My brother Nathan came home from college on Wednesday, and the first
thing he did was head downstairs to examine the shelves where all of our
old videos are kept. "I'm in the mood to watch cartoons," he declared,
toting half a dozen worn tapes upstairs with him. We've yet to get to
the stack of Don Bluths, but yesterday we enjoyed a quick trip down
memory lane with Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Mickey and the Gang.
When Nathan was little, we briefly had the Disney Channel, and during
that time we recorded about six hours' worth of cartoons featured on the
show Duck Presents. These included snippets from films but
mostly short cartoons spanning more than half a century. I don't know
just when it was that we picked up this little collection, containing
three cartoons featuring Mickey and his friends engaged in what should
have been leisure activities, but I know that having all those other
shorts to choose from didn't stop us from getting a kick out of these,
and they were still just as fun this time around.
Boat Builders
- This cartoon from 1938 features Mickey, Donald and Goofy, with brief
appearances by Pluto and Minnie. Mickey buys himself a build-your-own
boat kit and enlists his friends' aid in getting from the blueprints and
the big box of supplies to a finished, sea-worthy vessel. "All you to
is put it together!" he reassures them at several points, to which
Donald chimes in, "Even a child could do it!" before collapsing into
peals of hysterical laughter. But it's not quite as simple as all that,
and each of the friends runs into a series of frustrations. How long can
their patience last?
Canine Caddy - Although it's from
1941, only three years after the first cartoon, Mickey looks noticeably
different in this one, more like the modern mouse. Pluto is his only
companion in this short, which has Mickey out for a game of golf,
looking both dapper and ridiculous with his oversized floppy hat and
enormous club. He's rather hard on poor old Pluto, who acts as his
caddy, and he cheats, though I guess that doesn't really matter since he
seems to have the course all to himself - except for one very annoying
gopher, who Mickey doesn't appear to notice but who drives Pluto nuts.
How can he fulfill his duties as a caddy while being harassed by such an
impertinent creature?
Moose Hunters - The earliest of
the bunch, this cartoon from 1937 features Mickey, Donald and Goofy,
though Mickey spends most of his time separate from the other two. The
plan is for Donald and Goofy, dressed in a ludicrous lady moose costume,
to attract and distract their prey while Mickey gets in a good shot.
Unfortunately for them, Mickey's gun is the first victim of this unwise
enterprise, and it turns out that the attentions of an amorous moose are
a little more than they can handle on their own...
Walt
Disney provides the voice of Mickey in all three shorts, while Pinto
Colvig plays aw-shucks Goofy as well as Pluto and the Gopher and
Clarence Nash gives mostly unintelligible voice to Donald. The moose
courtship and an interlude in Boat Builders involving Goofy's
flirtation with an inanimate mermaid border on the risque, but that sort
of thing can be found in lots of shorts, especially from this time
period, and it's really silly rather than objectionable. For a fun half
hour with a beloved cartoon trio, check out Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Mickey and the Gang.
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