''Fishin' Around'' 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 ...

. It was the thirty-second short in 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, and the eighth produced that year.

Plot

takes 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 ...

on a fishing trip, rowing out onto a lake. Mickey sees a "No Fishing" sign, but he breaks it and throws it into the water. Mickey drops his line in the water, and Pluto attaches a fishing line to the end of his tail as well. One fish expertly eats the worm from Mickey's hook, then sticks out his tongue at the fisherman. The fish also tease Pluto, getting him mixed up in a corset and luring him down into the water, where he's tickled by an eel. In another gag, a group of fish dance around Mickey's bait can, feasting on the worms while Mickey's not looking. Under the water, Pluto chases a fish into a cave; an enormous fish chases him out of the cave and across the lake bottom. An old goat gamekeeper tries to arrest Mickey for fishing in a prohibited area, but with Pluto using his tail as an outboard motor, the pair easily get away. Mickey closes the cartoon by sticking out his tongue at the official.

Production

The cartoon recycles some animation from previous Mickey Mouse shorts, including Norm Ferguson's animation of Pluto sniffing along the ground from '' The Chain Gang''.

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 ...

* Pluto: Lee Millar

Reception

In a contemporary review, ''

Motion Picture Herald The ''Motion Picture Herald'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1931 to December 1972.Anthony Slide, ed. (1985)''International Film, Radio, and Television Journals'' Greenwood Press. p. 242. It was replaced by the ''QP Herald ...

'' said that "the fish that are not caught do some delightful tap dancing and a classical music score becomes infectious with merriment." In ''Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse'', Gijs Grob writes: "Like ''

Traffic Troubles ''Traffic Troubles'' is a Mickey Mouse short animated film first released on March 7, 1931, as part of the ''Mickey Mouse'' film series. It was the twenty-sixth Mickey Mouse short to be produced, and the second of 1931. Plot Mickey is driving an ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', and ''

The Beach Party This is a list of animated short films produced by Walt Disney and Walt Disney Animation Studios from 1921 to the present. This includes films produced at the Laugh-O-Gram Studio which Disney founded in 1921 as well as the animation studio now o ...

'' from the same year, ''Fishin' Around'' is a genuine gag cartoon. It is the weakest of the lot, however, and can hardly be called a classic". That said, Grob acknowledges that the short demonstrates how the Disney studio improved the quality of its animation, particularly the reflections of Mickey and Pluto on the water at the beginning of the film. ''Animated Short Films: A Critical Index to Theatrical Cartoons'' called it "a very pleasant cartoon, featuring underwater chases and some clever gags."

Home media

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

Television

''Fishin' Around'' 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 29).

References

External links

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