Poster

Mickey Cuts Up

A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

Release Date : November 30, 1931

Running Time : 7:10

Synopsis

Mickey helps Minnie with her yard work. Eventually a lawnmower runs berserk as Pluto pulls it chaotically around the garden.

Characters

Mickey Mouse

Minnie Mouse

Pluto

Credits

Director

Bert Gillett

Animation

Johnny Cannon

Les Clark

Norm Ferguson

Gerry "Clyde" Geronomi

Laserdiscs

United States

Mickey Mouse in Black and White: Volume 1

Japan

Mickey's Family Album

Mickey Mouse : The Black and White Years

DVD

United States

Mickey Mouse in Black and White

Germany

Mickey Mouse in Black and White

Television

The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 28: Early Mickey

Mickey's Mouse Tracks: Episode 30

The Mickey Mouse Club : December 10, 1956

Original Animator's Drafts

Technical Specification

Color Type: Black & White

Animation Type: Standard animation

Sound Mix: Mono

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 : I wrote yesterday about the “magic” that you feel when watching a good piece of Disney entertainment. But there’s something else that tends to fill your heart when watching Mickey and his pals, and that’s fun. In Mickey Cuts Up, Mickey manages to make yardwork fun, and that’s no small task.

Notice that I talk about Mickey as though he were a real person. That’s a credit to the animators and the work that has happened on the character since his debut in Steamboat Willie to this point. In this short, I noticed how little I was concerned with choices that the animators made (why make him do this?) and focused more on what Mickey was doing. He really is alive, and has become a character that lives apart from the drawing board.

Mickey has a lot of fun here, using Pluto to drag along the lawnmower and dancing along on the back. Let me say that as someone who hates to cut the grass, I found this sequence very charming. Even though I hate cutting grass, there’s some sense of satisfaction of a job well done and the smell of a fresh cut lawn when you’re done. Watching Mickey go through this really gave him more appeal to me.

Of course, Mickey can’t help but get into some mischief, and when he sees a bird sharing a song with Minnie, he climbs into a birdhouse to get in on the action. The animation of Mickey sticking his hand out of the birdhouse to imitate a bird is very well done. The interplay between he and Minnie made me smile, as did the inevitable cat that chases Mickey off the pole of the birdhouse and into a pond.

The splash into the pond starts off another great sequence, where Mickey acts like a turtle with the birdhouse on his back. It’s a simple idea, but it’s the playfulness of his actions that make you love him even more. He dances and sings like he has done so many times before, and with such a childlike innocence that the viewer falls in love.

I’d have to say though, that the dance sequence that follows the turtle scene is the weak point of the short. It’s nothing new, and doesn’t add anything to the short. It’s just Minnie and Mickey dancing and playing harmonica.

The fun ends when the cat that chased Mickey out of the birdhouse attacks Pluto, who is still chained to the lawnmower. The chase that ensues all around the yard is hilarious, with multiple instances of the lawnmower upending Mickey and Minnie, with Minnie landing on a bucket or a hose and spraying Mickey with water.

The climax is the patented chaos and destruction that is becoming a pattern with Pluto and Mickey. Pluto knocks over a set of dishes and emerges from the wreckage covered in dishes, pots and even a tea kettle. It’s the same thing we’ve seen before, but it’s still fun, just like everything else in this short.

From Mac : This one's got a lot of stuff which is typical for Mickey in this era (moving to the music, playing and flirting with Minnie etc.), but it's still a lot of fun, as you say. The chase sequence contains a whole load of funny stuff. My favorite gags include the poor owl who cries when he loses half his feathers to the mower and those fish who get cut into skeletons. It's a pretty sick gag when you stop and think about it, but I admit I'm even more sick for imagining our happy mouse starring in a slasher flick whenever I hear the title Mickey Cuts Up!

BTW the cat in this cartoon has certainly become a recurring character throughout 1931, but I think we'll find that she'll soon fade into obscurity. I wonder if the Disney staff ever gave her a name?

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Good question about the cat. I have to imagine they named her, even if we never saw the name in a short.

I think the quality of the shorts is getting better and better, even though they are somewhat formulaic. Just my opinion.

From David Gerstein at Ramapith : I've only found a name for the cat in one spot: the 1931 book "Mickey Mouse Illustrated Movie Stories", in which the name Tabby is given. The book also describes her as male, though—evidently the author wasn't aware of The Barnyard Broadcast. Interestingly, in the comics Donald also has a cat named Tabby, though he's a very different-looking cat (definite tomcat, similar in design to Sergeant Tibbs).

From Jerry Edwards : Mickey mows his yard with Pluto pulling the mower. Pluto causes widespread destruction with the mower attached to him when he chases a cat. Although too much of the cartoon is the all-too-typical Mickey and Minnie song and dance routine, the scenes of Pluto chasing the cat are fun. One fun gag for me is when the mower plows through a "cement pond," the water falls back into the pond, and stays in the pond - even though part of the pond's cement wall is now missing.

From Ryan : This was really not one of my favorite shorts, but it wasn't that bad. I liked the scene where Mickey mowing his lawn and Pluto is pulling the' mower. It had some references to previous shorts such as Mickey Steps Out where Pluto chases a cat (in fact the cat looked very similar to the one in that short). Mickey is seen using one of those push mowers that doesn't run on gasoline but instead is run by "human" power. I've got a hard enough job mowing my huge lawn with a push mower that runs on gas, much less I have one like Mickey does.

From Bill : This was not one of Mickey's most exciting or gag filled short, but fun anyway. I like the way Mickey and Pluto just get along, even mowing the lawn. Standard storyline, but I like it when there is more action with Mickey, or when he's saving Minnie.

From Gijs Grob : Mickey Cuts Up can be summarized as Mickey Steps Out set in a garden: the first part of the cartoon consists of a quite tiring sing-and-dance-routine (with Mickey dancing as a turtle as a minor highlight). Only after five minutes, the second part starts. This hilarious sequence is devoted to Pluto chasing a cat and causing havoc. Suddenly the gags come fast and plenty. There's even an early running gag in which Mickey is getting wet in various ways.

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Referenced Comments

Mickey Steps Out