Mickey Marque un Essai

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

It's up to TOUCHDOWN MICKEY to win the important football game played against the brutish Alley Cats.

Although virtually without plot (and spoofing the silent pigskin films of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton & William Haines) this is a very fine example of the sort of cartoon Mickey made in his early black & white days. Minnie, Goofy & Pluto all make prominent appearances, but the attentive viewer should also spot Horace Horsecollar & Clarabelle Cow among the enthusiastic supporters for Mickey's Manglers.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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 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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

In this short, Mickey Mouse plays football for his team called "Mickey's Manglers" against the "Alley Cats." Mickey sure didn't seem to be dressed appropriately for football. He just had pants and a helmet. Where were his shoulder pads, his jersey, and his mouthpiece? I guess at the time this cartoon was made, football players dressed like that (but unlike Mickey, they certainly wore shirts). We also had Pluto as the "water dog" and Goofy as the announcer, who really didn't do a very good job because of his constant [moronic]laughing. This short is sure to entertain Disney/football fans alike.

The way the short is resolved may come across as a cliché, but the energy and gags, as well as the effective opening that sets up the short very nicely, more than make up for things. The animation itself is excellent, with well drawn characters, beautiful shades for the black and white and smooth background art, and the music has beautiful orchestration and lots of character in it as you would expect from Disney. It was interesting to see football played without leather helmets and pads and to see the defensive team full of Pete clones. In comparison along with Mickey, the Mickey Manglers team is somewhat mismatched with a goat, a daschound and a pig. The pace is fast-paced and always energetic, while the gags, a great many and most flying in from each frame, are just wonderful. The best being as Mickey runs down field, his pig teammate turns into a steamroller, flattening the Pete team one by one and when Mickey's team kicks off, Mickey as the holder of the ball gets kicked into the air as well, flying across the field. The characters are instantly lovable as well. All in all, great fun with wild energy and wonderful gags. 9/10 Bethany Cox