Thru the Mirror

Thru the Mirror is a Mickey Mouse cartoon short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists in 1936. In this cartoon short, Mickey has a Through the Looking-Glass-type dream that he travels through his mirror and enters a topsy-turvy world where everything is alive. While there, he engages in a Fred Astaire dance number with a pair of gloves and a pack of cards, until the cards chase him out of the bizarre world. It was the 83rd Mickey Mouse short film to be released, the fourth of that year.[2]

Thru the Mirror
Directed byDavid Hand
Produced byWalt Disney
Story byWilliam Cottrell
Joe Grant
StarringWalt Disney
Music byFrank Churchill
Leigh Harline
Paul J. Smith
Animation byBob Wickersham
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
May 30, 1936[1]
Running time
8 min (one reel)
LanguageEnglish

The title is written as Thru the Mirror on the title card, but the alternative spelling Through the Mirror is used on the poster for the film. In addition, the short film is a parody of the book, Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll.

Synopsis

Mickey falls asleep after reading Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. An astral projection of himself (presumably Mickey in his dream state) leaves his body and passes through his mirror into an alternate version of his house. His furniture and possessions have come to life and are complete with faces and personalities, but most of them remain motionless. He jumps on a rocking chair that throws him off in annoyance while a nearby coat rack watches in surprise, and lands on the footrest that behaves like a puppy while Mickey rides on it like a horse until it jumps into the rocking chair. While the chair tries to calm down the footrest, Mickey tries to comfort them, only to end up angering them instead. He bumps into an umbrella, who scolds him until it suddenly drops open and re-closes itself in embarrassment before returning to where it originally was. Mickey then comes across a nut cracker breaking open a walnut and offers it to him while it eats the shells. After eating the walnut, Mickey's lower body commences to wildly spin around, and it hits his face. While his lower body crazily spins, he suddenly becomes gigantic and then shrinks. The telephone suddenly rings and it throws its receiver down to Mickey, who uses it to climb up to the table. He attempts to answer the call, only to get responses from the phone itself and then proceeds to jump rope with the telephone, who uses its receiver and wire as a jump rope while the radio begins playing music. Mickey begins to dance his way through his house, tap dancing on a top hat (wearing a tiny one with a match for a cane) with some gloves (eventually he gets his butt kicked twice by the gloves), playing cards (some of them hit Mickey's butt during the dance), and eventually the Queen of Hearts card (who resembles Greta Garbo). The joker on his bicycle notices and alerts the King of Hearts who uses the joker's bike to get down there and pulls the queen aside before proceeding to fight for his lady in a sword duel with Mickey, who uses both a sewing needle and a button as a makeshift sword after the King of Hearts pushes him and gets his butt stabbed by the needle. Mickey defeats the king by pushing him into an inkwell, where a stamp takes him out and cleans him. Considering this as the last straw, the king then orders for the cards to be called out to get rid of Mickey for good and the radio acts as an alarm to summon the cards like police cars - "Calling all cards! Calling all cards!" in which some come out from the king's throne and some come out from a drawer. Chaos ensues as Mickey runs from the cards. He picks up a fountain pen, hides in a basket of yarn, and uses the pen like a machine gun to fire ink at the cards while wearing a thimble-like a helmet. The pen eventually runs out of ink, allowing the cards to pig-pile on Mickey, who then escapes in a torn sock. After being spotted, the cards give chase again and throw their pictures at him. Mickey then turns on an electric fan to blow the cards back while the telephone calls the police in panic as Mickey swings from a lamp rope and runs on a globe until he trips and falls into the globe's Bay of Bengal and is thrown out by a figure, who appears to be a small version of Neptune, by impaling Mickey's butt. He then grows back to his normal size and escapes back to the real world through the mirror where he reenters his body. Eventually, he is awakened by his alarm clock and it has all been a dream and goes back to sleep after throwing his alarm clock into a drawer.

Releases

Trivia
  • This cartoon was featured, and referenced, in the 2002 video game Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse.
  • Some elements from the cartoon like the cards and the opening were used in Epic Mickey.
  • The song during the magic gloves dance scene was used for the Walt Disney Mini Classics promos during their movie's end.
  • The melody during Mickey’s marching with the cards in the middle of the film is a jazzed-up version of the music used in another 1932 cartoon classic, Santa’s Workshop. The music theme is based on Franz Schubert: Military March Op. 51 No. 1, in D Major.
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See also

References
  1. Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-5284-4.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
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