Title: The Pointer
Studio: Disney
Date: 7/21/39
Credits: None listed on print
Series: Mickey Mouse
Running time (of viewed version): 8:34
Synopsis: Mickey and Pluto go bird and bear hunting, but end up eating beans.
Comments: The first regular theatrical release of the additionally anthropomorphic Mickey (who, incidentally, appears to be famous within the context of the cartoon, as he tries to get out of trouble using his celebrity). Maybe he started to enter the uncanny valley, which would explain why flesh tone Mickey is significantly more creepy than bloodless Mickey. This initial beige version isn't as bad as it would get later tho. Somehow i think the backgrounds give the impression of more controlled movement than some other Disney cartoons of the year. Mickey's high pitched insults are unpleasant. Reminds me of Dave Chappelle's standup bit using the character (which reflects more on Chappelle's accuracy than anything else). The bear is good looking. Lots of camera movement. Lots of shading on the characters (especially Pluto). I can recall Pluto having to hold still in the face of the quails, and the beans, but I don't really remember the bear bit. Not much happens in the cartoon, but it doesn't really drag. While the painted beans look great, the cel beans have happy lines emanating from the beans. I wonder if the choice between beans and bears was an intentional written pun.
Quite possibly one of my top ten favorite Mickey shorts. Great animation of Mickey's conflict with the bear.
ReplyDeleteAmazingly, there's some very early animation reuse here. When Pluto sniffs at the "camera," it's adapted from a sequence that appeared almost ten years earlier in THE CHAIN GANG (see 6:48 here), THE PICNIC (see 5:40 here), and FISHIN' AROUND (see 3:50 here). Pluto's model is updated, but very little else.
ReplyDeleteWhile you said that all Disney cartoons of the year is worst, I can't understand what's bad in this cartoon. Can you explain?
ReplyDeleteWhile I think Disney was the worst studio for the year, that doesn't mean I think all the Disney cartoons are the worst cartoons of the year. Just that the studio itself had the least worthwhile output for the year on the whole. There are many non-Disney cartoons worse than this one in '39. Even so, this is not an especially good cartoon; as I mentioned , I feel it drags on, if not as badly as much of its Disney brethren for the year.
ReplyDeleteAlso, beige Mickey.
If looking at this cartoon from the point of story development, I can say that it's the worst cartoon that they done. It's sooo slow.
ReplyDelete