Mickey's Choo-Choo

I have always loved the Disney and Mickey Mouse cartoons. Mickey's Choo-Choo is not one of the best, but it is still interesting and fun. Like a lot of Mickey cartoons of the time, Mickey's Choo-Choo's story is rather light, though more involving than for example When the Cat's Away. My feelings on the animation were mixed. There are still some very nice moments, the opening scene is unique with the locomotive backing away from us rather than towards us, Minnie hanging on for dear life when the train is out of spiral has some inspired behind shots and Mickey's design is more rounded and closer than the later design that I am more used to. However, the backgrounds could have been smoother, there are a few times here where things look rather stiff and dare I say ugly and aside from the three things I mentioned not much stands out as new or particularly interesting. However, the music is simply wonderful, full of Carl Stalling's usual energy and characterful orchestration. There are some great gags also like Mickey's using a dog's teeth for a can-opener and Mickey feeding the train coal and it belches. Mickey and Minnie as well as being very cute together are still likable characters and not as bland as they have been in some cartoons(though in their defence in those cases they are pitted with stronger characters like Donald and Goofy), while the humanised train is an inspired touch. Other than Mickey's design what also stood out as interesting was the dialogue, which is more full-on than the cartoons before it that consisted of squeaks and one-liners turning into musical numbers. The voice acting is fine, after seeing some cartoons where Mickey sounded as though he was yet to find his voice here it is distinctive as Walt Disney's voice for many more Mickey Mouse cartoons to follow. All in all, not one of my absolute favourites, but interesting and still with fun to be had. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The animation is this cartoon short was pretty pencil-like, but still works nice, especially as it coincides with the sound effects.

No plot or story in this cartoon short, and no laughs or real comedy as well. But, it's not a bad one for the kids.

Grade C

Mickey and Minnie take a ride on the Reading. Mickey seems to own his own train and takes his main squeeze on a romantic ride. The problem is that the train gets totally out of control and they end up endangering everything around them. It is musically clever and certainly harmless. Like so much of this era, there is little story, just a bunch of excuses for various pratfalls. Mickey is pretty reckless, but he is optimistic and exciting.

This of course has a lot of the good stuff one looks for with these early Iwerks/Disney shorts with Mickey and Minnie: the horsing around, the anthropomorphized train (hey, he/it even gets its teeth washed), and the dancing and lolly-gaggling and so on. It really doesn't pick up with any kind of forward momentum until the last two minutes, when the couple get on the train and it has its ups and downs and, at times, becomes like a roller-coaster ride on a train. These moments certainly make it kind of mind-blowing for the time. But with the exception of that and the first sound of Mickey with his trademark high-pitch voice (I wonder if it was so Disney could sing the song this way, or if he just decided to go for it for the long-haul), it's not all great. It's breezy and fast-paced, though not wholly ambitious. It gets 6 minutes by in a flash.

Mickey's Choo-Choo (1929)

*** (out of 4)

The railway station is the setting for this Mickey Mouse shorts, which starts off with him singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and then we get him and Minnie going on a little adventure that takes a bad turn when their train is unable to get up a mountain. Fans of these early shorts will enjoy this one as it features quite a few funny scenes but there's no question that the highlight was Mickey singing. He had already spoken in the previous shorts but there's no question that the voice left a lot to be desired. While his voice isn't what America came to love, there's still no doubt that there was a very big jump in terms of quality. The finale with the cart going through various tunnels was a nice bit of animation as well.