Brave Little Tailor

This short, nominated for an Oscar for 1938, is the best color Mickey Mouse short, certainly and maybe the best short ever starring this most illustrious of rodents. Because of a misapprehension of a simple declarative sentence, our stalwart sets out on a course to become a somewhat reluctant hero. Well-executed and with Disney's usual attention to detail, this is an excellent cartoon, but it had the great misfortune to come out in the same year as an equally marvelous cartoon (also made by Disney) and so did not bring home the statuette for Walt. Most recommended.

Mickey Mouse is a tailor in a fairy tale town that has been ravaged by a giant. One day he kills seven flies, all at once. His bragging is mistaken for a claim to have killed seven giants with one blow. He is charged with the task of killing the aforementioned ogre. He is promised great wealth and the princess (Minnie) if he can do the job. He struggles to avoid the task but is soon out there in no man's land. Of course, the giant appears and it is his job to use his skills to accomplish things. The town is wonderfully colorful and the animation excellent. It never ceases to amaze me how brilliant the animation is in something produced in 1938. Very good job.

First - for the seductive crafte, the care for details being one of the best points. Second - for atmosphere and humor. Not the last - for a great, great giant. So, just lovely.

The next short in the Disney Plus 'Shorts' section was "The Brave Tailor", a Mickey Mouse effort from 1938, that is a loose retelling of the Brothers Grimm Fairy tale.

A Kingdom has been terrorised by a giant (Eddie Holden) and requires a brave knight to eliminate him. Mickey Mouse (Walt Disney) kills seven flies in one go in his workshop and opens his window to brag about it, the villagers he speaks to are already talking about killing the giant and when Mickey says he "killed seven with one blow" a misunderstanding sees him hired as a giant killer. Though naturally reluctant, he's offered the hand of Princess Minnie (Marcellite Garner) as a reward and decides to give it a go.

This is one of the absolute undisputed classics and it brought back vivid memories from my childhood seeing it again. The animation style is already iconic, even this early on with the character designs spot on. The audio mix is less successful, with some decisions, such as the realistic rather than stylised performances from the crowd sounding jarringly odd. If you wanted to be hyper critical about the story, it doesn't actually add up to very much once the quest has started.

Those are quibbles really, in a cartoon that is an undisputed classic and well worth the nostalgic occasion.

This is one of the best (and well-known) Mickey cartoons of all time. And it's also another cartoon where Mickey goes against a giant, like in the 1933 short "Giantland" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk" for the 1947 film "Fun and Fancy Free." Also, this cartoon is one of my favourites. The short is inspired by the Grimm Brothers' story, with Mickey as the tailor who boasts of killing seven flies "with one blow!" Of course, everyone mistook the flies for seven giants, and they thought Mickey was a giant killer. The short film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, but "Ferdinand the Bull" ultimately won the award.

I love the main title theme music. Also, I love the scene where everyone spreads the story of Mickey killing seven giants. The rumours eventually reach the monarch and his daughter, Princess Minnie.