Mickey's Garden

"A Mickey Mouse Cartoon"

Release Date July 13, 1935

Running Time 8:48

Synopsis

The famous mouse battles house-size insects after inhaling too much bug spray.

Characters

Mickey Mouse

Pluto

Credits

Director : Wilfred Jackson

Animation : Art Babbitt

Videos

United States

Cartoon Classics (Second Series) : Volume 1 : Here's Mickey

Germany

Heir ist Mickey

Italy

Topolino Superstar

Winnie Puh a Tu per Tu

Laserdiscs

United States

Here's Mickey / Here's Pluto

Japan

Hello! Mickey

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

Region 1 : United States

Cartoon Classics Favorites: Starring Mickey

Television

Mickey's Mouse Tracks : Episode #4

Donald's Quack Attack : Episode #59

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Gallery

Mickey sprays the bugs
Sketches courtesy of The Wonderful World of Animation

Click on the thumbnail for the full-sized picture

Comments

From Jerry Edwards : I've always enjoyed this cartoon for the inventive animation - but really hate the "it was all a dream" cartoons - this time caused by the insecticide.

From Ryan : I had this short on a video at one time. I liked it, but didn't really understand the humor in it such as the scene where the bugs drink the insecticide and get drunk. I haven't seen this short for a few years and can hardly remember much of it.

From Rich : On a scale of 1-10, I think this short deserves a 9. The gags in this short are perfect especially on where the bugs swarm around a potato with eyes in it and gobble it up leaving loose blinking eyeballs rolling around in the dirt. I also found the parts where Pluto gets his head stuck in the pumpkin and in the belly of an ailing lighting bug all the more amusing. Though this cartoon seems to have a theme of drunkeness it sets a very good example of how the best gags can be written, especially in your own backyard!

From Baruch Weiss : I enjoyed this short. It's good for the young Disney fan because of the way the bugs act after they drink the stuff that Mickey made!

From Michelle I. : I've always liked this one a lot. Poor Mickey tries to save his garden from a horrible insect infestation, and in doing so hallucinates about giant bugs. Clever fun ensues as he and Pluto try to get away from them all. I personally like seeing Mickey's house be lifted by the enormous growing vegetation and the huge mushrooms that spring up around him.

From Fredrik J. : What a wonderful short. While the theme at it's core is technically horror, with Mickey and Pluto running from one deadly menace to another with no seeming escape in sight, all the hilarious gags featuring the insects make it very light-hearted and humorous. The setting could've working well as a Silly Symphony, as most of the gags in the short are provided by the bugs rather than the main characters, but Mickey and Pluto help bridge the scenes together in a great way. Top notch.

From Xia Shen : I remember having a tape with this on it as a child. I was always frightened of the bugs, though, haha. I know the tape had another two cartoons on it ... One about ice skating, and I can't remember the other one.

From Gabe Bennett : This is not one of my favorite Mickey Mouse shorts.

I always tend to think of Disney shorts as being lighthearted and funny (not counting the serious wartime entries like "Education For Death", of course), but, the overall horror of the situation depicted in this one has always sort of ruined it for me. In fact, when I was younger this short used to give me nightmares; especially the part where Pluto is howling in terror inside the giant lightning bug after being swallowed alive.

That part always made me think what an awful way to die that would be.

On a positive note, I'll admit it has it's moments and there are some pretty clever puns and gags like the winking potatoe eyes or the bugs getting drunk off of Mickey's homebrew bug poison (as in the old expression for choosing an alcoholic drink, "pick your poison"). Also, the part where Mickey's house is lifted-up by the giagantic vegetation and has vines growing out of every corner reminds me a lot of similar scenes in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of "Fun and Fancy Free", which would come out 12 years later in 1947.

Referenced Comments

Woodland Cafe (1937)

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