Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,740
edits
Classic Disney Shorts: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (→The shorts contain examples of:: -> into tropelist) |
No edit summary |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 6:
And the rest, as they say, is history.
The classic Disney shorts, made during [[The Golden Age of Animation]], centered around the adventures of a group of [[Funny Animal
* '''[[Mickey Mouse]]''': The first and most recognizable of the cast, often depicted as a good-natured, optimistic fellow - but also a determined and often feisty fighter with elements of both [[Kid Hero]] and [[Badass]]. Intentionally designed with [[Sliding Scale of Broad Appeal Versus Specific Appeal|universal, broad appeal in mind.]] (Debut: ''[[Plane Crazy]]'', 1928<ref>Although ''[[Steamboat Willie]]'' is often given as the first Mickey Mouse short to be released, the first short featuring the character was actually ''Plane Crazy'', released six months before ''Steamboat Willie'' on May 15, 1928. ''Steamboat Willie'' was, however, the first Mickey Mouse short to use sound.</ref>)
** From roughly the 1950s through the mid-1990s, Mickey's more adventurous side was usually seen only in comics. Even today it's easy to meet many who are surprised that Mickey can be a more interesting character. Of course, if he wasn't, then how would he have held his initial fame?
** 2010's [[Epic Mickey]] by Junction Point, now owned by Disney, makes Mickey almost as mischievous as he was originally. At first, the announcement that Warren Spector would be working on it caused fans to believe he would make a terrible game. However, once his Disney fandom was revealed, and that he was going to be bringing back characters, locations, and whatnot from older, forgotten, and scrapped cartoons, [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|people were quite happy]]. It also helped that [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]] returned for the game as well.
* '''[[Minnie Mouse]]''': Mickey's love interest, who often took on the role of a [[Damsel in Distress]].
** [[Word of God]] says that when not "acting" (the term used for when on screen in shorts and the like), Mickey and Minnie are married.
* '''[[Donald Duck]]''': The [[Ensemble Darkhorse]], a hot-tempered waterfowl who often ended up being the [[Butt Monkey]]. (Debut: ''The Wise Little Hen'', 1934). Though Mickey remains the face of the company, Donald is arguably the true moneymaker as far as long-term commercial success, spawning his own little corner of the Disney Universe that expands towards comics, cartoons, and video games.
* '''Daisy Duck''': Donald's love interest, with a similar - but more controlled - temper (Debut: ''
* '''[[Goofy]]''': An anthropomorphic dog (though his species [[Furry Confusion|has been debated]]), and the world's biggest klutz. Often [[Too Dumb to Live]]. He was originally called "Dippy Dawg", but they wisely changed his name. (Debut: ''Mickey's Revue'', 1932)
* '''[[Pluto the Pup]]''': Mickey's loyal pet dog. (Debut: ''The Chain Gang'', 1930)
Line 19:
Other characters included Mickey, Donald, and Goofy's nemesis, [[Pete]] (sometimes known as Bad Pete, Black Pete, Pegleg Pete, Pistol Pete, and so on); Donald's rich uncle Scrooge McDuck and his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie; cheerfully egotistical Horace Horsecollar and his [[Grande Dame]] Clarabelle Cow; opera singer Clara Cluck; two mischievous chipmunks named [[Chip and Dale]] who often have a bone to pick with Donald; and many, many more.
Also of note were the ''[[Silly Symphonies]]'' shorts, which were one-shots (usually, though a few of them got sequels, plus Pluto appeared in one and Donald debuted in another) set to popular music. Later, it primarily served as a showcase to try out animation techniques and technology before using them in the company's feature films. These were immensely popular in the 1930's and led to a [[Follow the Leader]] approach from rival studios, with Warner for example creating ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'', and MGM creating ''Happy Harmonies'', among many others. The ''Silly Symphonies'' shorts were responsible for [[Ridiculously Cute Critter
Occasionally, the classic characters would appear in [[Disney Animated Canon|feature films]], usually anthology films like ''[[Fun and Fancy Free]]'', ''[[Saludos Amigos]]'', ''[[The Three Caballeros]]'', and, most famously, the ''[[Fantasia]]'' films. In the '90s, [[Chip and Dale]] received [[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|their own series]], as did [[DuckTales (1987)|Uncle Scrooge]], [[Goof Troop|Goofy]], [[Quack Pack|and Donald]]. Recently, they've made appearances in series such as ''[[Mickey Mouse Works]]'', ''[[House of Mouse]]'', and ''[[Mickey Mouse Clubhouse]]'', as well as the direct-to-DVD ''[[Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers]]''. Some of these characters, mainly Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, also feature prominently in the ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' games. The second game paid [[George Lucas Throwback|tribute]] [[Homage|to]] [[Retraux|black and white Disney shorts]] with the level "Timeless River".
If you're looking to find all of these shorts, all of them have been neatly compiled into a series of truly excellent DVD compilations in a series of sets called the '''Walt Disney Treasures''' series. All of these collection DVD sets with the classic shorts included on them are convieniently listed below just for you:
Line 35:
* '''More Silly Symphonies''': The succesor to the previous collection. Compiles the remaining 38 Silly Symphonies theatrical shorts.
For a full list of characters, see [[Classic Disney Shorts/Characters|here]].
Line 42:
For non-series specific Disney shorts, see [[Miscellaneous Disney Shorts]].
* [[Plane Crazy]]
* [[Steamboat Willie]]
Line 50 ⟶ 49:
* [[The Mad Doctor]]
* [[The Band Concert]]
* [[
* [[Flowers and Trees]]
* [[Three Little Pigs (Disney film)|Three Little Pigs]]
Line 63 ⟶ 62:
* [[Lonesome Ghosts]]
* [[Clock Cleaners]]
* [[Peter and The Wolf]] (originally part of the package film [[Make Mine Music]], but nowadays it is always shown as an separate short film.)
* [[Adventures in Music Duology]]
* [[Mickey's Christmas Carol]]
Line 71 ⟶ 70:
----
{{tropenamer|The
* [[Mickey Mousing]]
* [[Mr. Vice Guy]]
* [[Number One Dime]]
Line 82 ⟶ 81:
* [[Accordion Man]]: ''The Cactus Kid'' (1930) for one.
* [[Acme Products]]: Only, in this case, it would be Ajax Products.
* [[A Day
** Ironically, the real [[Looney Tunes|Warner Bros. cartoons]] being made around the same time were intent on trying to ape the sweeter, sentimental elements of the Silly Symphonies. We won't see a WB cartoon as fast-paced as "Toby Tortoise Returns" until "[[Daffy Duck and Egghead]]" and "[[Porky in Wackyland]]"
** Let's not forget Mickey Mouse's "Runaway Brain" from the 90's, which was the first ([[Kingdom Hearts|but certainly not]] [[Epic Mickey|the last]]) attempt at returning Mickey to his adventureous, edgier roots. Whether it succeeded or not is up for debate.
Line 122 ⟶ 121:
'''Minnie:''' "Oh, my!" "Isn't that sweet!" "Oh, ''Mickey''..." }}
* [[Cartoon Conductor]]
* [[Cartoony Tail]]: Daisy Duck, a female duck, has curled tail feathers, a trait exclusive to male ducks.
** Mice have thin, naked tails, but Mickey, Minnie and Mortimer Mouse have tails that are unusually thin even for mice. Pluto has the same kind of tail, despite being a dog.
*** [[Chip and Dale]] have short tails that end in a point, sort of like deer tails. In [[Real Life]], it's the female chipmunks that have short tails.
Line 129 ⟶ 128:
** To an extent, Figaro (in the shorts, he was typically shown as a foil for Pluto), even if he doesn't excel much past a [[Bratty Half-Pint]].
* [[The Chew Toy]]: Donald.
* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Ever since ''[[Epic Mickey]]'' came out, I should review the old Mickey Mouse shorts in preparation for it. Okay, here's Plane Crazy and...is he doing G-Rated Rape on Minnie?
* [[Chaste Toons]]: It WAS the '40s...
** Subverted in that Goofy has a son in the '50s.
Line 138 ⟶ 137:
* [[Comic Trio]]: Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Arguably.
* [[Commedia Dell Arte Troupe]]
* [[
* [[Covered in Kisses]]: Occasionally, this happens to Mickey and Donald (thanks to Minnie and Daisy.)
* [[Cranial Eruption]]
Line 145 ⟶ 144:
* [[Cut and Paste Suburb]]: Donald and Goofy often live in this kind of neighborhood.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The early concept art for the game ''[[Epic Mickey]]'' show a ruined [[Steampunk]] world filled with horrific chimeras created by a monstrous version of the Phantom Blot.
** The original shorts occasionally went this route during the '40s, [[Epileptic Trees|perhaps]] [[Fridge Brilliance|due to]] [[World War 2|current events]] (and not just in the [[Wartime Cartoon
* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: From ''Who Killed Cock Robin'': "We don't know who is guilty so we're gonna hang 'em all!" (sung to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell")
* [[Depending on the Writer]]: Mickey and friends either live in the same neighborhood (shorts in the 1930s placed them in Hollywood, California), or in separate cities (Mouseton and Duckburg, often shown as
** The 1992 series ''Goof Troop'' moved Goofy out of Mouseton to Spoonerville, but this has been written out of canon in more modern material
* [[Distracted by the Sexy]]: ''[[Chip and Dale|Two Chips and a Miss]]''. So very much. [[Fan Service|Including some of the viewers]].
* [[Damsel in Distress]]: Minnie, frequently.
Line 157 ⟶ 156:
* [[Edutainment Show]]: Several Donald shorts of the mid-to-late '50s had an educational bend, one of the most notable being ''Donald in Mathmagicland'', in which Donald learns that "there's a lot more to mathematics than two times two."
** Also, ''Scrooge McDuck and Money'', in which Scrooge gives lessons to his nephews on the capitalist economy.
* [[Era Specific Personality]]
* [[The Everyman]]: All of the main trio, to some degree: Mickey (when he's not too good at being a hero), Donald (when he's not being too [[Morally-Ambiguous Ducktorate|nasty]]), and Goofy (when he's not being too clumsy) have all functioned as everyday working stiffs in viewer identification scenarios.
* [[Everything Is an Instrument]]: A dominant trope in most of the early Mickey Mouse shorts.
Line 177 ⟶ 176:
* [[Foe Yay]]: Pete kissing Mickey at the end of ''Symphony Hour'' has got to be a prime example.
* [[Funny Animal]]: Nearly the entire cast.
* [[Furry Confusion]]: Horace and Clarabelle started out as four-legged [[Talking Animal
** And then there's the ever-complicated issue of Goofy, which comes from determining what Goofy (anthropomorphic man-dog whose is treated like a human) is in relation to Pluto (non-anthropomorphic dog, who's treated like a dog), whom he is occasionally shown to interact with. While it's possible that anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic dogs may simply exist side by side in the Disneyverse, it still has odd connotations (imagine if some humans were kept as pets, and treated as such, alongside seemingly similar humans).
* [[Gag Boobs]]: Clara Cluck, no doubt.
Line 189 ⟶ 188:
** In ''Up a Tree'', when Chip 'n Dale first look up their tree to see Donald climbing up it to cut it down, Dale says to Chip, "It's a duck with a big fanny!" (Though in the U.S., the term "fanny" is a euphemism for "backside" (the chipmunks obviously noticed Donald's backside), in the U.K., the term "fanny" is a euphemism for a certain part of a woman's anatomy (and thus was [[Edited for Syndication]])).
* [[Ghost in the Machine]]: ''Reason and Emotion''
* [[Go-Karting with Bowser]]: Pete's relationship with the gang varies.
* [[Good Angel, Bad Angel]]: The entire premise of ''Donald's Better Self''.
** Pluto also had this in a few shorts, most notably ''Lend a Paw''.
Line 215 ⟶ 214:
* [[Kids Are Cruel]]: ''Elmer Elephant''
** Most of the main cast's younger relatives were [[Bratty Half-Pint|Bratty Half Pints]] of the highest order, Junior in ''Bellboy Donald'' (not so much P.J.), Huey, Dewey and Louie, Mickey's Orphans, and sometimes Goofy Junior (not so much Max), just to name a few.
* [[Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition]]: Played annoying straight with the Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets.
** Disney has been doing this for decades. Remember the Limited Gold Editions series of videotapes from the 1980s? There were ''two'' sets of those.
* [[Literal Ass-Kicking]]: Donald was often a victim of this.
* [[Loveable Rogue]]: Chip 'n' Dale, when not acting as [[Screwy Squirrel
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Red, Huey's color, is the brightest hue, and blue is the color of dew, hence Dewey. This leaves Louie, and [[Incredibly Lame Pun|leaves]] are green.
** On the other hand, it's not like all artists and translations are at all consistent about which nephew wears which colored cap... the nephews being indistinguishable or swapping their caps has even been a plot point several times.
Line 230 ⟶ 229:
* [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]]: Goofy suffers one throughout "The Art of Self Defense", which takes "Shadowboxing" to its literal extent and has him be the punching bag for the various moves demonstrated.
* [[Non-Mammal Mammaries]]: Clara Cluck again.
* [[No Sex Allowed]]: Walt himself once said when asked about it that Mickey does not have a sex life.
* [[Obstacle Ski Course]]: "The Art of Skiing" has Goofy doing all kinds of variations of this, most memorably accidentally skiing backwards.
* [[Old Shame]]: Director Wilfred Jackson disliked the early Mickey Mouse short "The Castaway", and from it's completion vowed to never again make another picture that didn't feel like a Disney cartoon, according to The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation.
Line 248 ⟶ 246:
* [[Soap Punishment]]: A lie detector uses this on the Big Bad Wolf in ''The Practical Pig''.
* [[Speech Impediment]]: Donald, to the point where his near-unintelligible speech sparked [http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/donald.asp an urban legend].
* [[Spin-Off]]: ''[[Goof Troop]]'', ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'', ''[[House of Mouse]]'', ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]''...
* [[Stock Footage]]: A few of the [[Wartime Cartoon
* [[Strapped to An Operating Table]]: ''[[The Mad Doctor]]''
* [[Sudden Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|''Chicken Little''}}
* [[Talking Animal]]: Chip 'n' Dale, Goofy's mynah bird Ellsworth (a comic book character, most common in the 1950s, who wears clothes and is personified as a wise-guy intellectual - yet lives in a birdhouse and flies).
* [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]] ([[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in an episode of ''House of Mouse'' in which Mickey and Donald convincingly disguise themselves as Minnie and Daisy by putting bows on their heads.
* [[Through a Face Full of Fur]]: In "The Army Mascot", Pluto turns green after swallowing a plug of chewing tobacco. He tries to swallow the green away, but it just comes back up. He then turns other colors as well, including, yes, plaid. Even his tongue!
** Likewise, in such cartoons as "Alpine Climbers", "Lend a Paw" and "Mail Dog", which take place in a snowy area, there are times when Pluto turns blue from the cold.
* [[Tsundere]]: Arguably, Daisy.
Line 265 ⟶ 263:
* [[We Do the Impossible]]: In ''The [[Brave Little Tailor]].''
* [[We're Still Relevant, Dammit!]]: The ENTIRE ANGLE of the [[Kingdom Hearts]] games and especially [[Epic Mickey]].
* [[White Gloves]]: Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pete, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow wear 'em.
* [[Who Is Driving?]]?: ''Mickey's Trailer'' (1938)
* [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?]]?: In ''A Gentleman's Gentleman'', Pluto buys a newspaper for Mickey, but stops to read a comic strip featuring himself on the front page. He laughs at his comic counterpart's misfortune, but then a similar situation happens to him.
Line 272 ⟶ 270:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Animated Films]]
[[Category:Films of the 1920s]]▼
▲[[Category:Short Film]]
[[Category:Disney Channel]]
[[Category:Toon Disney]]▼
[[Category:Films of the 1930s]]▼
[[Category:Edutainment Show]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]▼
[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]▼
[[Category:Films of the 1940s]]
[[Category:Horror Western Animation]]
[[Category:Index]]
[[Category:Short Film]]
[[Category:The Forties]]
[[Category:The Golden Age of Animation]]
[[Category:The Great Depression]]
▲[[Category:Toon Disney]]
▲[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]
[[Category:Western Animation]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Western Animation of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Film]]
| |||