Gulliver Mickey

Though Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoons made excellence use of music, they were nonetheless more action-packed and faster-moving than their "Silly Symphony" counterparts, and 'Gulliver Mickey (1934)' is an ideal demonstration of these contrasts. Set on entertaining his young nieces and nephews, Mickey invents a tale about his being shipwrecked on an island of Lilliputians, borrowing no small amount from Jonathon Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." After being tied down by flimsy ropes, the giant Mickey is bombarded by a seemingly endless barrage of cannonballs, all of which seem to bounce off harmlessly, and, indeed, Mickey even appears to be enjoying the treatment. Brushing aside arrows and cannons as though they are raindrops, he tramps through the miniature city, plays in the water with mini battleships, and takes particular delight in harassing the rear-end of the squeaky-voiced Lilliputian army commander.

All this fun comes to an end, however, when Mickey is accosted by an immense, six-legged spider-type creature, which chuckles an annoying laugh as it batters our hero across the face with its hands. Of course, this being Mickey's story, he eventually emerges victorious, recreating his triumph in the living-room by pummelling a pillow. Stylistically, there is nothing particularly notable about 'Gulliver Mickey,' and the black-and-white animation is substantially less attractive than the Technicolor Symphonies, such as 'The China Shop (1934)' and 'The Tortoise and the Hare (1934),' which were released the same year. Additionally, though the story is fast-moving, the cartoon does dedicate a lot of time to Mickey being battered with cannons, which is entertaining to watch but also somewhat unenlightening. For fans of Mickey Mouse and posterior-themed sight gags, you can certainly do a lot worse than 'Gulliver Mickey.'