Topolino e il canguro

This short is on a DVD box set, "Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White: Volume #2," and I bought it when I was on vacation with my family. This short became one of my favorites out of the collection; I thought it was "bouncy-touncy" fun.

It started when Mickey got a parcel crate from an Australian named Leo Buring. To their surprise, the crate started moving, and a boxing kangaroo and her joey jumped out. I knew it was a female because the males don't have pouches. Pluto was irritated that the kangaroo and her child had invaded his area. I observed that the artists designed the kangaroo and joey in Mickey's style, and the joey's voice is reminiscent of Roadrunner from Warner Bros.' cartoons.

I enjoy watching Pluto chase the joey on the water pump, getting wet in the process. Then Pluto goes for a rough ride in a wheelbarrow and lands in a garbage dump. With his back paws stuck on springs, Pluto bounces up and down to the little kangaroo's delight. They hop for a little bit before Pluto hops a little too high and smashes head-first into the roof of a greenhouse. Pluto is unaware that the little kangaroo has become attached to him by resting in a corset "pouch" that he jumped into from a clothesline near the greenhouse. A bit of risqué business, huh? Overall, this is a marvelous cartoon, and now I have gone "Kanga-crazy!"

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

MICKEY'S KANGAROO - a surprise gift from Australia - proceeds to give the Mouse quite a boxing lesson; her joey has a trick or two saved for Pluto...

This little black & white film is very humorous and features fine animation. It is also the cartoon in which Pluto 'speaks' directly to the viewers, keeping us cognizant of exactly what was going through his doggie mind. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's squeaky voice.

It is interesting to compare the two rather primitive kangaroos from this film, with their beep-beep articulations, to the ever popular Kanga & Roo in the WINNIE THE POOH films which first appeared in 1966.

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, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. 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.

Mickey's Kangaroo is not a bad cartoon, but compared to other Disney cartoons(though it is far from the worst) I didn't care as much as I wanted to for it. The animation is smooth and fluid, and the music is full of character and energy. I also liked how they showed the love Mickey and Pluto share for one another at the beginning, the boxing match between Mickey and the cute kangaroo and the gag when Mickey gets caught in the hay bailing machine. Pluto is great to watch mostly, buy Mickey aside from the boxing is sidelined and is not very interesting as a character here. Other than a couple of gags like the hay bailing machine gag I personally didn't find much funny or of note in Mickey's Kangaroo, and the story is rather routine and not as crisply paced as it has been. Pluto's inner thoughts talking was unnecessary with the menacing tone rather odd, we know from what was already on screen what Pluto was feeling so having the voice as well seemed overly-obvious overkill to me. All in all, moderately enjoyable but at the same time nothing outstanding. 6/10 Bethany Cox

In this cartoon short from Walk Disney, Mickey gets a package from Australia: a kangaroo and its baby roo, both complete with boxing gloves (for some unknown reason, Disney characters randomly get animals mailed to them from all over). As a result, Mickey practices boxing with the adult while the baby annoys Pluto to no end.

There is really nothing entertaining or funny about this cartoon, just Mickey acting all smiles and cheerful as he gets pummeled in the boxing match, and the annoying baby roo feeling free to eat Pluto's food and to drive him crazy. Basically, very boring.

I know I might be analyzing too much on a cartoon short, but, there is really nothing remarkable about the short, except for the fact that Pluto "talks" in this cartoon with a voice-over, which I thought was rather unique. I did chuckle at a few points, but other than that, this cartoon is not a winner for me.

Grade D--