Mickey Down Under

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

In an Australian rain forest, Mickey & Pluto encounter much trouble with a brutal boomerang and an enraged ostrich.

MICKEY DOWN UNDER has some humorous moments - especially when Pluto gets the boomerang lodged in his mouth - but basically the cartoon is quite routine. Disney had covered this kind of material many times before.

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 comic 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This is rather an uneventful Mickey and Pluto cartoon, where Mickey uses a boomerang to pick up bananas. Pluto doesn't get along with the boomerang and tries to fend it off - in his ever-so-annoying loud bark. Meanwhile, Mickey has found an ostrich egg and wants to take it, but the ostrich sees this and attempts to chase Mickey off.

The funniest part of the cartoon is when the boomerang gets stuck in Pluto's mouth, with some funny sound effects. There was some action where the ostrich chases Mickey around, but overall, it's not a very fun cartoon - rather predictable with limited laughs and excitement.

Grade D+

Don't get me wrong, I love these Disney cartoons they were part of my childhood, but this is one of my least favourites. There are a few funny moments, such as when Pluto gets the boomerang lodged in his mouth, the music is excellent and the voice acting from Pinto Colvig and James McDonald was well done. However, the cartoon gets stuck by being too routine and predictable, there are a few funny parts but the rest is only mildly amusing. While there is some vibrant colouring with the Australian rain forest, some of the character animation looked somewhat awkward. I also want to say I loved this cartoon when I was little, but watching from a 17 year old perspective, it has lost its magic. Overall, it is watchable, but I for one was disappointed being an avid Disney fan. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This Disney short inexplicably finds Mickey and Pluto in Australia! Much of the cartoon finds Pluto fighting with a boomerang--a rather lame bit of time-filling if you ask me. It really wasn't very inspired and went on a bit too long. Later, Mickey has a run in with an ostrich (in Australia!!!!) and it's up to Pluto and the boomerang to come to the rescue.

Overall, this is a particularly bad Disney outing--and not just because they put an ostrich in the wrong part of the world. The animation is good but the story is just pretty dumb and is amazingly weak. The only memorable aspect of the short is the appearance of the new voice for Mickey. Other than that, pretty easy to skip.