscent of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. Should be nostalgic for fans of the iconic Disney character and entertaining for new (younger) viewers as well!

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As a huge fan of classic Disney and as someone who likes a lot of their modern stuff(though there have been a fair share of misfires), Get a Horse was really delightful and while Frozen is a great film and one of their best since the Renaissance this short that preceded it was even better. The animation mixes black and white classic animation and colour CGI, with the crisp and fluid black and white and the colourful and vibrant CGI that moves more naturally than that on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse it not only looks great but it is very cleverly used as well. The soundtrack is lively and with beautiful orchestration and themes that you'll recognise immediately. The sound effects are well-incorporated, some from the very early stuff that are preserved quite well, and are not misplaced or bizarre-sounding. Get a Horse has humorous dialogue and a story that is from start-to-finish boundless fun and energy and it's as clever as the animation too. Just as good are the gags, they're reminiscent of classic Disney but there is also a very modern Disney vibe, so it will appeal to anybody, child and adult, regardless of where abouts they were born. All the characters engage, with a delicious villain in Pete and Mickey who has the kindly quality he has now and also the heroic character in the old classic Disney. Minnie is sweet as well, and it was great to see Horace and Clarabelle, two characters often neglected(or they were for a long time before House of Mouse came on the scene). The voices are fine too, though it was initially a tad odd hearing (modern) Pete voiced by someone other than Jim Cummings, like the sound the original voices are well-preserved. All in all, delightful and recommended without any hint of hesitation. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This short is such an amazing little visual work of wonder, it's really one of those types of animations that will make you fall in love with the cartoon shorts of the 30s all over again, and it actually changed my outlook on modern animation a little. It's fantastic just how well they replicated the endearingly scratchy antiquated animations of the olden days, they did it almost perfectly, except for the voices which aren't quite tinny enough and the movements are a bit too fluid in parts, but they did a brilliant job with this nonetheless, I love how the use the very old characters of Clarabel Cow and Peg leg Pete in such a fun way. And the short gets really good when the characters actually realise they're in a cartoon and literally break the fourth wall as they burst out of the movie screen and run back and forth between the 'real' world and the world of their adventures as it wonderfully dances between both visual styles of animation, juggling the both of them beautifully, making them appear as two sides of the same coin. It's very respectful to the vintage style of the animation while still subtly having an element of passing on the torch to it, "Make way for the future!" is a line I don't really care for, but it did kind of sum up a part of what I thought the short was driving at, things change into other things all the time, like the telegram gradually became the telephone that Mickey calls Pegleg Pete on, perhaps animation was always meant to become what it largely is now, and while it's not my personal preference when it comes to animation, I'm glad it's still thriving and bringing joy to children to this day. Beautifully done and very sweet short, I appreciate what it tries to do, well worth seeing for the concept, animation magic and the nostalgia, enjoy! 💓

I am very much in support of short films getting into cinemas, even if it mostly occurs either as part of festivals, or as large studio projects which accompany a main feature film; so it is cheering how many people would have seen this short film ahead of the film Frozen – albeit as they would have seen it as a free cartoon rather than having their eyes opened to the world of short film as a form. Anyway, this short opens in the frame size and animation style of the 1930's cartoons, with a simple scene of Mickey and Minnie Mouse heading out on their wagon, only for the "wave of the future" to come up behind them in the form of Peg-Leg Pete in his motor car, and start to make trouble.

Watching this short without any knowledge of what it does is quite a lovely experience, because just as you start to accept the rather small square image in the middle of this larger screen, suddenly the 4th wall gets broken and we have action occurring within the theatre itself as well as back inside the 1930's cartoon. It is cleverly done so that the animation transitions between modern CGI style, and black & white drawings, as the characters move between the sides of the screen. I also enjoyed the way the screen itself moved and was affected by the action – I really am not interested in watching films in 3D, but it would have been fun to see what this played like if you were not expecting it.

The action itself is a good lot of slapstick and, while I wasn't roaring with laughter throughout, I found it consistently amusing and fun, which is all I was really looking for. Perhaps understandably it won the Best Animated Short and, as much as I prefer that the big players do not dominate these smaller categories, I don't begrudge Get a Horse! because it is cleverly done, and delivered with a lot of energy and cheer.