Clock Cleaners (1937)

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are cleaning a large clock. Among the complications: Mickey fights a sleeping stork that doesn't want to leave, Donald gets tangled up in the main-spring, and Goofy is inside the bell when the clock strikes four.

Director:

Ben Sharpsteen (uncredited)

Stars:

Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, James MacDonald

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Pinto Colvig	...	Goofy (voice) (uncredited)
Walt Disney	...	Mickey Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
James MacDonald	...	Spring (voice) (uncredited)
Clarence Nash	...	Donald Duck (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

The clock-tower is getting a major cleaning. Donald soon characteristically looses his temper while cleaning the inner clockwork, when a resilient spring proves better at springing back then he at pushing and hammering it where it just won't fit. Mickey is in charge of the exterior plates, which is perilous enough, but soon must also try to save from a fatal fall Goofy, who ended up the sleep-walking loser of a shadow-fight against the automatically rotating bronze figures which ring the giant bell, which he managed to stand inside so the deafening drone totally shattered his sense of balance.

---

Plot Keywords:

cleaning | bell | clock | fight | fall | 

---

Genres:

Family | Comedy | Animation | Short

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 October 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

Czyściciele zegarów

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

9 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the bell rings with Goofy inside it, he looks out suspiciously and says "Mice!" This is a reference to W.C. Fields who said exactly the same thing when there was a crash backstage during one of his comedy acts.

---

Quotes

Donald: Hey! What's the big idea?
Spring: What's the big idea?
Donald: Aw, shut up!
Spring: You shut up!
Donald: Oh yeah?
Spring: Oh yeah?
Donald: Says you!
Spring: Says I!

---

Alternate Versions

One version omits the scene where Mickey tries to get the stork out of the clock tower.

---

Connections

Featured in The Essential Goof (2002)

---

Soundtracks

Hickory Dickory Dock
(uncredited)
Performed by Clarence Nash

User Reviews

To me, it is second only to Lonesome Ghosts as the best of the Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons

I love Clock Cleaners and always have done. The animation has so much detail(like with Goofy close to falling you do feel authentically dizzy due to how everything moves) in the scale of everything on screen and the backgrounds are gorgeously coloured. The music is full of energy as you would expect, and the story while simple is always engaging and crisply paced. Other than the animation, it was the characters and the gags, combining silliness and danger, that made Clock Cleaners. Mickey is as likable as ever, though I do find Goofy with his clumsiness and confusion and Donald with his frustration and temperament funnier in a way. The gag where Goofy stumbles around the top of the clock tower, eventually falling down, walking in a daze across a rope, falling only to jump back up off a flagpole and knock Mickey back inside is my all-time favourite Goofy gag, and the shot of the Mickey, Donald and Goofy in the gears of the clock is priceless also, but the best one is the one with the spring talking back when Donald gets irritated. The visual humour and dialogue never fails to make me laugh, but due to the fact you don't always understand what Donald is saying and the fact it was thought he said a bad word in this exchange caused for it to be censored. In a nutshell, a wonderful cartoon, one of the trio's and Disney's very best in my opinion. 10/10 Bethany Cox