The Grocery Boy

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey, THE GROCERY BOY, makes a delivery to Minnie - which is interrupted by Pluto's unfortunate interest in the baked turkey in Minnie's oven...

This is an enjoyable little black & white film, with fine animation and a strong sense of fun. Walt Disney 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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. 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.

I don't know how Mickey can conduct business. He is a grocery boy, yet he appears to have complete control over the entire store. His work is a disaster, but when delivering to Minnie, he hopes for a bit of romance. He tries to woo her with his cooking expertise. She is cooking a big chicken or turkey and it is left to cool. Of course, Pluto is in the house, so you can guess the rest. Things are nicely animated and there is a rhythm to everything. That can only last so long when Pluto shows his true nature.

The Grocery Boy is not one Disney or Mickey's very best, the story is routine and rather thin structurally. But it is a more than worthwhile short. It is beautifully animated, at the start some of the editing could have been a little bit crisper, but the character designs are appealing and the black and white is beautifully shaded. The music has always been a huge part of why the Disney shorts have always worked so well, and I loved its jaunty charm and energy. The gags are always pleasantly amusing if not as hilarious as other Disney shorts from a similar time frame, though the cooking scenes are a breath of fresh air, and the chemistry between Mickey and Minnie is really sweet. Minnie has a lot of likability, if more coy than usual, and it is easy to see what Mickey sees in her to like her so much. Again, like in Mickey Cuts Up Mickey really makes the short, his playfulness is very endearing. The short ends on a fun if somewhat predictable note. So all in all, sweet and fun with Mickey's personality traits seeing him at his best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The Grocery Boy is a bag filled film from the 1930's, but during that time, their was one thing that has caught the audience's eye: Black Stereotypes. When Mickey is riding Pluto like a horse, Mickey has a navy soldier statue head on his head, but when they run into a chimney, Mickey appears to be wearing black face. Black face was used during the 1920's film, "The Jazz Singer" and many other things. It was just normal at the time for people to think that black face was entertaining. I ask not saying that this is a bad film, but that it was not alright to include the scene, even if it was only 5 seconds long.