''The Fire Fighters'' is a

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 ...

short animated film first released on June 20, 1930, as part of the ''

'' film series. It was the nineteenth Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the fourth of that year. The cartoon's cast includes Mickey Mouse,

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 ...

and

Horace Horsecollar Horace Horsecollar is a cartoon character created in 1928 at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Horace is a tall anthropomorphic black horse and is one of Mickey Mouse's best friends. Characterized as a boastful show-off, Horace served as Mickey’s ...

as Mickey's horse.

Plot

Mickey Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and a team of animal

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

s are

sleeping Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a de ...

in the

firehouse __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire h ...

when the

alarm An alarm device is a mechanism that gives an audible, visual or other kind of alarm signal to alert someone to a problem or condition that requires urgent attention. Alphabetical musical instruments Etymology The word ''alarm'' comes from th ...

bell rings. Everyone gets dressed and heads out to a burning

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

building, where Minnie Mouse is trapped on the upper floor. Mickey heroically saves her using the

clothesline A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points (e.g. two sticks), outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line t ...

after she passes out. Minnie starts regaining

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

by the time they reached the ground and realizes who her savior is. The mice couple sing out each other’s name,

kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

ing and embracing each other as the film irises out.

Production

This film owes a debt to one of Disney's "

Alice Comedies The ''Alice Comedies'' are a series of animated/live-action shorts created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live action little girl named Alice (originally played by Virginia Davis) and an animated cat named Julius have adventures in an ...

"; in the 1926 short ''Alice the Fire Fighter'',

Julius the Cat Julius the Cat is a cartoon animal character created in 1922 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. He first appeared in the very first animated series created by Walt Disney, the ''Alice Comedies'', making him the predecessor of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit a ...

rushes to Alice's rescue when she is trapped in the burning building. The storyline is essentially the same in both cartoons. The original outline included a sequence in which Mickey Mouse plays music at the firehouse before the alarm rings; the finished cartoon begins with the fire fighters sleeping. The music includes a spirited rendition of the 1896 ragtime hit "

There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight "A Hot Time in the Old Town", also titled as "There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", is an American popular song, copyrighted and perhaps composed in 1896 by Theodore August Metz with lyrics by Joe Hayden. Metz was the band leader of t ...

", played and sung as the fire fighters rush to the fire. Original prints of this film had the fire scenes tinted red. Mickey would fight fire again in 1935's ''

Mickey's Fire Brigade ''Mickey's Fire Brigade'' is a 1935 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. The cartoon stars Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy employed as firefighters responding to a hotel fire. I ...

''.

Voice actors

* 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 ...

Reception

In ''Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse'', Gijs Grob points out, "''The Fire Fighters'' is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon since ''

The Gallopin' Gaucho ''The Gallopin' Gaucho'' is the second short film featuring Mickey Mouse to be produced, following ''Plane Crazy'' and preceding ''Steamboat Willie''. The Disney studios completed the silent version in August 1928, but did not release it in order ...

'' to tell a straightforward story. The animation may be primitive and rather crude, and some of the movement rather slow, but the cartoon is packed with gags, and leads to an exciting finale that spotlights Mickey's heroic character... ''The Fire Fighters'' is one of the best of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons, and certainly Mickey's best short of 1930." On the ''Disney Film Project'', Ryan Kilpatrick writes: "''The Fire Fighters'' is a great use of the character in his new role as the loveable loser. The bravado filled Mickey of the early shorts would not have worked in this cartoon, but Mickey as the hapless fire chief works really well... Mickey’s personality is great in this as well, showing his frustration with the hydrant or the fear of whether he’ll be able to save Minnie or not. He really is a character here, not just a collection of drawings, and that’s the way he's been evolving throughout this period." ''

Motion Picture News The ''Motion Picture News'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1913 to 1930. History The publication was created through the 1913 merger of the ''Moving Picture News'' founded in 1908 and ''The Exhibitors' Times'', founded ...

'' (November 15, 1930): "Here's another reason why the Mickey Mouse comedies maintain their lead in the comedy field, even though the public is pretty much fed on some of the repetitious stuff in cartoons generally. The laughs come thick and fast. Mickey is a fireman in this and with his trusty company dashes out to save the fair young maiden. He does it to the tune of a lot of laughs."

Home media

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

Television

The short was also seen on ''

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 86).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fire Fighters 1930 Film Mickey Mouse short films 1930s Disney animated short films 1930 short films American black-and-white films 1930s English-language films 1930 animated films 1930 films Films produced by Walt Disney American comedy short films Columbia Pictures short films Columbia Pictures animated short films Films about firefighting 1930s American films