Day 9: Doctor, Doctor…
October 9, 2022
Dear Disney,
Some of the early Mickey Mouse shorts were completely unknown to me and Darling. It appears that sometimes, some things should remain unknown. Today’s short is one of them. When this short was originally released it was banned in two Western Countries due to the unsettling material. Tonight’s feature is “Mickey Mouse and the Mad Doctor”.
“Mickey Mouse and the Mad Doctor” was the 1933 feature short, the 52nd Mickey Mouse short completed by the Walt Disney company and the second short of that year, which is saying something as the release date was January 21, 1933, with Walt Disney providing the voice for Mickey Mouse himself.
The plot of the short is that Mickey hears Pluto being kidnapped by an unknown assailant. Mickey follows the kidnapper to his hide where he finds out that the kidnapper is the mad doctor, Dr. XXX. The point of view returns to Pluto who is fighting the Mad Doctor and is finally caged. The Mad Doctor describes an experiment that he is going to perform, placing the Pluto’s head on the body of a chicken. Eventually Mickey is also captured and placed on a rack. A buzz saw is lowered and attempts to saw Mickey in half. The short fades to black and opens back onto Mickey’s bed where he has wrapped himself around his blankets. He wakes up, calls for Pluto, and laughs and hugs Pluto when the dog jumps through the window.
Some of the scenes are disturbing to modern audiences, let alone those of that time; however, a newspaper of the time called it “one of the liveliest animated cartoons to come along, and plenty comical.” That observation is mind-boggling. I feel as if I am going to have nightmares after seeing this short.
That being said, for 1933, the animation is perfection. Everything is hand drawn, no rotoscoping to my knowledge, with clean, crips lines. There is a scene where Mickey is walking down a hallway with a vanishing point on multiple axis: no imperfections or blemishes at all.
As nightmarish as this short is, I strongly believe that this short is a great treasure in Disney’s vault. It now resides within Public Domain and there is no reason anyone should miss out on this. This will not be a favorite of mine, but it was worth the time to watch and review.
Sincerely,
Jim Dear
