In the Mickey Mouse cartoon short The Pet Store, released on this day in 1933, Tony’s Shop is hiring, and Mickey gets the job and promptly gets to work. When Tony steps out, Minnie happens to visit. Meanwhile, the gorilla Beppo, “the movie monk,” is in his cage browsing a movie magazine and doing impressions …
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The 39th Silly Symphony, The Pied Piper, first lured audiences to the theater on this day in 1933. Based on the classic tale, the pied piper is hired to lure the rats from Hamelin by charming them away with his musical pipe. When the townspeople agree with the mayor that all he did was “pipe …
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Here’s a D23 trivia question: Which Disneyland attraction pays tribute to the Silly Symphony Lullaby Land (answer is below)? In the 1933 Silly Symphony Lullaby Land, a baby boy and his toy dog fall asleep “into Lullaby Land of nowhere, sleepyheads always go there. Sugar and spice and everything nice, can all be found in …
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“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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