The Mail Pilot

This is another earlier Mickey and Minnie mouse cartoon, in stark black and white, but still quite a good piece of animation. Here, Mickey is a mail pilot who is transporting a chest of money. During the journey, he plays the hero and does battles with bank robber Pete, who has a plane equipped with a machine gun and a harpoon cannon, and is after Mickey and the chest.

Mickey gets clever and in this story and fixes up his plane, after it takes a beating from Pete, and drags Pete along with the ride when his weapon misfires.

It's a pretty heroically nostalgic and sappy cartoon. It's a great one for kids, but that are more funnier ones out there.

Grade B

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey, THE MAIL PILOT, knows his precious cargo must get through - even when menaced by Pete in his bat-like plane.

This is a fine little black & white film, with lots of detail in the animation. Especially good opening shot of the busy airport - notice the hapless autogyro. 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.

While The Mail Pilot was not one of the Disney shorts that I grew up with, I do consider it now one of their finest from the 1932-3 era. The story may seem somewhat standard playing as a Mickey vs.Pete scenario, but it is never dull and what is done with it is done in a fresh way. The gags are just great, especially the one where Pete is being dragged through a church steeple. The inventive ways in which Mickey keeps the plane going is also a delight, as well as the subtle gag with the oil. As well as the comedic element, there is a romantic edge that is endearingly sweet, you can really tell that Mickey and Minnie are fond of each other. The animation is outstanding also, it is lovingly shaded, very dynamic and keeps the action in full focus. The music from the energetic title number, repeated throughout in varying ways, to the incidental music is delightful, catchy and beautifully orchestrated. Mickey is in his dashing, brave hero side, a side I've always loved to him, Minnie is likable and Pete is appropriately menacing. In conclusion, a wonderful short. 10/10 Bethany Cox