Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in Building a Building

Building a Building is Released

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, including the villain. Interestingly, this storyline parallels the one in the 1928 Disney cartoon short featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Sky Scrappers, and contains many of the same gags. When Walt lost the rights to Oswald, he created Mickey, and Walter Lantz, who gained the rights to Oswald, produced 1933’s The Merry Old Soul, which was nominated for an Academy Award® competing against Building a Building. At the Oscars®, the Big Bad Wolf ended up blowing them both out of the water, and Disney’s Three Little Pigs took home the statue.