Three Blind Mouseketeers

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

The THREE BLIND MOUSEKETEERS set about getting their cheesy meal, despite the best efforts of villainous Captain Katt to destroy them.

An enjoyable, though unremarkable, spoof of swashbuckling movies. Disney would revive the term `Mouseketeer' two decades later for use in the Mickey Mouse Club TV show. Katt seems to owe a lot to the personality of character actor Noah Beery; and is that Walt vocalizing the skinny mouse?

The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.

If you've seen any random Tom and Jerry short then you've already seen everything that Three Blind Mouseketeers has to offer. The titular trio invade cabin or pantry of sorts patrolled by Captain Katt (who looks a lot like a beagle boy) that has laid a series of traps for said mice to blindly (pun intended) walk into. However chance is on their side and they bumble harmlessly through the room, much to the irritation of the cat.

Forgettable mayhem ensues, which inevitably leads to Katt stumbling through his own traps and hurting himself. Once this cartoon is over I doubt you'll ever think about it again.

Not really much to spoil. Old school Disney short revolving around three blind Mouseketeers, who walk into Captain Cat's many booby traps, but somehow come out on top, and outsmart that wily fat cat. For 1936, it's as much fun as a short can be, and it certainly entertains! The animation is great for its time, and I wouldn't have picked it for being in the 30s. More like the 40s, or at least, that was my initial impression. Enjoyable! There is not much more I can say about this short animated piece, other than I watched it via 'The Rescuers' DVD, so if you are interested in old school Disney shorts, it's worth a look.

***1/2 out of *****

True it is predictable, but this is so entertaining that I don't care. The music is terrific, the characters are at least likable- although Captain Katt is evil, there are times when you do feel sorry for him. The silly symphony is beautifully drawn, with excellent character animation and nice backgrounds. There are some truly hilarious bits, my favourite bit has always been the one when Captain Katt is looking for the mousketeers under the three bowls. Considering when it was made, this is an enormously entertaining and beautifully done silly symphony. It is not the best one out there, but it is well worth watching for entertainment value.

All for one, and one for all! 10/10 Bethany Cox

"Three Blind Mouseketeers" comes across as a possible inspiration for the Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote cartoons, as the cat sets traps for the mice, who avoid them without realizing that they're in danger. Since I always preferred the Looney Tunes to any of the Disney stuff, I have to go with Wile E. Nonetheless, I did like that end sequence. In the end, the best version of "The Three Musketeers" is the 1973 and 1974 back-to-back movies directed by Richard Lester (they were planned for a few years earlier and Lester was planning to cast the Beatles, but that fell through and he assembled a different cast).

Anyway, this one's OK as entertainment. A piece of trivia is that Pinto Colvig, who did one of the voices, is best known as Goofy's voice.