Friday, February 12, 2010

Welcome To Silly Symphonize

There's a new blog out there celebrating another facet of Disney animation: Silly Symphonize! A sister site to Mickey Mouse Follies, Silly Symphonize focuses on the Silly Symphonies cartoon series produced by the Walt Disney Company from 1929 to 1939. Full of details and photos from each cartoon, the site promises to give you info about this groundbreaking animated series.


Stop by and enjoy :)

Sunday, February 7, 2010

The Grocery Boy - February 11, 1932

56th in the Mickey Mouse short film library is the gem The Grocery Boy. This toon stars Mickey as a grocery boy delivering food to sweetheart Minnie. Pluto also tags along and causes quite the disturbance.


The toon opens with Grocery Boy Mickey preparing a basket of food for one of his loyal customers. He and pal Pluto delightfully weigh potatoes.


Suddenly the phone rings. On the line is a very agitated Minnie Mouse wondering where on earth her groceries are.


Mickey assures his love that her food is on the way, and just for good measure he "gives" her a kiss through the telephone. By this time, Mickey's and Minnie's relationship has been firmly established by their films together. It's funny and cute to see Mickey act like a love-sick teenager.


Minnie immediately hangs up the phone, appalled by Mickey's crass behavior. Of course, any girl can't help but smile after being given a kiss by Mickey Mouse.


As Mickey hurries over to Minnie's house (it's literally about 3 houses over), Minnie prepares herself for her boyfriend's arrival by putting on her face. The gag used her is great as Minnie pulls a puff out from her...chest.


Minnie is in love with Mickey, but she still enjoys being the diva every now and again. Once Mickey delivers the food, Minnie decides to give him the cold shoulder.


Believing Minnie really does want him to leave, Mickey reaches for what he thinks is the door handle only to find the ironing closet. As the ironing board crashes down on his head, the iron itself smashes his face flat.


Distraught over Mickey's injury, Minnie rushes to her lover's side. Her kiss upon Mickey's head bump allows it to magically disappear.


With their love banter over, Mickey and Minnie can start making dinner. As Minnie stirs the cake mix, Mickey peels beans while the pots on the stove bubble over-- all to music of course!


As the mice are busy, hungry Pluto spots the turkey just sitting in the oven. Minnie immediately catches the dog eying the meal, and her screams cause Pluto to run for his life with turkey in mouth.


The chase is on as Mickey runs after Pluto to save the turkey from certain destruction.


Pluto manages to get the tablecloth wrapped around his body, and as Mickey hangs on for dear life a bust of Napoleon knocks off its pedestal and onto the Mouse's head.


The Grocery Boy is part of the banned toons "From the Vault" because of this scene where the Napoleon head bust becomes a blackface character after Pluto crashes into the furnace.


Finally Minnie and Mickey manage to corner Pluto under the dining table. But the pup gets the upper hand as he pulls the turkey from Mickey's hands. At the same time, Minnie accidentally causes the table to expand, and the beautiful cake she made splats onto Mickey's head.


In the end, the dinner doesn't matter as long as these two lovebirds are together.


The Grocery Boy is a simple story with a lot of heart. The toon greatly showcases Mickey's and Minnie's personalities, and it's always fun to watch the two fall even more in love with each other.