Mickey's Choo-Choo

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.

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.

The same Mickey mouse, singing and dancing. But there's a little more to the story. First, there's a running train which plays a part, then Mickey and Mini have got voices, which are wierd to say at least. By 21st centuries standards, it is a poorly made film. But I don't expect much from a 90 years old film. So, it's just good for me.

Like so many early Mickey Mouse cartoons, this one isn't especially heavy on plot but it's also quite charming and worth seeing--even if it is pretty crudely made according to today's standards.

The film begins and ends with Mickey riding the rails but in the middle he and Minnie have assorted minor adventures. Then, at the end there is a wreck and stuff gets pretty weird as Mickey and Minnie go careening down the rails on a boxcar. Nothing much more to it than this, but it is pretty clever and the film still keeps your interest today.

By the way, get a load of the train. It's a pretty adorable anthropomorphic train and has quite a bit of personality.