Mickey's Kangaroo (1935) User Reviews

Boxing kangaroo

[Mmprmum · 6/10 · 15 October 2023]

Pluto sounds very sinister in this take, considering we never hear him talk again.

I also really couldn't understand why a kangaroo would "honk", but maybe back in the day when not much was known about them they sounded different.

It also should be noted that only female kangaroos have pouches, and the "boxing kangaroo" as such would have been male as two males fight during mating season.

I'm hoping that after seeing this short clip that people didn't decide that it was ok to go around punching up kangaroos after seeing this.

In any case mouse 0 vs kangaroo 5, and I must remember that this was only a cartoon.

Nicely animated, but not successful on too many levels

[llltdesq · 6/10 · 20 November 2014]

This is a Mickey Mouse cartoon produced by the Disney studio. There will be spoilers ahead:

There are some very nice animated sequences and some good gags, but really falls flat because of what looks like an experiment which misfires. Pluto is given a speaking voice of sorts, with a voice over which allows the viewer to know Pluto's thoughts. It really doesn't work that well. Pluto is one of the most visually expressive, most fully realized characters Disney created. The voice distracts from that, which is unfortunate, because the short has potential.

Mickey gets a boxing kangaroo in the mail (or rather two of them, as a baby kangaroo is in the pouch, which sets up one of the best gags late in the short). The kangaroo sets about taking Pluto's place, which understandably annoys Pluto no end. There's some interaction between Pluto and mama kangaroo, then baby makes an appearance while Mickey and mama box.

Mama basically beats Mickey like a drum for the most part, while Pluto has his hands full with baby. Pluto winds up crashing through a greenhouse and leads to a very cute, sweet moment and the ending of the short is very nice, although Mickey is lucky he's a cartoon or he wouldn't have survived.

This short is available on the Disney Treasures Mickey Mouse In Black and White, Volume Two and the set is worth getting.

By 1935, the Dizzy gang knew that their star . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 4 January 2022]

. . . rodent served as a role model for many if not most of America's impressionable children. Why on Earth, then, would these prolific doodlers picture their headliner punching a definitively female marsupial mom six times in her face midway through MICKEY'S KANGAROO? If Sir Lancelot did not completely quench the Age of Chivalry, the House of the Louse surely did so.

Not one of my favourites but okay

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 17 June 2012]

Mickey's Kangaroo is not a bad cartoon, but compared to other Disney cartoons(though it is far from the worst) I didn't care as much as I wanted to for it. The animation is smooth and fluid, and the music is full of character and energy. I also liked how they showed the love Mickey and Pluto share for one another at the beginning, the boxing match between Mickey and the cute kangaroo and the gag when Mickey gets caught in the hay bailing machine. Pluto is great to watch mostly, buy Mickey aside from the boxing is sidelined and is not very interesting as a character here. Other than a couple of gags like the hay bailing machine gag I personally didn't find much funny or of note in Mickey's Kangaroo, and the story is rather routine and not as crisply paced as it has been. Pluto's inner thoughts talking was unnecessary with the menacing tone rather odd, we know from what was already on screen what Pluto was feeling so having the voice as well seemed overly-obvious overkill to me. All in all, moderately enjoyable but at the same time nothing outstanding. 6/10 Bethany Cox

A rather boring cartoon short.

[OllieSuave-007 · 3/10 · 22 March 2016]

In this cartoon short from Walk Disney, Mickey gets a package from Australia: a kangaroo and its baby roo, both complete with boxing gloves (for some unknown reason, Disney characters randomly get animals mailed to them from all over). As a result, Mickey practices boxing with the adult while the baby annoys Pluto to no end.

There is really nothing entertaining or funny about this cartoon, just Mickey acting all smiles and cheerful as he gets pummeled in the boxing match, and the annoying baby roo feeling free to eat Pluto's food and to drive him crazy. Basically, very boring.

I know I might be analyzing too much on a cartoon short, but, there is really nothing remarkable about the short, except for the fact that Pluto "talks" in this cartoon with a voice-over, which I thought was rather unique. I did chuckle at a few points, but other than that, this cartoon is not a winner for me.

Grade D--

A touch of Australia

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 20 September 2015]

"Mickey's Kangaroo" is at 9 minutes an unusually long short film from Mickey's (not very) early days. It is still black-and-white and features the duo as they run into a kangaroo. And of course, also back then 80 years ago, they still had small kangaroos in their belly bag. And boxing kangaroos was also a thing back then already. So Mickey keeps playfully going against the big one, but obviously has no shot at all at winning. Meanwhile, Pluto tries to keep the little one away from his food. No success here either. I must say I did not find this one here as good as some other Mickey cartoons from that era. It was mostly slapstick, but not really smart or funny and maybe it is even true that these films only work for 7 minutes. Not recommended.

Mickey and Pluto had gone "Kanga-Crazy!"

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 19 March 2008]

This short is on a DVD box set, "Walt Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Black and White: Volume #2," and I bought it when I was on vacation with my family. This short became one of my favourites out of the collection; I thought it was "bouncy-touncy" fun.

It all started when Mickey received a package crate from an Australian named Leo Buring. And to his (and Pluto's) surprise, the crate started jumping around, and then SMASH! Out jumped a boxing kangaroo and her joey. I knew it was a female because the males don't have pouches. Anyway, Pluto did not like the idea of that "grasshopper" and her kid invading his premises. You know, we get to hear his thoughts voiced by Pinto Colvig, who also does his barks and pants. I noticed the kangaroo and joey are drawn the same way as Mickey, and also that the joey almost sounds like Roadrunner from Warner Bros.

I love it when Pluto chases the little hopper; he gets wet thanks to the joey hopping on the giant water pump. Then Pluto goes for a rough ride in a wheelbarrow and lands in a garbage dump. With his back paws stuck on springs, Pluto bounces up and down to the little kangaroo's delight. They hop for a little bit before Pluto hops a little too high and smashes head-first into the roof of a greenhouse. Pluto is unaware that the little kangaroo has become attached to him by resting in a corset "pouch" that he jumped straight into from a clothes line before the greenhouse. A bit of risqué business, huh? Overall, this is a great cartoon, and now I have gone "Kanga-crazy!"

Mickey's Duo From Down Under

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 2 November 2002]

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

MICKEY'S KANGAROO - a surprise gift from Australia - proceeds to give the Mouse quite a boxing lesson; her joey has a trick or two saved for Pluto...

This little black & white film is very humorous and features fine animation. It is also the cartoon in which Pluto 'speaks' directly to the viewers, keeping us cognizant of exactly what was going through his doggie mind. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's squeaky voice.

It is interesting to compare the two rather primitive kangaroos from this film, with their beep-beep articulations, to the ever popular Kanga & Roo in the WINNIE THE POOH films which first appeared in 1966.

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, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. 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.