“It’s the battle of the century! Machine vs. Beast” according to a promotional poster on a wall in the Mickey Mouse short Mickey’s Mechanical Man, which came out fighting on this day in 1933. The “machine” is Mickey’s Mechanical Man, a robot built by the mouse himself. The beast is a fierce gorilla deemed The …
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The Three Little Pigs cartoon short may have been a Silly Symphony, but its success was anything but silly. It earned an Academy Award® for Best Cartoon in 1933. Animator Fred Moore, who was responsible for animating the pigs, was proud that the film achieved fully developed character personalities. The Three Little Pigs wallowed in …
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That daring pilot, Mickey Mouse, stars in The Mail Pilot, which was released on this day in 1933, telling the chilling tale of his journey to fly the mail across the land. Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet will keep the postmouse from his appointed rounds… and he encounters them all. But, the real challenge …
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Hear ye! Hear ye! ‘Twas on this day in ye olde year of 1933 that the Mickey Mouse cartoon short Ye Olden Days had cometh to movie theaters. The production lists “Ye Caste” as Ye Wandering Minstrel — Mickey Mouse, Ye Princess — Minnie Mouse and Ye Prince — Dippy Dawg (who later became known …
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The gag-laced Mickey’s Mellerdrammer, released on this day in 1933, is much more than an uproarious short showing Mickey and the gang putting on a doomed production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin with Horace Horsecollar as Simon Legree and Mickey as Uncle Tom. Stylistically, according to animation scholar Ron Barbagallo in his essay “A Blade of …
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Birds in the Spring, the 34th of 75 Silly Symphonies produced by the Disney Studio between 1929 and 1939, tells the charming story of a baby bird, Otto, who runs away from home, meets up with adversaries in the form of a rattlesnake and a hornet’s nest, only to be rescued by his father and …
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Mickey and Minnie rescue a litter of adorable kittens and take them home in Mickey’s Pal Pluto, the Mickey Mouse cartoon that found its way into theaters on this day in 1933. With some new pets to contend with, Pluto’s devil conscience tells him, “Go chase those kittens out of here or you’ll get thrown …
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No bones about it, skeletons, ghosts, haunted houses, and mad doctors make great fodder for animated cartoon shorts! Perhaps that’s why in 1929 Walt Disney chose The Skeleton Dance as his first Silly Symphony. Another spooky scenario was the basis of the Mickey Mouse cartoon short Mad Doctor, released on this day in 1933. Mickey’s …
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The Mickey Mouse cartoon short Building a Building was released on this day in 1933, featuring Mickey working at a construction site. He becomes smitten with Minnie Mouse, who is selling box lunches for the construction workers. That villainous Pegleg Pete kidnaps Minnie and roughs up Mickey, but in the end true love conquers all, …
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Throughout the decades, the cartoon short Mickey’s Good Deed, released in theaters on this day in 1932, has been a holiday mainstay on television and home video. In 1933, however, long before home videos or television, families could gather before the warmth of the fire to read the story of the holiday short when it …
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