Classic Disney Shorts: Difference between revisions

 

The classic Disney shorts, made during [[The Golden Age of Animation]], centered around the adventures of a group of [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]]:

** 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.

* [[Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game]]: The Goofy short ''How To Play Golf''.

* [[Bragging Theme Tune]]: Donald Duck's post-1947 theme. Possibly a subversion as none of it is true, aside from "[[The Chew Toy|Who get stuck with all the bad luck?]]"

* [[Bolt of Divine Retribution]]: ''Trombone Trouble''

* [[Bullet Seed]]

* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Pete.

** Wait, Pete's a cat?

* [[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?

** Also, ''Scrooge McDuck and Money'', in which Scrooge gives lessons to his nephews on the capitalist economy.

* [[Era Specific Personality]]

* [[Everything Is an Instrument]]: A dominant trope in most of the early Mickey Mouse shorts.

* [[Everything's Worse With Bears]]: This is how Donald certainly feels about Humphrey.

* [["Faux To" Guide]]: Goofy always screwing up the narrator's instructions.

* [[Flying Broomstick]]: ''Trick or Treat''

** [[The Hero]]: Mickey - [[Chromatic Superiority|Red]]

** [[The Lancer]]: Donald - Blue

** 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''

* [[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''.

* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]: Donald Duck is famous for his.

* [[Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal]]: Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and (occasionally) Minnie.

** In the 1930s, the Big Bad Wolf was voiced by Billy Bletcher, the original voice for [[Pete]]. Fittingly enough, on ''[[House of Mouse]]'', he was voiced by [[Pete]]'s current voice actor, Jim Cummings.

** Also in the 1930s, Practical Pig was voiced by Pinto Colvig, the original voice for [[Goofy]]. Fittingly enough, on ''[[House of Mouse]]'', he was voiced by Goofy's current voice actor, Bill Farmer.

* [[Idea Bulb]]: Goofy gets one when trying to think of what to do about Mickey's birthday cake.

** Dale also gets ''two'' in ''Crazy Over Daisy'' when he and Chip try to think of a way to get revenge on Donald. The first bulb that Dale gets is small, but Chip dismisses it. The second bulb Dale gets is much larger and Chip approves.

* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: There are still a handful of classic Disney shorts that didn't make their way into the Walt Disney Treasures lineup, including two of Goofy's 60s shorts, ''Freewayphobia #1'' and ''Goofy's Freeway Troubles'' (How to Ride a Horse and El Gaucho Goofy from the 40s aren't counted here, as they was technically part of other features, the former as part of ''The Reluctant Dragon'' (and can be found intact on Walt Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes At Walt Disney Studios) and the latter as part of ''[[Saludos Amigos]]''), Chip 'n Dale's three solo shorts (although they are available on VHS and some of them on DVD) and poor little Susie the Little Blue Coupe didn't get into the Disney Rarities set (although it has somehow made its way onto public domain DVDs like Bazooka Joes cartoons, as well as included on DVD releases of ''[[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]]'' and ''[[The Love Bug]]'' as extras and as part of a series of DVDs called "It's a Small World of Fun"). They have also only released a select few of the early Alice Comedies on the Disney Rarities and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit sets, but many others are available via VCI and Inkwell Images DVD collections. Also, the obscure Disney short about "Menustration" hasn't been officially released, but has fallen into the public domain. Donald is also missing two shorts from the 1960s ("Donald's Fire Survival Plan" and "Steel and America"), and two '60s oneshots "Scrooge McDuck and Money" and "It's Tough To Be a Bird" have also not received a release.

* [[Kids Are Cruel]]: ''Elmer Elephant''

* [[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.

* [[Loveable Rogue]]: Chip 'n' Dale, when not acting as [[Screwy Squirrel|Screwy Squirrels]] or out of [[Disproportionate Retribution]], played this role, usually after food in Donald's possession.

* [[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.

* [[Mickey Mousing]]: The [[Trope Namer]]

* [[Missing Episode]]: Several [[Alice Comedies]] and [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]] shorts aside, no shorts are lost. However, original prints of many of them containing their original title screens currently are lost and the [[Mickey Mouse]] shorts ''When the Cat's Away'' and ''The Jazz Fool'' currently lack their opening music.

* [[Narrator]] / [[Interactive Narrator]]: An important element of the "How To" Goofy shorts.

* [[Nightmare Dreams]]: Cartoons like ''Mickey's Nightmare'', ''Pluto's Judgment Day'' and ''Donald's Diary''.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: Goofy seems to think so.

** At the end of ''Mickey's Amateurs'', [[Iris Out|the black circle]] that usually marks the end of the show closes around Donald's neck.

* [[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.

* [[Screw the Rules I Have Plot]]: In the short ''Toby Tortoise Returns'', why didn't the game automatically go to Max Hare after Toby was knocked out of the ring by him? Instead, they just let the fight continue as if nothing happened.

* [[Screwy Squirrel]]: Chip 'n' Dale on occasion; Huey, Dewey, and Louie in many of their early appearances; and Mickey's Orphans (the crowds of mouse-faced kids in nightshirts).

* [[Slapstick]]

* [[Slipping a Mickey]]: Happens to Goofy in ''How To Be a Detective''.

* [[Were 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 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.

* [[Wicked Witch]]: Witch Hazel