Screen Shots
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Title Cards
"A Mickey Mouse Cartoon"
Synopsis
- A house fire is raging and Mickey, Donald, and Goofy attempt to put it out with the usual disastrous results.
Characters
Credits
- Director : Ben Sharpsteen
- Animation
- Paul Allen
- Grim Natwick
- Fred Spencer
- Bill Tytla
- Cy Young
- Milt Kahl (in-betweener)
Videos
- United States
- Cartoon Classics : First Series : Volume 10 : Mickey's Crazy Careers
- Cartoon Classics : Second Series : Special Edition : Fun on the Job
- Italy
Laserdiscs
- United States
- Japan
DVD
- Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Living Color
- Region 1 : United States
- Region 2 : France
- Region 2 : Germany
- Region 2 : Italy
- Region 2 : Sweden
- Region 2 : United Kingdom
Television
- The Ink and Paint Club : #59 : Clarabelle and Horace
Technical Specifications
- Color Type Technicolor
- Animation type Standard
- 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
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From Jerry Edwards : This remake of the 1930 "The Fire Fighters" is very nicely animated - especially the flames. It is full of action and gags - a fun early color Mickey and the Gang short.
From Ryan : This is definitely one of my favorite shorts. I loved the part where Goofy looks into the bathroom door and tries to warn Clarabelle of the fire. Clarabelle thinks Goofy is some sort of sick and perverted man and begins screaming. Well they get her out all right, but that still doesn't help any. Clarabelle continues to hit Donald who has fallen into the bathtub. Another funny part was where Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are pulling on the sink and a bunch of items(toothbrush, earrings, toothpicks, etc.) fall out. This is definitely a short that every Disney fan should have in their collection.
From Bill : Great gags and the animation is top notch. Just goes to show that when Mickey, Goofy and Donald get together you will always get a winning cartoon. One of the best!
From Ross : This is the greatest cartoon Disney had ever made. It's wacky, crazy, and Mickey, Donald and Goofy are as funny and classic as ever! The gags are insanely sily, and the scenes of the flames heckling Mickey, Donald and Goofy are hilarious! Of all the comedies in Hollywood's golden years, fire-fighter comedies were the best. Disney had done it with 1930's "The Fire Fighters" then with this cartoon, and then later with Donald and his nephews in "Fire Chief." Also, there were many cartoon and comedy studios in Hollywood that made many funny firefighter comedies, whether live-action comedies or animated cartoons. They did it with Popeye in Fleischer's "The Two Alarm Fire" and Famous Studios "Fireman's Brawl," and also at Warner Bros. when they made "Porky The Fireman." Many live-action comedy studios did the same thing. With the Little Rascals in "Hook & Ladder," and at Columbia with the Three Stooges, Larry, Moe, and Curly in "False Alarms," and "Flat Foot Stooges." If you want a good laugh, watch "Mickey's Fire Brigade." It's so classic and funny, I think it's the most absolute greatest cartoon Disney ever made.
From Katelyn : I saw this short at my hotel in Disney World. Oh, man... I could not stop laughing. I loved it when Clarabelle started freaking out when she saw Mickey, Donald and Goofy poke their heads into the bathroom. And she's not even aware that her house is on fire! That's a fine "la-de-da" moment! Seeing her hitting them on the head with her scrubbrush made me feel a little sorry for the trio though. I give this one a 9.
From Baruch Weiss : I am curently watching this cartoon as I'm writing this review. My favorite parts are when Goofy's hat falls off then he successfully catches up with the rest of the gang. Also what's worth a few good laughs is when Mickey takes Goofy's leg and twists it on the fire hydrant and when Goofy throws a table out of the house and the table comes flying back in and Goofy takes a coffee break with doughnuts. They sure weren't from Dunkin Donuts!
From Gijs Grob : "Mickey's Fire Brigade" is the second of the classic trio cartoons and the first one in colour. When one compares this cartoon to the similar "The Fire Fighters" from 1930 one can see what stunning progress the Disney studio had made in a mere five years: the decors, the camera angles, the character animation, the effect animation: everything is improved considerably. What's more, its gags are faster, more clever and better build up to a wonderful finale. Among the numerous brilliant ideas are a burning title card, water splashing against "the camera" and a bathing Clarabella Cow who is not amused when saved by our heroes. This cartoon is both Goofy's first colour appearance as the last time he's seen in the design he got in "The Whoopee Party" about three years before.
Like all the Fab Three shorts that I know of, the set up is fairly easy: Mickey’s team has a job to do and they split up to do it, before coming back together at the end. Here, it’s fighting a fire. This brings into play some of my favorite secondary characters – the firelings we’ve seen in previous shorts, especially Silly Symphonies.
Of course, the entirety of the short is a gag fest, from the very start with Mickey trying to attach Goofy’s leg to the hydrant rather than the hose, all the way to the end where Clarabelle gets carried out of the house in a bathtub. But that is what these characters were made to do, so it works beautifully.
My favorite of the three is Goofy, who gets pummeled by a fist made of smoke, and tries to save the furniture and items from the house by throwing them out the window, only to have a table circle back and land right in front of him, including tablecloth, dishes and coffee!
Donald, meanwhile, has his hands full with the firelings. It’s easy to see what the animators loved about Donald, as his expressiveness and frustration are inherently funny. When he’s chasing the fire around the room with an ax, you just know something bad is going to happen, and the anticipation builds for that. When the fire finally gets back to him, it’s a laugh out loud moment.
Mickey does not get a lot of standout moments in this short. He gets into a jam with the fire hose, shooting himself up in the air and getting caught at the top of a ladder. Again, Mickey is not the focus here, with most of the gags coming from Goofy and Donald. That trend continues as we move further along.
This is not close to the best of the “Fab Three” shorts. Later shorts like Clock Cleaners or Lonesome Ghosts are much improved. To my mind, Mickey’s Fire Brigade falls short of the standard of Mickey’s Service Station. But, it still has laugh out loud moments and good gags with Donald and Goofy. That makes it worth watching.
From Mac : I really like this one. Right from the title card, which gets burned away by cartoon itself, this short is non-stop action, gags and firelings galore. All of the characters have things to do. I'd always like to see more Mickey, but I get a laugh from him heroically hosing down the flames before they slam the window on him – the jet of water instantly sending him flying.
Goofy gets a lot of laughs from me in this one too, but I do think his character was better portrayed in "Service Station". However, I think it's Clarabelle who steals the show in this one. She positively delights in her hysteria and continually clobbers her heroes. I love it when she first screams "kidnappers!" and quickly points at each fireman to show who she's referring too!