The Karnival Kid

Besides providing Disney with consistent musical soundtracks for the "Silly Symphony" cartoons, Stalling provided Mickey Mouse's-and film animation's-first words ever said on the screen. In July 1929's "The Karnival Kid," Mickey (Stalling) barks out "Hot dogs, hot dogs" during the first few minutes of the cartoon while selling his food from a cart. He later sees Minnie Mouse at the carnival, and gives a series of commands to his animated hot dogs to impress her. Minnie is heard giving the hot dogs' names, her voice spoken by Walt.

"The Karnival Kid" was Mickey's ninth installment. His appearances before his first speaking role consisted of whistles, laughing and cackling, but never was he heard using the English language. Disney's distribution company for the Mickey series, Celebrity Pictures, and its owner, Pat Powers, was initially against the mouse speaking, fearing that overseas sales would be dampened by those who didn't understand English. For the Disney animators, contorting their characters' mouths were of an enormous challenge. Drawing how a face looks, especially on animals, was a new style for them to translate onto paper. The artists eventually nailed down the expressions to make them realistic to their viewers.

"The Karnival Kid" later gave costume designer Roy Williams the idea to pattern Mickey Mouse Club members' hats with ears after a scene showing Mickey tipping the top of his head to introduce himself to Minnie Mouse.

This is a cute episode. There are two parts. The first involves our hero trying to impress Minnie. She is a shimmy dancer at the Carnival. He runs a hot dog cart but his products seem to be sentient creatures, so how could one eat them. In the second half, we have a serenade as Mickey and a couple of cats try to reach the heart of the fair damsel. It's good fun with some pretty awful early sound, including singing by the cat and mouse.

This is one of the early Mickey shorts and Mickey has a bit more of an edge to his personality in these early shorts than does the mouse most people would readily recognize as Mickey. The backgrounds and other things in the scenes are different too, such as the hot dogs Mickey sells. Very good and entertaining short, this runs on Ink and Paint Club and may wind up on DVD in the not too distant future. Well worth seeking out. Recommended.

The Karnival Kid (1929)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Here's another Mickey Mouse short that really doesn't contain too much of a plot but that really doesn't matter and especially when you consider that this here was the first film where we actually got to hear his voice. Mickey is working at the carnival selling hot dogs when he gets into a fight with a barker. After all that that it's his time to try and butter up Minnie. THE KARNIVAL KID is certainly a historic short but one really shouldn't expect the "voice" that America came to love. No, there's no doubt that Mickey sounds a bit strange here but if you watch the films in the order that they were released, as I was doing, it's interesting to note the various changes that would happen to the character. This here is certainly one of the most entertaining of these early shorts because of the fun times with the hot dogs and their personalities.

Up until "The Karnival Kat", the world had never heard Mickey Mouse speak. Well, when I heard him, I was in for a shock! Instead of the usual falsetto voice originally made by Walt Disney himself, Mickey has a gruff and unattractive voice--one that sounded very strange coming out of the world's most famous mouse! Well, apart from that, the sound itself was a big problem in this film--with a VERY scratchy and tinny soundtrack. Considering it came out in 1929, however, I will cut it some slack--but not when it comes to Mickey's lousy voice! Apparently, Walt and the rest must have agreed that this voice was all wrong, as it soon would become what we've all come to love.

As for the cartoon, although Mickey is in it selling hot dogs (much like he did in "All Wet") and you also see Minnie, they are only in the first portion of the cartoon. Much of it consists of showing carnival life as well as a large portion near the end devoted to a couple caterwauling cats. It's all rather cute but not up to the usual standards of a Mickey cartoon. Because of this, devoted fans will enjoy it but others might want to think about seeing some other cartoon instead.

UPDATE: I saw a copy of this posted on YouTube and the sound was a bit better.