Mickey's Choo-Choo

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.

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.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

MICKEY'S CHOO-CHOO takes Minnie on a dangerous ride on the roof into the countryside.

This little black & white film has a plot entirely controlled by the soundtrack. Energetic & fast moving, it is still quite humorous to watch. Walt supplies Mickey's squeaky voice.

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.