Hawaiian Holiday

I downloaded this cartoon from archive.org, as it's apparently in the public domain--a rarity for old Disney cartoons. However, why I downloaded it was because it indicated that this one had been banned--presumably for offensive content. Now THAT had my curiosity piqued--especially since I've seen this cartoon playing at the Disney resorts on their closed circuit TV--so it can't exactly banned! In fact, after watching it I noticed two things--there was absolutely nothing offensive about it AND despite the site saying it was from 1941, the film actually came out in 1937. Now for 1937, this was a very good film--with typically exquisite animation and backgrounds (the best of any studio at the time) and a nice sense of fun. Watch this one and see Pluto deal with a nasty crab and Goofy try (very unsuccessfully) to surf at Mickey, Minnie and Donald frolic on the beach. Well worth seeing.

FOLLOWING THE BY then well established format of having Donald Duck and Goofy playing the stooges to Mickey's straight man, this musically energized short puts the trio through their usual type antics. This picture, however, has the additional element of having Minnie Mouse present and both singing and doing some rodent-type sexy Hula.

IN ONE SENSE this is a fine example of what has been called "a clothesline picture"; that being a short subject that has a threadbare sort of a minimally constituted plot (if one at all), but exists only to provide to present a series of unrelated gags. (Warner Brothers ROAD RUNNER & COYOTE Cartoons are q fine example of this type.)

AS WE HAVE already stated, the funny business is left to Donald, Goofy and Pluto. The situations generally pit the trio individually against the forces of nature, some local sea creatures and their own pride and ineptitude. The scene quickly shifts to one of the three, only to shift again and keep our attention.

FROM WHAT WE have read elsewhere, there was a lot of interest in the then territory of Hawaii. It was a time in which the typical American viewed the Islands as being our own very piece of paradise.

IRONICALLY, WITHIN THE coming four years, it would become the focus on a very different event, namely the attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941.

An amusing cartoon that points up the major flaw with Mickey: he's just not very interesting. He's talented, graceful and so forth, but too much in control of any situation and lacks anything like an amusing character. The Disney solution was to give him a strong supporting cast, including Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto -- with his girlfriend, Minnie, in a grass skirt, dancing the hula. But in the following couple of years, the three supporting characters would each be given his own series of starring shorts, and Mickey would find himself largely out of a job, eventually turned into a corporate icon.

In the meantime, take a look at this one.

There is not really a story to speak of in Hawaiian Holiday, but I did find it interesting to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto all in the same cartoon. And it is a great one. Hawaiian Holiday is vividly animated with the backgrounds well and truly luscious and the character designs all well drawn, even if Mickey's character design is not as rounded as it would be later. The music is energetic and sounds lovely throughout, while all the characters are engaging and the gags range from amusing to hilarious. Minnie doesn't have all that much to do, other than set the musical tone of Hawaiian Holiday, but she actually does that very well. Mickey is a likable character and has a good gag as a guitar player where his hands dance across the strings, but like Minnie he doesn't have much to do. Donald's main gag is very quick but is still one of Hawaiian Holiday's funniest moments, where the grass skirt he is wearing catches on fire. Pluto and Goofy are the ones actually who get a lion's share of the comedy. Pluto's cuteness and energy and his ability to resonate so much with the audience without saying a word is put to great use, and his encounters with the shellfish and the crab are very funny. If I were to say who was the funniest character of the five and who had the funniest moments, it would be Goofy on all counts. His attempts to surf are like a hilarious pre-view to what he would become chiefly famous for later, and it also shows what Goofy was best at, finding that something that is obvious to us is not so much for him. Overall, colourful fun with the Disney gang. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox

The title could be the synopsis, too: Mickey and his pals are on vacation in Hawaii. There is no plot, we simply see the characters engaged in activities appropriate for the islands. This being a cartoon, the fun also contains its quota of mishaps: Pluto has issues with a starfish and a crab, Donald lights his fanny on fire dancing a hula, and Goofy has a recurring headache trying to catch a wave on an uncooperative surf. Animation from this era often seems slower when compared to the breakneck pacing perfected by Bob Clampett and Tex Avery in the 1940s, but this time the unhurried gait fits the material perfectly. A Hawaiian vacation has to be mellow for us to appreciate the lush colors and meticulous backgrounds that occupy each frame. Noteworthy is the "split-screen" action above and below water level as Goofy searches for his surfboard (while under water, Goofy's animation is especially "fluid"). The real disappointment is Mickey himself. By 1937 he was already the "hole in the doughnut," and having Minnie carry him by hula-dancing to his slack-key guitar only draws attention to his lack of comic potential. What she ever saw in him is anyone's guess.