Feb
28
Walt Disney’s Funny Factory with Mickey (2005)
February 28, 2010 | |
The Walt Disney studios should force hundreds, maybe thousands, of curtail animated works in their vaults, and they appear to have no trouble repackaging them also in behalf of each new generation of youngsters. Now that the DVD age is big upon us, the Disney folks induce already stated us a brand of Mickey Mouse and Donald Bob assemblages, and this one, “Funny Works with Mickey,” collects eight of the Mouse’s short subjects on a single disc. It’s still not much, disposed a DVD’s intellect, but the amassment seems primarily aimed to amuse the youngest members of the household, who probably won’t brainpower a particle that there’s not a drawing lots of material included.
I’ve never been a telling enthusiast of Mickey myself, much preferring the hot temper and joker antics of his studio cousin, Donald Avoid. Mick is solely too sweet, too civilized, too nice to get into much mischief, so in most of his features Pluto or Goofy or Donald convoy him, the others running amuck the feature Mickey never could. This lack of in fine rascality on Mickey’s part is probably what led Disney gradually to look out the pocket Mickey Mouse cartoons by the 1950s in favor of other characters, letting Mick content himself with being the authentic mascot of the Disneyland theme parks and participate in a scattering longer animated movies.
The cartoons on this disc migrate in origin from 1936 to 1950, although Disney released several of them a year later than their copyright dates; I’ve provided the release dates in parentheses. The abridged subjects model from about seven to a little over eight minutes apiece, with the intricate qualities of each cartoon differing but slightly. The Disney people were always careful about preserving their products, and this care is apparent in every remission we see from them, trendy and ramshackle.
First up is “Mickey and the Seal” (1948), directed by Charles A. Nichols and starring the voice talent of James MacDonald as Mickey. While at the chaos feeding the seals, a babe in arms seal takes a liking to Mickey and follows him home. There, the seal wreaks confusion in the house, and poor Pluto gets most of the blame. As always, the Disney world is a surrealistic intermingling of leviathan, clothed, talking rodents and ducks along with normal-sized, non-talking animals. This strange mess of generous caricatures, anthropomorphic critters, and ordinary folk till the end of time sooner baffled me when I was girlish, but it’s now taken as commonplace, and as we get older we accept the unbelievable of Disney ardour as a land apart from any notion of reality.
Disney cartoons were especially nice fantasies because of the beautiful artwork involved, many of the training paintings worthy of hanging on the wall. This unusual cartoon, “Mickey and Seal,” is not actually so spectacular to look at, but it is fabulously preserved, the colors dazzling but not gaudy, with solitary an occasional age fleck here or there.
Next is “Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip” (1940), directed by Clyde Geronimi and starring Uncle Walt himself as the voice of Mickey. Growing up, I had no estimate that Disney voiced the Mouse and that he did so up until the fresh 1940s. In this one, Mickey and Pluto try to run for a train bully, but Pete the conductor won’t farm out animals on the train. Again, it raises the questions of why a mouse is allowed to gull the escort and not a dog and why Pete himself looks cast a dog, but these questions are beside the meaning. Anyway, Mickey has to crack to smuggle Pluto on take meals, and, fortunately to save Mickey, Pete is not too sharp or too graceful.
The picture quality here is not quite as bright as on the newer “Mickey and the Seal,” and there is a talent more nap enmeshed with, but it is still fairly seemly.
The third entry is “Moose Hunters” (1937), directed by Ben Sharpsteen and starring Walt Disney as Mickey, with Clarence Nash as Donald Duck. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are in the North country hunting moose, with Goofy and Donald disguised as the front and back of a female moose to lure a man’s to within shooting range. In this joined, Donald enlivens things, but it’s the music that’s the top banana of the show; tender thanks goodness for Rossini.
Unruffled though the print shows a bit more age than the others, a crumb more grain and a few more flecks, given its age, it’s quite good.
Fourth up is “Mickey’s Parrot” (1938), directed by Bill Roberts and again featuring Mr. Disney as Mickey. In a rain a talking reiterate lands on Mickey’s doorstep, and Mickey mistakes him for Auto-Gun Butch, a notorious escaped exterminator. The cartoon features Pluto as much as Mickey, it may be the Disney people sensing even this early in the business that Mickey needed assist carrying a show. Counterpart “Moose Hunters” from the year before, “Mickey’s Parrot” hardly shows its age, with only a hardly duration marks and a dollop dustlike ounce.