The Barn Dance

The Barn Dance (1929)

*** (out of 4)

Nice Disney short has Mickey Mouse showing up Minnie's house to pick her up but competition is there for her as well. Mickey and Minnie end up at the dance but of course the third wheel shows up to try and take her. THE BARN DANCE isn't a classic film and it's certainly far from being as great as STEAMBOAT WILLIE but fans of the characters will still want to check it out. What's really so great about these early Mickey shorts is the animation, which was really taking on a life of its own. Even though this was just the fourth Mickey short, there's no doubt that you already came to love the little guy. His drawing is much better here and there's no question that the charm was at a high level even if he does do some naughty things here.

Mickey once again sells his best intentions to get a date with the fickle Minnie. He has a rival in Pete and Minnie doesn't seem to have any hesitation spending time with him. There are some funny dance things, especially when Mickey puts a balloon in his pants after stepping all over Minnie's feet. This is a pretty minor offering with little new produced.

Another weekend, another film on the Disney Plus "Short" film section. This time we're back with the main man Mickey and a 1929 short that feels quite unusual, given what comes afterwards.

Both Mickey and Pete arrive to try and pick Minnie up for the local barn dance. Mickey has his trusty horse and cart, but Pete has a brand-new Motor Car. Minnie has her head turned by the Motor Car, but when it breaks down, she returns to Mickey. At the dance though, Mickey has two left feet and she shifts her attention back to Pete. Mickey comes up with a unconventional solution to the problem.

What seems wild about this particular short is that, spoiler alert, Mickey actually loses. Pete, rather than the villain, doesn't actually come off that badly. The breakdown isn't his fault and all he does is point out Mickey's underhand tactics. It also makes Minnie come off rather badly too, flipping between her suitors like some common floozy!

Visually it's OK. It's an early one so again the character models aren't quite settled. It's another one where the score and sound effects feature heavily. It's not bad, by any means, but it's a bit too weird to really recommend.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey & Pete both vie for fickle Minnie's attentions at THE BARN DANCE.

This humorous little black & white film is propelled largely by the soundtrack; music mavens will recognize 'The Old Grey Mare,' 'Mendelssohn's Spring Song' & 'Pop! Goes The Weasel' among the tunes played. This very early Mouse cartoon shows one of the rare instances in which Mickey loses to Pete in the game of romance.

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.

I did enjoy The Barn Dance, but of the Mickey Mouse cartoons of that particular time it is one of my least favourites. The animation is not bad, but the characters at times do look crude, and while I enjoyed the music selections there are other times when the music is more repetitive than usual, not as varied as it was in Steamboat Willie, Plane Crazy and Galloping Gaucho. While I did like that Mickey was more fleshed out than usual, and I did feel sorry for him at the end, the characters have been much more likable before(especially Minnie who is almost the complete opposite of how she usually is), with the exception of Pete who is by far the most likable he's ever been after many cartoons as a villain or a foil. However, there are some good gags like Mickey's horse going into a trot and the buggy's wheels does the same and Mickey's donkey face when he is confronted by Minnie about his clumsy feet(which also grow larger and larger). I also liked seeing the parrot from Steamboat Willie on Mickey's porch, and the nifty, fun choreography of the actual barn dance itself. The voice acting is I think an improvement over the cartoons before it, while relying on cues and squeaks it is more dynamic and perhaps better recorded. So all in all, not a favourite but interesting enough for the gags especially. 7/10 Bethany Cox