Mickey's Garden
Mickey's Garden is a 1935 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. The film was the second Mickey Mouse cartoon shot in Technicolor (after The Band Concert) and is also the first color appearance of Pluto. The cartoon is also the first color cartoon where Mickey speaks (though he only does so at the end when Pluto starts licking him). The film's plot centers on Mickey Mouse trying to rid his garden of insects, but they keep coming back. When he accidentally gets hit with his own bug spray, he begins seeing a warped reality.[3] It was the 76th Mickey Mouse short film to be released, and the fifth of that year.[4]. The only bit of dialogue is during the last 20 seconds when Mickey tells Pluto to stop licking him.
| Mickey's Garden | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Wilfred Jackson[1] |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Walt Disney Pinto Colvig |
| Music by | Leigh Harline |
| Animation by | Art Babbitt Frenchy DeTremaudan Dick Huemer |
| Layouts by | Ollie Johnston |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8 minutes 49 seconds |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
Mickey's garden is being invaded by insects. Mickey, in an attempt to get rid of them, uses insecticide, but it eventually runs out, and the insects are able to continue eating. Mickey goes back and attempts to make some more insecticide.
The insects return and resume eating all the food in the garden. Mickey comes back and tries to poison the bugs, but the pump is blocked and Mickey tries to unblock it. At the same time, Pluto is following a stag beetle. It bites him on the nose. When it teases him from atop a plant, he lunges at it and gets his head stuck inside a pumpkin. He runs about it with the pumpkin on his head and bumps into Mickey, making him get hit by his own bug spray, after which he begins seeing hallucinations.
Mickey finds himself in an imaginary world where he, his house, and Pluto have shrunk and the bugs and plants have grown giant. The giant bugs proceed to drink the insecticide, but instead of killing them, it makes them drunk. They notice Mickey and Pluto and chase them for revenge. After encounters with a worm and a beetle, Mickey and Pluto climb up and hide in a flower but are stung by a bee and fall out of it. Pluto lands on a caterpillar who throws him in the air. He is then swallowed by a hiccuping firefly. Mickey lands on a leaf but a drunk grasshopper saws off the leaf with its leg. Mickey falls and lands in a tomato with a worm, which he proceeds to ride (in the style of Charlie Chaplin) and then wrestle.
Eventually Mickey wakes up and discovers, much to his delight, that the worm he was wrestling was really his hose. Pluto manages to break free from the pumpkin and catapults it onto Mickey by accident, and starts licking him.
Voice cast
- Mickey Mouse: Walt Disney
- Pluto: Pinto Colvig[5]
Releases
- 1935 - theatrical release
- 1988 - Mickey's 60th Birthday
Home media
The short was released on the 2001 DVD set, Mickey Mouse in Living Color.
See also
References
- Smith, Dave (1996). "Band Concert, The". Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Hyperion. pp. 40–41. ISBN 0-7868-8149-6.
- Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-5284-4.
- "Mickey's Garden (1935)". IMDb. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- Hischak, Thomas S. (2011). Disney Voice Actors: A Biographical Dictionary. McFarland & Company. p. 256. ISBN 978-0786462711. Retrieved 15 February 2020.