From Patrick Malone : Enough has been said
about this short being virtually a remake of "Mickey's Service Station."
All I can add is that after 65 years, Pete really should have known better.
But this short suffers in comparison to that earlier one. The ending of the
newer entry relies too much on a "deux ex machina" type of plot contrivance.
After all, what kind of car washing machine would come with a setting that
said "destroy car?" It seems that Mickey, Donald and Goofy could do a better
job destroying Pete's car all by themselves in the 1935 short. And why, if
they had a car washing machine, didn't they just use it in the first place?
The "spot" gag seemed to be straight from "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back"
and I expected it to go off in that direction. It didn't, but the animators
didn't really seem to know what to do with it either. I was happy, though,
to see them break down the "*fifth wall" a bit with Mickey's dealing with
the spot. But when taken as a whole, the earlier short covered virtually
the same territory with much better results.
* Television critics refer to the "fourth wall" as the wall that separates
the audience from the performer. I take that one step further, and refer
to the "fifth wall" as that which separates the performer from the animator.
Probably the best example of this is the Warner Brothers short, "Duck Amuck."
Disney never used the method that much until recently.
From Juan F. Lara : Here they remade "Mickey's
Service Station". Again, Pete was terrorizing the trio into working on his
car (cleaning instead of fixing) by a deadline (A clock morphed into Pete's
face in "Service Station". A whistle morphed into Pete's face in "Car Washers".)
I liked this scene, as I thought Pete blowing those spots so out of proportion
was funny. People in these newsgroups have noted that in the old trio shorts
each character would go off on his own plotthread. They did here at first.
Goofy's and Mickey's skits were good, with Goofy's scene featuring a butt-joke
like what the old shorts often had, and Mickey's scene reminding you that
you're watching a cartoon. But then the short had a contrived way to get
the car wrecked, and I went "huh" at Mickey thinking his dumb idea for fooling
Pete would work.
From David Gonterman : Plot Contrivances,
Complete disregard with the Fourth Wall (And I didn't even know there
was a Fifth wall), South Park references (The Spot and Goofy's
butt), and the Ajax-brand machine which works too well unlike it's
Warner counterpart. This attempt at 'Mickey's Service Station 2000' has all
the makings of FanFiction, with only Self-Insertion characters mis . . .
. waitasec! Mickey Mouse counts as a Mary Sue! Uncle Walt's been doing this
stuff long before any of these concepts were ever public knowledge!! If only
this show would be sent to the Satellite of Love.
From Lee Suggs : Another of the less than
successful Mickey, Goofy, and Donald shorts. This short plays as a remake
of "Mickey's Service Station". (A 1935 short where the trio destroyed Pete's
car while trying to find a squeak.) This time MDG are trying to clean his
car, with a similar destructive result. This short had a fine premise and
at first looked quite promising. The boys' gags were quite funny (I especially
liked Mickey erasing the whole background with a buffer machine.) However,
when it comes time to end the short everything falls apart. Seemingly lacking
an idea (Of how to conclude the short) the animators have the boys suddenly
have a car washing machine with them. (Why were they washing Pete's car by
hand?) What's worse they give the washing machine a destroy function. (I'm
glad my dishwasher doesn't have one of those.) The conclusion that follows
just ruins the short for me. I think with a little creativity this could
have been a good or even an excellent short.
From Lelila : Like everybody that's commented,
I thought the short started really well. I really liked the gag with our
trio and their three different snores, and Goofy mistaking Donald for the
phone was probably the best bit in the whole thing. Donald's arguement with
the sponge was quite amusing, but after that the short just went downhill.
Goofy's bit with the traveling spot started out cute enough, but once it
found his behind, not only did it get old, I was also slightly offended.
(I really don't need a cartoon dog shaking his tush at me.) Mickey's bit
with the cleaner showed promise, but fell flat. And the whole end was just
silly. I think this cartoon had a lot of potential on the drawing board,
but it tried too hard. Nothing really seemed to work just right.
