Traffic Troubles (1931) User Reviews

Enjoyable and silly.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 24 November 2013]

The summary of "Traffic Troubles" on IMDb pretty much covers everything in this cartoon, so I won't bother to explain in detail what occurs in this one. Suffice to say that Mickey is a cabbie and has a variety of adventures involving a VERY large passenger and his next passenger, Minnie.

While there isn't a lot in the way of plot in "Traffic Troubles", it is filled with gags--one after another after another. So, if one of them falls flat, another soon follows that will probably make you laugh. Not a brilliant cartoon or a must-see but pleasantly animated, clever and worth seeing.

Not Much of a Business Man

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 1 December 2018]

Mickey invariably tries to earn money with different enterprises. In this case he has a cab. After a frenetic drive, he bounces his customer (a very large man) out of the cab and he gets no fare. Once Minnie arrives, he is faced with flat tires and a disgruntled car. Lots of potholes and lots of bumps. It's an OK presentation with some decent gags. Nothing new.

Historic Step in Mickey's Evolution in Appearance

[springfieldrental · 8/10 · 23 October 2022]

Walt Disney Studios was humming right along with the rising popularity of its Mickey Mouse series in the early 1930s. The original designer for the mouse, Ub Iwerks, had left to form his own cartoon company, but other newly hired artists capably filled his shoes. Mickey Mouse Clubs were spontaneously popping up nationwide in theaters wherever Mickey cartoons were showing. In Disney's twenty-sixth animated short on his mouse, March 1931's "Traffic Troubles, Mickey's appearance was becoming more fully drawn and taking the shape familiar to today's fans. Mickey is a city taxi driver scooting around an urban environment that's a departure from his more normal countryside or suburban settings.

Walt was inspired to think up the cartoon's barebones plot when a police officer gave him a ticket for speeding. He told animator David Hand about the incident. The animator drew up a series of sequences where Mickey first picks up an overstuffed pig as a customer, then in turn has Minnie Mouse on board his cab. While transporting the pig, Micky gets shredded by a cop for holding up traffic. Later, a tire blows out on his cab. Showing Walt the tire sequence, Hand was told the scene wasn't farfetched enough. After several attempts, with the same criticisms, Hand threw caution to the wind and drew the most outlandish sequence with the tire he could image, thinking he'd most likely get fired for going too overboard making fun of Walt's suggestion. Just the opposite happened. "There! You got it!," Disney exclaimed. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

"Traffic Troubles" is one of Mickey's more revered early cartoons. Said author Gijs Grob, "A particular highlight is a funny scene in which a police officer asks Mickey many questions while silencing him at the same time. 'Traffic Troubles' is the best Mickey Mouse film from 1931, and Mickey's first really great cartoon since 'Steamboat Willie'." The cartoon was one of only six to have played in Disneyland's Main Street Cinema.

Gags galore with Traffic Troubles...

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 8 July 2012]

Disney was always a big part of my childhood. Traffic Troubles wasn't a cartoon that I grew up on, in fact it is a very recent endeavour for me, but it is a great cartoon regardless. The animation is crisp and smooth, with Mickey's facial expressions of frustration very well done and funny. The music is very catchy and has the typical energy you'd expect, while the story is interesting and there are some nice moments of verbal humour which was different as Disney cartoons around this time rarely used it. The characters are all engaging, Pete is delightful in his two appearances, Mickey is still endearing(likewise with Minnie) even back when he was daring and I enjoyed seeing Percy(the opening sequence and his taxi ride is interesting for the fact that it's set entirely in the city), Horace and Clarabelle. What I loved most about Traffic Troubles were the gags, some aren't the most original I've seen but all of them are clever and never less than amusing. The best were the ones with the pothole, the fare meter and the cow("oh heck"). In conclusion, a wonderful cartoon with many gags all of which hit the right buttons. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Goes all over the palce.

[OllieSuave-007 · 5/10 · 30 April 2018]

Like traffic, this cartoon goes all over the place. The voiceovers were a little muffled and hard to understand and the plot was non-existent. But, the black and white animation was great for its day.

Grade D+

Mickey Mouse, The Motor Menace

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 21 September 2002]

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey's TRAFFIC TROUBLES begin when he lets an extremely obese customer into his taxi.

This is a fun black & white cartoon, although The Mouse is allowed to be rather cruel to the weaker animals he meets. The frantic, amply uddered bovine he encounters may be an early version of Clarabelle Cow. Peg-leg Pete & Minnie have small roles. Walt Disney supplies the voice for Mickey.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

If your vehicle can hike up her fenders . . .

[pixrox1 · 5/10 · 24 December 2021]

. . . and tiptoe on her rear tires through pond-size potholes in the street, wouldn't you be like the demolition worker in ONE FROGGY NIGHT and do everything within your power to exhibit this wonder to the ticket-buying Public, even if she cannot hold a tune, let alone belt out arias like Michigan J. Frog? Instead, the mindless rodent facilitates the corruption of his Wonder Taxi with Dr. Pep's self-proclaimed snake oil. The poor cab is totaled moments later. How sad.

Excellent animation and funny gags in a very loose plot

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 24 August 2014]

This is an early Disney cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse. There will be spoilers ahead:

Mickey is a taxi driver, though his taxi is basically alive, with eyes and a mouth. He stops to pick up a fare (a minor bit character named Percy) and the fun begins. Mickey is accosted by a cop resembling Pegleg Pete but with two whole legs. A slightly different looking character with a peg-leg shows up as a snake-oil salesman later on. I suspect that Pegleg was still in the formative stages here.

Mickey drives off with his fare. This is probably the funniest stretch of the short, with gags involving a tiny car, potholes, the meter on Mickey's cab and the disappearing passenger. There's a really nice bit of animation involving Mickey's cab navigating road hazards in here.

Mickey reaches his destination without his fare and realizes he's gone just before Minnie runs up needing a ride. Off they go for the next part of the cartoon. Mickey's cab gets a flat, with some nice character animation involving the cab.

Mickey tries to re-inflate the tire using a pig as an air pump. This is when the salesman comes in and pours something in the cab's radiator and off we go for the finale. Mickey chases down his cab, which winds up on the back of Clarabelle Cow. The final gag is good.

This short is available on the Mickey Mouse In Black and White, Volume Two Disney Treasures DVD set and is well worth tracking down. Recommended.