Trois espiègles petites souris

This is a predictable, boring, and annoying cartoon starring three blind mouseketeers, who attempt to banish a cat from its quarters.

There's really nothing in this cartoon short that we haven't seen before. But, there is virtually no humor, unfunny slapstick stuff, unexciting scenes, and unremarkable characters. These three mice were not memorable and sang this really, really annoying song throughout the cartoon short. Their shouts of "one and one for all" were very cheesy.

Overall, this is clearly one of the worst Silly Symphonies.

Grade F

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

The THREE BLIND MOUSEKETEERS set about getting their cheesy meal, despite the best efforts of villainous Captain Katt to destroy them.

An enjoyable, though unremarkable, spoof of swashbuckling movies. Disney would revive the term `Mouseketeer' two decades later for use in the Mickey Mouse Club TV show. Katt seems to owe a lot to the personality of character actor Noah Beery; and is that Walt vocalizing the skinny mouse?

The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.

THE THREE MOUSKETEERS gives a cartoon spin to the Alexander Dumas tale of "all for one" as they have to use their combative skills with sword and derring-do to defeat a fat cat bent on their destruction. "My traps are set in every room, those cats are munchin' to their doom." Predictably, the mousketeers outmaneuver the traps either by remarkable luck or skill (or both) and the sleeping cat (who dreams about victory) is soon awakened by the rather boisterous musketeers as they congratulate each other on escaping his booby traps.

The rest of the cartoon is strictly a series of cat-and-mouse chases with the mice winning at every turn. The scene where one of them is hiding under a teacup is reminiscent of the later gag used for Lucifer in Disney's full-length "Cinderella".

Nothing really extraordinary here, although it's clear to see that the animation techniques were undergoing vast improvement by 1936.

If you've seen any random Tom and Jerry short then you've already seen everything that Three Blind Mouseketeers has to offer. The titular trio invade cabin or pantry of sorts patrolled by Captain Katt (who looks a lot like a beagle boy) that has laid a series of traps for said mice to blindly (pun intended) walk into. However chance is on their side and they bumble harmlessly through the room, much to the irritation of the cat.

Forgettable mayhem ensues, which inevitably leads to Katt stumbling through his own traps and hurting himself. Once this cartoon is over I doubt you'll ever think about it again.

True it is predictable, but this is so entertaining that I don't care. The music is terrific, the characters are at least likable- although Captain Katt is evil, there are times when you do feel sorry for him. The silly symphony is beautifully drawn, with excellent character animation and nice backgrounds. There are some truly hilarious bits, my favourite bit has always been the one when Captain Katt is looking for the mousketeers under the three bowls. Considering when it was made, this is an enormously entertaining and beautifully done silly symphony. It is not the best one out there, but it is well worth watching for entertainment value.

All for one, and one for all! 10/10 Bethany Cox