Moose Hunters

A Mickey Mouse Cartoon

Release Date : February 20, 1937

Running Time : 8:36

Synopsis

Mickey, Donald and Goofy head out into the woods. While Mickey lures one moose using a bush disguise, the others lure another with a female moose decoy. When the two target moose meet and decide to take each other on, our heroes are all in trouble.

Characters

Mickey Mouse
Goofy
Donald Duck

Credits

Director
Ben Sharpsteen
Animation
Jack Kinney
Norm Ferguson
Art Babbitt
Frenchy de Tremaudan
Gerry "Clyde" Geronomi

Video

United States
Mickey and the Gang
Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Cartoon Collections Volume 3
Germany
Pluto auf der Jagd
Italy
Video Parade 17
Sono Io ... Pippo
Winny Puh a Tu Per Tu
Cartoon Festival 3
Cartoons Disney 3

CED

United States
Disney Cartoon Parade Volume 5

Laserdiscs

Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Cartoon Collections Volume 3
Mickey and the Gang / Nuts About Chip 'n' Dale

DVD

A Goofy Movie
Walt Disney's Funny Factory with Mickey
Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color (Volume 1)
Germany
Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color (Volume 1)
France
Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color (Volume 1)
Italy
Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color (Volume 1)
Canada
Walt Disney's Funny Factory with Mickey
Sweden
Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color (Volume 1)
United Kingdom
Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color (Volume 1)

Television

The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 26: Classic Donald
Donald's Quack Attack: Episode 61
Walt Disney Presents: The Goofy Success Story

Technical Specification

Color Type: Technicolor
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 United Artists Pictures

Comments

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : The 1937 goodness continues today with another trio short, and another classic – Moose Hunters. What’s it about? Well, Mickey, Goofy and Donald go hunting moose. What did you think it was about?

But to say that’s all, is not treating this short properly. It has some great gags and fantastic usage of the side characters. Goofy, Donald and Mickey do not get to shine as much as they do in other trio shorts, but they are portrayed “realistically” here, even though they are doing absurd things.

Someone (Joss Whedon, maybe?) once said that it is okay to have characters doing absurd and unrealistic things if you have the rules of those things established and the characters stick to those rules. That’s what is emerging to me in Moose Hunters and the Disney oeuvre that was not present in earlier shorts.

In Moose Hunters, we have the three hunting moose, with Goofy and Donald dressed up in a moose costume, while Mickey pretends to be a tree/bush, with foliage around him as he walks forward on stilts. Again, it’s ridiculous, but the way things follow in the short, they are consistent.

Goofy and Donald strike off to woo a moose with their female moose costume, while Mickey gets tangled up with another moose. When his shotgun breaks, you expect that he will be exposed. He is, eventually, and there’s no means of escape. This is where you see the divergence in Mickey’s character from the 20s and early 30s. The old Mickey would have conjured up a way to walk across musical notes or swing from his word balloon.

That’s not the way things work anymore. Partially, that is sad, because the whimsy and spontaneous nature of the early shorts was a good thing. But as the Disney studio moves into storytelling with the features, you can see that reflected in the shorts as well.

Similarly, Goofy and Donald’s interaction with the moose is done well, with good gags that fall within the realm of believability. I particularly loved when the moose costume flies off and they are forced to do the old fashioned fan dance while wearing the moose head. It’s a fun nod to burlesque in a family friendly short.

The ending of the short features the two moose coming together to fight over the Goofy/Donald moose, then finding out that they have been had. Seeing them fight and shake the scenery is a great piece of animation. You don’t expect backgrounds to move, but they do here, and it’s very good.

Seeing Mickey, Donald and Goofy fleeing like crazy is amusing as well, especially watching them paddle like crazy away from the moose. It seems that these three never get what they’re after when they work together. Moose Hunters brings them together again and to hilarious results, and it’s another favorite of mine.

From Tom Wilkins : Just by the first scene alone, I believe that the cartoon background was from Minnesota; after all, this is the land of 10,000 lakes, or so we think. As this cartoon begins, we already know that Donald and Goofy have teamed together to dress like a moose and Mickey is not too far behind, camouflaged as shrubs, and all underwater! After giving a few moose calls, they receive a response. The three decide to move closer to where the response call was coming from after giving a few moose calls.

Later, Mickey gives a moose call and gets scared out of his wits because he was standing over shrubs where a real moose was hiding! Scared stiff, Mickey lets out a gunshot in panic. Realizing Mickey was walking in stilts, the moose then decides to eat away at Mickey's costumed shrubbery, including his trademark red pants that he normally wears! Of course Mickey took those back.

Meanwhile, Goofy and Donald find the moose that was responding to their calls. Donald was jubilant seeing the moose eat leaves off a cluster of branches that he decides to make the costumed moose a lot more attractive. Put some lipstick on, add some "deer kiss" perfume (oh dear), and then spray a trail of that perfume over to the moose and let the wind do the rest. Obviously, the perfume induces the moose to be led over to Donald and Goofy. The costumed moose lets out a "yoo hoo", and the real moose gave such a howling response that it blew the costume off of Donald and Goofy! Fortunately, they were behind a little tree so the real moose did not notice.

Donald and Goofy tease the moose some more by covering up with much larger shrubs. Once behind a rock, they put the costume back on and then dance with the real moose, cheek to cheek. Unfortunately, Donald, not realizing where he is, drops off a cliff and was hanging on only to the back of the costume. Once Donald realized where he was, he bounced back on land with his fanny striking some flowers. As you would have guessed, a bee comes out to bother him. Eventually, it gets Donald in the rear, and the costumed moose proceeds to shake like the maracas to the tune "La Cucaracha." The real moose wants a kiss, and once Donald gets out from under the back of the costume, he tries to smash the bee, but all he did was make Goofy jump and kiss the moose. Ecstatic, the real moose does cartwheels and follows Donald and Goofy around.

We can't forget about Mickey's dilemma as the other moose is eating away at his shrubbery. This moose finishes it off and sees Mickey on stilts. Needless to say, that moose was not happy, but ironically, Donald and Goofy let a "yoo-hoo" out (hey, that's Minnie's job!) and this moose also gets led on to the costume. The costumed moose backs into the moose that was bothering Mickey, so it could not move, and the moose begins to lick away at the costume's face! Donald wants to move and says to get going, but he literally freezes when he sees that he was under the second moose.

Needless to say, a round of jealousy ensues between the two real mooseheads. As they are about to ram heads, Donald and Goofy reach shelter by running up a tree and hang on for dear life to a long branch. As the two moose butt heads, each blow becomes more fierce...and the jolts eventually knock Donald and Goofy, along with the costume, down to the ground, ironically landing between the two animals with the costume off. At this point, both Donald and Goofy cry out, "April Fool."

The two moose, enraged a moment ago, were not having that at all. Donald and Goofy barely escape them, proceed to knock Mickey off his stilts, and all three ran to a nearby canoe. As they try to get away by paddling in the lake as fast as they could, the two moose pull together by yanking the covering off the canoe, but could not slow down the three of them going 90 miles an hour, with Donald at the helm of the canoe instead of the rear of the moose.

There could have been a better conclusion to the cartoon...even a funny line would have been suffice. Maybe the three of them are still paddling, but by now they probably dug themselves a canal to Lake Michigan.

From Samuel E. Lago : This is a good film featuring Mickey, Donald and Goofy as a comedy trio (one of many like Lonesome Ghosts, The Whalers, Boat Builders, etc.) but it is not as good as the others since Mickey is in it only for about one and a half minutes! All of the film really centers around Donald and Goofy even though it says it stars Mickey.
From Ryan : Here's another short that features the classic trio. This time they're out hunting moose. It was pretty funny when Donald and Goofy were disguised as a female moose with makeup and the whole works. After another male moose comes and the two bull moose get into a fight over the lady "moose," they find out that it's not really a moose, but two hunters and they chase after the two of them. Donald and Goofy catch up with Mickey and paddle like hell across the lake in a canoe. Although this short had Mickey's face on the opening of it, it was actually more about Donald and Goofy. Mickey was just shown hiding in some bushes making moose calls by blowing a horn.
From Benke Cloudberry : I have three favorites - the other two are The Band Concert and Lonesome Ghosts. I can see that others agree on those two but are more reserved to this. What I like about Moose Hunters is it´s increasing thrill, from the majestic arrival of the costumed Moose (Donald and Goof) - rising from the lake blowing a horn followed by a lot of funny gags until the great bullfight in the end. The preparations for the fight is great - one moose is sharpening his horns against a rock - the other spits in and twist his shoveled horns. And the fight itself leaves nothing more to wish for. In between we can see the faked moose put lipstick on, spray a trail of perfume and let the wind do the rest to trap the bull moose. Great Cartoon!
From Baruch Weiss : I liked this short for it's music. I wonder who did it?
From Ross : I have two versions of this cartoon. I have it on Mickey Mouse In Living Color, and on the out of print video, Mickey and The Gang. But anyway, about the cartoon it is wonderful, colorful, sensational and most of all, funny! I just love Moose Hunters I never get tired of it! This is the most sensational, best, awesome Disney cartoon ever! Mickey, Donald and Goofy are funny times ten in this cartoon. Goofy and Donald's girl moose disguise was the highlight of this cartoon, and those two moose were funny when they fell in love with the moose disguise, although it did get a little scary when the two mooses starting fighting violently. And finally at the end, there was nothing for Mickey, Donald and Goofy to do but run and scream times infinity. They jumped in a canoe and paddled like crazy as the cartoon ended. I bet when people first saw this cartoon back in 1937, they were screaming with laughter!
From Katelyn : Even though I don't believe that hunting is nice for nature, I found this short to be very funny. Donald and Goofy's moose disguise was the cutest thing, and hearing the moose neigh like horses was hilarious. I give it an 8.
From Casey : Donald and Goofy are crazy in this cartoon! Donald and Goofy should have starred in this cartoon because Mickey doesn't really do anything, but I still like this cartoon.
From Mike : Despite some of the comments I've read I always thought Moose Hunters was a funny cartoon. I laughed at the scene when the moose blows off Donald & Goofy's costume. The moose fight at the end was pretty good.

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