The Picnic

A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

Release Date : October 23, 1930

Running Time : 7:04

Synopsis

Mickey and Minnie go picnicking but make the mistake of bringing Pluto along. The hound chases rabbits and damages Mickey's car; meanwhile, animals ransack the picnic lunch and Mickey sings "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree."

Characters

Mickey Mouse

Minnie Mouse

Pluto

Credits

Director

Bert Gillett

Animation

Video

Italy

Video Parade 11

Video Parade 2

Laserdiscs

Japan

Celebrate with Mickey

DVD

United States

Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 2

Germany

Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 2

Television

The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 37: Mickey's Pal Pluto

Mickey's Mouse Tracks: Episode 55

The Mickey Mouse Club : March 1, 1956

The Mickey Mouse Club : December 31, 1956

Technical Specification

Color Type: Black & White

Animation Type: Standard animation

Sound Mix: Mono : Cinephone

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Negative Format: 35mm

Print Format: 35mm

Cinematographic Process: Spherical

Original Language: English

Released by Columbia Pictures, Inc.

Comments

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Mickey Mouse’s cartoons have definitely returned to the standards set in the Oswalds, if The Picnic is any evidence. Much like the short I reviewed yesterday, The Gorilla Mystery, this short relies on story and gags to carry it along, with dancing and musical sequences merely complimenting the main plot.

This short also features the return of Pluto, although here he is Minnie’s dog, not Mickey’s. The design of Pluto varies quite wildly, as he appears one way in his dog house, another while chasing rabbits, yet another when being rained on and then in his original form from The Chain Gang. It appears as though the Norm Ferguson animation of Pluto from that short was reused here, although I can’t be certain.

The story of this short is simple – Mickey and Minnie take to the country for a picnic. But there are some great stops along the way that make the short memorable. For example, as the short opens, Mickey is driving his car to Minnie’s house to pick her up. Along the way, he is whistling “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo,” his theme song, and has various horns as well as the car itself join in.

Pluto, though, is the breakout star of the short. He gets picked up with Minnie, and tied to the car in a very Chevy Chase way. Along the road to the picnic site, though, Pluto sees some rabbits doing a dance, and starts chasing them, dragging the car along with him. It’s a nice starring turn for Mickey’s pet.

The other fun part of this short is the sequence where the animals steal all of the food. While Mickey plays a tune on a record player and dances with Minnie, the animals of the woods move in to steal his feast. It’s very well done, as we get wide shots of the massive amounts of animals moving in, tight grabs of bugs filling up on honey or cake, and individual shots of squirrels or other animals making off with nuts and meats.

It is interesting here to note Mickey starting to take a turn towards a background character with more of a role for his supporting cast. As we know, when we get into the color films, Donald and Goofy take a big role in carrying some of the Mickey shorts, and Pluto would eventually eclipse his owner in the cartoon realm. This may be the start of that trend.

Other than that, there’s not much to say about The Picnic. It’s definitely a solid cartoon, with good gags and a good story. There was some discussion in the comments from yesterday’s review of The Gorilla Mystery as to whether Ub’s departure “helped” the studio move towards this story-based mode. I think that has to be the case. Without the master of the “silly dancing” sequences, it seems Disney was playing to his artists’ strengths by going with less music and motion based shorts and more with solid gags and story. To me, that’s part of the Disney legend, is how he took people and worked with their strengths. This was very much the case with the building of Disneyland, but that’s a story for another day.

From Mac : I suspect that after seeing potential in the animation of the blood hounds in The Chain Gang, Walt wanted a cartoon to showcase the dog as a proper character in the Mickey Mouse series. So here we have The Picnic with Minnie's "little Rover" being instantly recognisable as Pluto.

There's still a fun insistence on musical action in this cartoon. From the start, Mickey's whistling his theme tune and his meeting with Minnie is a musical one as they both sing and bounce up and down as they greet. I think a lot of people would be much happier if they continually carried an upbeat tune in their head to live and work to!

There's some funny stuff with the animals stealing the picnic (a theme Disney will revisit). At times it seems like a load of Silly Symphony characters have gate-crashed Mickey's cartoon what with all those insects plus the squirrels who look like the ones from Autumn (although a more realistic size).

From Jerry Edwards : Mickey and Minnie have a troubled picnic, with Minnie's dog Rover (Pluto) as the biggest nuisance. But Rover later proves his worth during a thunderstorm by using his tail as a windshield wiper. The dog is obviously Pluto, but he's Minnie's dog Rover in this cartoon. Even more confusing is that "Rover" keeps changing appearance. At the start, he looks like the early Pluto. Then a scene of one of the bloodhounds from The Chain Gang is recycled into the middle of the cartoon - a rather jarring change in appearance. At the end, Rover's appearance changes yet again - looking much like the comic strip Peanuts' Snoopy, pretending to be a vulture. So it appears that Rover was animated "by committee" in this short, with no attempt made to keep his appearance consistent.

From Ryan : It's Pluto's first role as one of the regular Disney characters. Except that his name isn't Pluto, it's Rover. He also is not Mickey's dog, he's Minnie's dog. Pluto somewhat has a stupid personality in this short. Minnie and Mickey plan on having a nice and peaceful picnic except that when their busy dancing to "In the Good Old Summertime" (which is also used in the later Mickey short The Nifty Nineties), some animals are getting into their food. To make matters worse, it begins to rain. Mickey has a convertible, but there is no top on it. What kind of idiot made this car and forgot to put a topper for situations like this? Pluto becomes useful when he uses his tail as a windshield wiper. This short is definitely worth watching.

From Bill : I really enjoyed this short for several reasons. First, I liked it when Mickey is singing "Minnie's Yoo Hoo" in the beginning. I also liked the scene when Minnie wants to bring her dog Rover on the picnic, and when she's not looking Mickey twirls his fingers around his head indicating he thinks she's crazy. As they go to the picnic, tow Oswald-looking rabbits entice Rover to drag Mickey's car backwards, chasing them. The best sight gag was when one of the rabbits pulled the rabbit hole away from Rover and he hit solid ground! The scenes with the animals and insects taking the picnic food was well done. And of course, Mickey and Minnie dancing to "The Good Old Summertime" was standard for the early Mickey shorts I rate this one an 8.