''Mickey's Circus'' is an animated short film produced by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

and released August 1, 1936. Known crew include director

Ben Sharpsteen Benjamin Sharpsteen (November 4, 1895 – December 20, 1980) was an American film director and producer for The Walt Disney Company, Disney. He directed 31 films between 1920 and 1980. Sharpsteen created a museum documenting the history of C ...

and animators

Milt Kahl Milton Erwin Kahl (March 22, 1909 – April 19, 1987) was an American animator. He was one of (and often considered the most influential of) Walt Disney's supervisory team of animators, known as Disney's Nine Old Men. Biography Kahl was born ...

Frank Thomas Frank Edward Thomas Jr. (born May 27, 1968), nicknamed "the Big Hurt," is an American former professional baseball designated hitter and first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for three American League (AL) teams from 1990 to ...

Al Eugster Alfred Julius Eugster (February 11, 1909 – January 1, 1997) was an American animator, writer, and film director. He worked for a number of American animation studios, including Fleischer Studios, the Iwerks Studio, Walt Disney Productions, ...

Shamus Culhane James H. "Shamus" Culhane (November 12, 1908 – February 2, 1996) was an American animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for his work in the Golden age of American animation. Career Shamus Culhane worked for a number of ...

, and Errol Gray. It was the 87th Mickey Mouse short film to be released, the eighth of that year. Although the film is called ''Mickey's Circus'', the film mostly features

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

, but

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

does feature in the beginning and end. Also featured are a trio of trained sea lions, a young sea lion pup, and an audience full of children.

Plot

Mickey Mouse is hosting a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

featuring Donald Duck and a trio of

sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...

s. Children from all over come to see the circus. After Mickey introduces the performers, the show starts. Donald enters the ring only to be stampeded by the sea lions and a young sea lion pup. The first act is

juggling Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object o ...

, in which the sea lions and Donald juggle

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

s that land on their noses. When the stunt is finished, the sea lions beg to be fed, throwing their balls at Donald and pointing to their mouths. Before Donald can feed the last sea lion, the pup intervenes and steals the fish. The resulting tug-of-war ends in the sea lions fighting over the fish. The next act is playing the

organ pipe An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonator, resonates at a specific Pitch (music), pitch when pressurized air (commonly referred to as ''wind'') is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a note of the musical ...

, but the sea lion cannot do it right. The pup interferes again and plays the tune "

Yankee Doodle "Yankee Doodle" is a traditional song and nursery rhyme, the early versions of which predate the Seven Years' War and American Revolutionary War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today. It is the state song of the U.S. ...

" instead, but the crowd cheers anyway. The pup distracts Donald to the point where Donald loses his temper, tries to attack the pup, and gets stuck in a drum. To add insult to injury, the whole crowd starts imitating him. Donald regains control, however, by driving the sea lions away from the basket of fish with his pistol. Subsequently, the sea lion refuses to perform, unless fed first. When Donald gets out a fish, the sea lion plays the tune rapidly, earning applause and prompting Donald to throw him a fish as a reward, but the sea lions fight over the fish again, destroying the organ pipe in the process. The pup steals the fish again and Donald chases; there follows a fast chase around the arena, which includes Donald chasing the pup through a

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...

and Mickey attempting to intervene. The spectators fire the cannon, shooting Mickey and Donald out and resulting in Mickey landing on a

tightrope Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

and Donald hanging from a hook within the fish basket. When a spectator cuts Donald's basket loose, he falls, lands on a circus bike and shouts at Mickey to move out the way while ringing the bell frantically and cycling across the rope. The spectators oil the rope, causing Donald's bike to run backward and splatter Mickey, go over Mickey's pole, bounce back from the start, and end up on top of Mickey's pole. When the spectators throw a

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...

at Mickey, Donald's bike is bounced off but Donald gets back by driving through thin air and Mickey is loaded on as well. The climax ensues when the spectators turn up the

voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...

to high, electrocuting Mickey and Donald and splitting the bike (and rope) in half, causing Mickey and Donald to fall. The two land in the seal tank, only to be hit by a fish thrown by the pup, and the film ends with the sea lions beating up Mickey and Donald as they fight over the fish in the tank.

Production

In ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age'',

Michael Barrier Michael J. Barrier (born June 15, 1940) is an American animation historian, author, and critic, best known for his extensive research on the history of American animation and comic art. He is the author of ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animat ...

discusses ''Mickey's Circus'' in a passage about stenographers' transcripts of Walt Disney in story meetings: Although no animators were credited, it was reported that

, Woolie Reitherman,

Bernard Wolf Bernard "Berny" Wolf (July 18, 1911 - September 7, 2006) was an American animator and television producer. Biography Wolf was born in New York City. His career in animation started either in 1924, or 1927. He began work as an inker on Charles M ...

, Fred Spencer, James Culhane, Frank Kelling, Don Patterson,

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered t ...

Larry Clemmons Larry Clemmons (November 25, 1906 – July 22, 1988) was an American animator, screenwriter and voice actor who was a writer for Bing Crosby on his various radio programs and one of the original animators for The Walt Disney Company. Career Cle ...

Jack Hannah John Fredrick Hannah (January 5, 1913 – June 11, 1994) was an American animator, writer and director of animated shorts. He worked for Disney and Walter Lantz. Biography Hannah was born on January 5, 1913, in Nogales, Arizona. After attend ...

, Chuck Couch, Dick Williams,

, Eddie Strickland, Jim Algar, Marvin Woodward, John McManus and Milt Schaffer have worked on this short. Emil Flohri and Carlos Manriquez are also noted to be the short's background artists.

Voice cast

* Mickey Mouse:

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

* Donald Duck:

Clarence Nash Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor and impressionist. He is best remembered as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of W ...

* Salty the Seal:

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

Home media

The short was released on December 4, 2001, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color''.

References

External links