The Delivery Boy - June 13, 1931

Mickey's 29th toon is The Delivery Boy. The toon features Mickey and Minnie as well as the emerging character Pluto in his fourth cartoon.

The toon opens with Mickey as a delivery boy traveling along the road with his trusty pal Pluto in tow.

Along the same road, we see Minnie happily washing her laundry. Unfortunately as she dries her unmentionables, a nearby goat promptly gobbles them up.


Seeing Minnie, Mickey is unable to pass up the chance to have a little fun. He tries startling his love, but the joke soon turns in Minnie's favor.

The two lovemice frolic off under an apple tree and sing a rousing version of "Sitting Under the Old Apple Tree".

Meanwhile, a curious Pluto gets into a sticky situation when his nose leads him to a puddle of tar. A funny gag is seen as Pluto mimics the dancing of Mickey and Minnie.

Mickey soon gets a bit carried away in the song and causes a beehive to land on his mule. The mule kicks the delivery wagon, and the entire load of instruments is sent into the air.

The instruments rain down upon the apple orchard, allowing the mice to play another tune: "Stars and Stripes Forever".

The nearby farm animals also join in on the fun and play various instruments. I particularly enjoy the caterpillar drummer gag.


One of Mickey's specialties in these early song-and-dance toons is using various animals as instruments; here he uses a turtle to play a drum and a mule to play cymbals. Mickey and Minnie seem to be master musicians as they can both play horns while pounding on the piano with their feet.

As the song plays on, curious Pluto begins to sniff around even more. As he moves along, he passes a string of signs warning (in different languages) of explosive danger ahead.

This toon is placed in the From the Vault section of the DVD for the joke included here. The Hebrew sign not only is shaped like a stereotypical Jew, but the "hat" atop the sign becomes a turtle who does a stereotypical Jewish dance.

Pluto makes his way to the dynamite site where, funnily enough, Peg-Leg Pete can be seen in a brief cameo. As the dynamite is thrown, Pluto decides to play a game of fetch and brings the explosive back to Mickey and Minnie.

In a funny gag, all of Pluto's fleas flee the dog in order to avoid the explosive blast.

Right on cue, the dynamite explodes in perfect unison with the music. As the dust settles we see Mickey, Minnie, and a now hairless mule still playing on with just as much joy.