''Building a Building'' is a 1933 American animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

produced by Walt Disney Production and released by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

. A remake of the 1928

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit) is a cartoon character created in 1927 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. He starred in several animated short films released to theaters from 1927 to 19 ...

film ''Sky Scrappers'', the cartoon depicts

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

working at a construction site under the supervision of

Peg-Leg Pete Pete (also called Peg-Leg Pete, Bad Pete and Black Pete, among other names) is a fictional character of The Walt Disney Company. Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, Pete is traditionally depicted as the Archenemy, arch-nemesis of Mickey Mouse ...

while

Minnie Mouse Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, white bloomers, and low-heeled shoes occasionally w ...

is selling box lunches to the workers. It was directed by David Hand, his first directorial assignment at Disney, and features the voices of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

as Mickey,

Marcellite Garner Edna Marcellite Garner ( ; July 3, 1910 – July 26, 1993) was an American artist and voice actress. She is most remembered as the first regular voice of Minnie Mouse during her time working at Walt Disney Productions and has been partially c ...

as Minnie, and

Pinto Colvig Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Co ...

as Pete. It was the 51st Mickey Mouse short film, and the first of that year. The film was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

at the

6th Academy Awards The 6th Academy Awards were held on March 16, 1934, to honor films released between August 1, 1932 and December 31, 1933, at Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles), The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Will Rogers, who ...

, but lost to Disney's own ''Three Little Pigs''. This was the second Mickey Mouse cartoon nominated for an Oscar.

Plot

Mickey is operating a steam shovel at a construction site. Minnie appears on a cart pulled by

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

; she is selling box lunches to the workers. After he uses the steam shovel to retrieve Minnie's hat (which had blown off and landed by him), Mickey accidentally throws dirt from the steam shovel onto

(whose peg leg is on the left leg rather than the right), the foreman, causing him to get angry and shout, "HEY!!! Don't put dirt on the blueprint! What do you think you're doing?!". Mickey hurriedly brings up a load of bricks in a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, Pete sees Minnie and flirts with her, though she is not interested. Mickey, distracted by Minnie, accidentally drops the bricks on Pete, who literally shouts out, "Hey, you blankety blank baboon!" Finally, Mickey himself falls through Pete's blueprint. Pete has had enough and starts to strangle Mickey, but just then it is noon and an anthropomorphic steam whistle sounds for lunch. Mickey settles down to eat a fish sandwich, but it is stolen by Pete. Minnie offers to give him a box lunch for free. As Mickey is eating the lunch, Pete abducts Minnie from above with a crane. Mickey chases after Pete, and finally wrestles with him high up on the building. Minnie grabs a pan of red-hot rivets and drops them down Pete's pants. This gives the mice enough time to run away as Pete pours water down his pants. In the process of chasing Mickey and Minnie, Pete has an anvil fall on his head and fires rivets at them with a handheld pneumatic hammer. This turns on him when the hammer falls into his pants and gets attached to his peg leg. The mice escape down a chute riding a wheelbarrow, while Pete falls into a cement mixer and accidentally dismantles a large portion of the building. Once he hits the ground, Pete proclaims that Mickey is fired. Mickey immediately goes into business with Minnie selling box lunches.

Reception

Piotr Borowiec said that this cartoon has better animation, stronger story lines, and better gags than the previous ones. Studio art instructor Don Graham taught a class in which students studied live-action films and compared them to

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

cartoons. In the class, the students compared

Elmer Elephant ''Elmer Elephant'' is a ''Silly Symphony'' cartoon short produced by The Walt Disney Company, directed by Wilfred Jackson and released on March 28, 1936. Plot Elmer Elephant arrives in the yard below Tillie Tiger's treehouse, where several oth ...

and this cartoon. The students said that ''Building a Building'' was better.

Michael Barrier Michael J. Barrier (born June 15, 1940) is an American animation historian. Work Barrier was the founder and editor of ''Funnyworld'', the first magazine exclusively devoted to comics and animation. It began as a contribution to the CAPA-Alpha a ...

disagreed about their decision, but he said that the students did have a point.

Voice cast

* Mickey Mouse:

* Minnie Mouse:

* Pegleg Pete:

Home media

The short was released on December 2, 2002, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White''.

In popular culture

* ''Building a Building'' is an area in the Timeless River world in the 2005 video game ''

Kingdom Hearts II is a 2005 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios, Buena Vista Games for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to ''Kingdom Hearts (video game), King ...

''. Other shorts that are featured as areas of that world are ''

Steamboat Willie ''Steamboat Willie'' is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black and white by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios and was released by Pat Powers, under the name of Celeb ...

'', ''

Gulliver Mickey ''Gulliver Mickey'' is a black and white short cartoon in the '' Mickey Mouse'' series, produced by Walt Disney and released by United Artists in 1934. It was the 66th Mickey Mouse short film to be released, and the fourth of that year. Plot Mic ...

'', '' The Fire Fighters'' and ''

Mickey's Orphans ''Mickey's Orphans'' is a 1931 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Columbia Pictures. The cartoon takes place during Christmas time and stars Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and Pluto, who take in a group ...

''. * The steam shovel Mickey pilots in this short reappeared in the 2010 video game ''

Epic Mickey ''Epic Mickey'' is a 2010 platform game for the Wii developed by Junction Point Studios and published by Disney Interactive Studios, except in Japan, where it was published by Nintendo. The game focuses on Mickey Mouse, who accidentally damag ...

'' during the Mickeyjunk Mountain level, while the short itself appears as a 2D level in the 2012 sequel '' Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two''.

References