''The Delivery Boy'' is a 1931 American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

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 ...

directed by

Burt Gillett Burton F. Gillett (October 15, 1891 – December 28, 1971) was a Film director, director of animation, animated films. He is noted for his Silly Symphonies work for Walt Disney Pictures, Disney, particularly the 1932 short film ''Flowers and Tree ...

, produced by

Walt Disney Productions 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 ...

and distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. Being part of the ''

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 ...

'' film series, it was the twenty-ninth Mickey Mouse short to be produced, and the fifth of 1931.

Plot

Mickey Mouse is driving a rickety donkey cart piled high with musical instruments, with his dog

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 ...

running alongside. They stop when they reach Minnie's house, and spy on her while she is washing and hanging up clothes. She is singing "

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree is a popular song dating from 1905. It was written by Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne (music). Popular recordings in 1905 were by Henry Burr; Albert Campbell; Haydn Quartet; and by Arthur Pryor's Band. ...

", and her enthusiasm is so infectious that even the laundry is dancing along. Mickey mischievously hides in a large pair of bloomers hanging on the line, teasing her by singing along and twanging her tail. Catching on to his trick, she drops him into the washtub, which breaks. That puts a stop to Minnie's laundry chores, so the mice break into a jazzy Charleston dance number. Excited by the dance, Mickey punches a hornet's nest off a branch, and it lands on the donkey's tail. In his panic, the donkey smashes the cart to pieces, and the musical instruments land all over the barnyard. Undaunted by this disaster, Minnie asks Mickey to play the piano for her, and they break into a spirited duet of "

The Stars and Stripes Forever "The Stars and Stripes Forever" is a patriotic American march written and composed by John Philip Sousa in 1896. By a 1987 act of the U.S. Congress, it is the official National March of the United States of America. History In his 1928 autobi ...

". The animals all play along, and everything is jolly until Pluto investigates a nearby road crew's work, and picks up a lit stick of dynamite. Thinking that he is fetching a stick, Pluto brings the dynamite back to Mickey and Minnie, and it blows the mice into the sky. Even that fails to dampen their spirits, and they conclude the number with a flourish.

Production

The Charleston sequence was animated by Dick Lundy, the studio's dance specialist.

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 ...

makes a brief cameo, as one of the road crew.

Reception

In ''Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse'', Gijs Grob writes: "This short is as joyous as it is boring. After three years of song-and-dance routines, one grows tired of it. Morever, cartoons like '' Traffic Troubles'' and ''

The Moose Hunt ''The Moose Hunt'' is a Mickey Mouse short animated film first released on April 30, 1931, as part of the '' Mickey Mouse'' film series. It was the twenty-eighth Mickey Mouse short to be produced and the fourth of 1931. This is the first cartoo ...

'' had proven that Mickey could do very well without them... Pluto's storyline, however brief, is the most interesting aspect of the cartoon, as it contains the germinal idea of a grand finale. Indeed, Pluto would cause havoc again in subsequent films, like '' Mickey Steps Out'' (1931), '' Mickey Cuts Up'' (1931), and ''

The Grocery Boy ''Mickey Mouse'' (originally known as ''Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons'') is a series of American animated comedy short films produced by Walt Disney Productions. The series started in 1928 with Steamboat Willie and ended in 1953 with '' The Simpl ...

'' (1932). In these films the song-and-dance routine would give way to well-built gag-filled finales, of which the one in ''The Delivery Boy'' is only an embryonic version."

Voice cast

* Mickey Mouse:

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 ...

* Minnie Mouse:

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 ...

* Pluto: Nixon Bortamè

Home media

The short was released on December 7, 2004 on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two: 1929-1935''., in the "From The Vault" bonus section.

Television

It was included in the TV show ''

The Mickey Mouse Club ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised fo ...

'' (Season 1, Episode 33).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Delivery Boy Mickey Mouse short films 1930s Disney animated short films 1931 short films American black-and-white films 1931 animated films 1931 films Films produced by Walt Disney American comedy films Columbia Pictures short films Columbia Pictures animated short films Films directed by Burt Gillett 1930s English-language films 1930s American films