À cheval!

When me and my movie theatre-working friend went to watch Frozen at the place he works at, this cartoon short was attached to it. Begun in the old school black-and-white drawn phase with the original screen dimensions, when Mickey is thrown off the screen, he becomes a 3-D computer-generated color character filling the rest of the current outlines of the frame. And with that, the real fun begins as many tricks suddenly become possible with various ways of turning the screen-or frames-whichever way one wants it to go! I also was surprised that Walt Disney himself was credited with the voice of his famous mouse before finding out here that the studio not only used vintage tracks of his from previous cartoons but also those of Marcellite Garner for Minnie and Billy Bletcher for Peg-Leg Pete. I found most of the thing quite creatively funny so on that note, I highly recommend Get a Horse!

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.

'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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Get a Horse! is a fantastic short film with a quick but very enjoyable storyline filled lots of fun and colourful characters.I really enjoyed the mix of the old fashioned black and white animation and the CGI animation that is used in every animated film that's made today.The film showed before Frozen,and it really got me in to the Disney spirit and got me excited for the feature film.Ir was great seeing the very lovable Mickey Mouse for the first time in years on the big screen once again,and this was a very interesting way of bringing him back.All in all,Get a Horse is a great short film that Disney fans will love.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse go on a wagon ride,but Pete gets in the way when he tries to once again kidnap Minnie.

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