Release Date October 15, 1937

Alternate Titles

Die Uhrenreiniger - Germany

Les nettoyeurs de pendule - France

Klockrent - Sweden

Running Time 8:29

Synopsis

Mickey, Donald and Goofy attempt to clean a tower clock; gears, springs and all. The gears and springs have different ideas, as does a nesting stork.

Characters

Mickey Mouse

Donald Duck

Goofy

Stork (unnamed)

Credits

Director : Ben Sharpsteen

Animation

Bill Roberts

Al Eugster

Cut Scenes

Mickey's fight with the stork was censored in the 80's.

Videos

United States

Cartoon Classics : First Series : Volume 10 : Mickey's Crazy Careers

Cartoon Classics : Second Series : Special Edition : Fun on the Job

Germany

Bum, Bum, Bumerang

France

Captain Mickey

Disney Parade 2

Italy

Cartoons Disney 1

Topolino e Soci

Laserdiscs

United States

The Goofy World of Sports / Happy Summer Days / Fun on the Job

Japan

Mickey Mouse : A Star is Born

Mickey's Family Album

Disney Cartoon Festival 2

Mickey's Golden Jubilee

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

The Great Mouse Detective

Region 1 : United States

Region 2 : France

Region 2 : Germany

Region 2 : Italy

Region 2 : Sweden

Region 2 : United Kingdom

Region 1 : United States

Disney's Funny Factory with Goofy

Region 2 : United Kingdom

Everybody Loves Mickey

Region 2 : France

Tout le Monde aime Mickey

Region 2 : Germany

Alle Lieben Mickey

Region 2 : Sweden

Alla Alskar Musse

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #22 : Classic Mickey

Mickey's Mouse Tracks : Episode #77

Donald's Quack Attack : Episode #60

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.

Comments

This is the short that almost got Donald Duck banned from Wal-Mart. The Rev. Donald Wildmon of the American family association swore that he though he heard Donald Duck, in one of his may indecipherable tirades, quack a certain four letter word. He then succeeded in getting Wal-Mart to return the "Fun on the Job" videos to Disney and refuse to sell them. In reality, Donald is just saying "Sez you!"

From Terrence : This short is one of the best from the 30's...the theme is always in your head as Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are together in this classic short. Love it! (It's 9 because the stork thing is a bit long!)

From Jerry Edwards : One of my favorite Mickey/Donald/Goofy shorts. The gags are fun, although each gag runs on a bit long at times. I love the use of perspective when Goofy is close to falling - I get dizzy just from how well they display the heights. Very nice animation and special effects.

From Lee Suggs : This is a wonderful short for two reasons. First it has the best backgrounds in any Disney short subject. The use of perspective and detail here is amazing. (Next time you see the short read the signs behind Donald when he first jumps on the mainspring.) Second is the use of physical comedy. This short doesn't have a lot of substance, but the slap stick gags just keep coming. What makes these gags wonderful is the effort the animators made in getting the characters to flow through them. The best example of this is when Goofy and Mickey and cheating death on the high rope. This short is as entertaining today as when it was made. This proves that Disney's philosophy that "quality will out" inspired, and can inspire, entertainment that will continue to amuse our children's children.

From Ryan : This is a classic short. I remember seeing it at a theater one time back in the 80's. Disney doesn't seem to re-release their shorts in theaters anymore. One thing that interested me as I was reading the previous comments was the first one. It talked about how Rev. Donald Wildmon of the AFA thought he heard Donald say "F*** You!" to the spring who seemed to be talking back to him. Now I will admit, it does somewhat sound like he is saying that, but of course we all know better. I mean that word wouldn't be allowed to be used in films back in those days. All films back then had what we would call a G-rating today. Rev. Wildmon needs to think about that. There's plenty of other things that are more offensive that the AFA could be attacking such as those new cartoons you'd find on Cartoon Network (e.g. "Cow and Chicken") or shows like "The Man Show" on Comedy Central. They'd just better leave the classic Disney cartoons alone.

From John Schaaf : My wife and I watched the 8 mm silent film version with our 3 year old daughter over and over again 25 years ago. We all howled with laughter. It is the funniest cartoon I have ever seen...even without a sound track. I plan to buy a video copy as soon as I can now that I know what tape it is on.

From Nikki : An ingenious creative display of the many ways to clean a clock. The music is very well done and fits every moment. Surprisingly if there is ever a bird that gives Mickey and friends a problem it's always a stork.

From Bill : The best short that Disney made in my opinion. The backgrounds were fantastic and there was much attention to detail. The animators really went all out on this one. One of the best features of this short was the gags, and the fact that Mickey, Goofy and Donald seemed to have equal billing getting into trouble. Again, many people complain about things that are frivolous; who would out a clock so high up or someone actually believeing that a swear word would end up in a Disney short! It was non-stop fun and gags. If Disney would just make them them like this again they would not be able to keep up with the demand!

From Rebecca : This is definitely one of my favorite Disney cartoon shorts featuring the famous trio, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, doing what they do best: entertaining! In my opinion, Goofy is what makes this short feature so charming. He is animated so well in this feature that that in itself makes the cartoon so great, and the gags are sequenced flawlessly. Top notch!

From Bo Engwall : This is another of the few really early Disney cartoons I saw the first time around 1970 ar a little bit earlier at the movies in Sweden. I had then just discovered that Carl Barks was the name of my favorite comic book artist, both for his splendid art work especially around 1948-1950 and intelligent stories, and I soon learned that the early Disney movies from the thirties were of similar top quality. I became eager to learn who was drawing those wonderful pictures in cartoons like Clock Cleaners. A lot of "master craftsmen" to discover!

From Grace : Absolutley one of my favorite Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons. It's amazing of how patient Mickey can be, Goofy reminded me of a tight rope walker in a circus and Donald well let;s just face it he was more like wrestling the spring. But anyway in the ending where Mickey, Donald and Goofy were in some sort of dance trio, the music is Snake in a Basket and the dance reminded me of them wearing belly dancer costumes with makeup and veils.

From Katelyn : I saw this one on TV once, though I don't remember exactly when. Another classic cartoon with our favorite trio. I felt sorry for all three of 'em. I admire Mickey's patience when dealing with the stork, and Goofy, well...what can I say. That was a funny part. I can't believe that they accused Donald of swearing at the spring though. That's just stupid. Why would Disney allow that type of language anyway? But I disgress. It was really funny, so I'll give it a 9.

From Baruch Weiss : In 1994 this cartoon was voted #27 of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time by the members of the animation field and I can see why. A beautiful musical score can be heard during the title presentation among other things!

As mentioned before this cartoon had Donald being accused of saying the "F" word to the main spring and I disagree. 100% Donald definitely said "Sez You." I own a censored version of this cartoon on "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" and it's censored as we can hear Pluto barking in the soundtrack!

The scene opens with a shot of an amazingly high skyscraper upon which is an absurd mechanical clock. Exactly why one would want to put such an intricate piece of machinery atop a building where no one would ever see it is beyond me, but Mickey, Donald and Goofy's job is to clean it; not to ask questions.

Mickey is outside cleaning the face by riding on the second hand. We pan to see Goofy inside toothbrushing the gears with what one hopes is industrial strength toothpaste. And Donald is mopping the gears clean. Donald heads over to the mainspring to mop it off, but somehow, get's his mophead caught in the spring, springing it loose which sets up a lot of the later gags in the short.

Meanwhile Mickey is dusting off some random gears which don't seem to be joined to anything, but clean he must. On one set he sees a sleeping stork which has made his bed on a set of gears. Mickey tries a few strategies to get him out of the tower, but only succeeds in getting himself hanging from a rope outside the skyscraper.

Back to Donald, who is busy trying to get the mainspring unsprung. And what better way to do it than to take a hammer and try to beat it into submission. But as soon as he gets one end in, the other end springs out. After attempting to argue the spring into behaving, he gets sprung into a spinning cogwheel, which makes him do what I call his "cogwheel dance." That is, his body shakes from left to right and as soon as he gets one part of his body stabilized, another part starts up.

Goofy is keeping busy beginning to clean out the bell in the tower itself, singing, "Loudly, the Bell in the Old Tower Rings", a song which gets play in at least one other Disney short. Tricky job, since it is apparently the top of the hour, and the bell-ringing mechanism is about to start up. Right on time, while Goofy is inside the bell, a "Father Time" character comes out and "BONG"; shaking Goofy violently. He comes out, looks around and goes back to work. From the other side a "Statue of Liberty" character comes out and "BONG"; shaking him again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, you're Goofy, but he's not about to be fooled a third time. He looks out this time at the time of the "BONG" and ... nothing there. But as soon as he gets back inside the bell ... you guessed it ... "BONG!"

Goofy goes to the door of the clock to see who's doing this mischief when the "Statue of Liberty" comes back out. Goofy, all apologetic, not realizing that it was a lady, and gets "BONGED" again, right on the bean. This makes Goofy dizzy enough to begin his high-wire act on the skyscraper, the ladders, the ropes, a bar of soap, and anything else that gets in his way, finally culminating in him sending himself and Mickey back inside the clock, right into Donald, who has finally succeeded in taming the mainspring. But not for long, as the mainspring unsprings all three into their ending "cogwheel dance trio."

"Clock Cleaners" was produced in what I refer to as Disney's "Golden Years"; the years from 1932 - 1939 where they produced their best short subjects. One aspect that is often overlooked is the work of the background artists. Here, they have created a sense of perspective that is both clean and precise, giving the opening shots a feeling that would scare off Harold Lloyd. Watch the very first opening shot as well: look at the very bottom where the amount of detail is so precise that the little dots used to represent cars are actually moving as cars. There is also a great amount of detail given to the interior of the clockwork; even in the stones that make up the building itself. And if you want to see the amount of character that went into Goofy, watch his hands during the "high wire" scene. The animators were able to make Goofy look rubbery without losing the natural form of his body. Truly, classic work.

Gallery

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