On Ice (1935)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"On Ice" is a Disney cartoon from 1935 that features some of the company's most known like Ben Sharpsteen a while before his Oscar wins and voice actors Disney, Nash, Colvig and Garner. This one here is already over 80 years old and even if it may have color, you can see from the characters' looks that this is a very old one as the gang is far from their final form here visually. The plot is very symbolic for cartoons from that time because first of all every character gets their introduction and then the story slowly moves them towards each other with eventually everybody (except Minnie) being united, even if an almost-catastrophe is the reason for that. Sadly the second half of this cartoon was so weak that it clearly shows they were running out of material as this one is a minute longer than they usually are. Only Goofy hitting Donald at the very end was somewhat funny and I liked how forgiving Pluto is too. Earlier on Mickey's (very elastic) introduction as well as Goofy's maybe too were worth seeing, but all in all it wasn't enough for a positive recommendation, even (or especially) for me as a cartoon lover. Watch something else instead.

Mickey and the gang are all here, each of them having their own misadventures on ice. Mickey attempts to show off his ice-skating skills to Minnie; Goofy attempts to ice fish; Donald straps skates onto Pluto and laughs at him slipping; and Donald then gets a taste of his own medicine.It's a somewhat funny little cartoon and it's nice seeing many of Disney's most memorable characters on the screen together. I got some chuckles out of it and the story is perfect for the entire family. The animation is good and the pacing is just right.Not the most entertaining cartoon I've seen, but it's still good fun.Grade B

This cartoon STILL is a great looking cartoon nearly 80 years later! Yes, despite coming out in the mid-1930s, the quality of the animation and gorgeous Technicolor make this a timeless classic.The film is set during the winter and all the favorite Disney characters of the day are in the short--Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy and even Clarabelle and Horace! The characters get into all sorts of trouble while ice skating--and the film is jam-packed full of cute vignettes and laughs that still hold up today! Well worth seeing and a great representation of the best Disney was capable of in the day. In fact, compared to Disney shorts of the 40s and 50s, this one is actually superior overall--especially because of the great backgrounds.

This cartoon probably works best around the holiday season. It's very busy animation indeed as most of the Disney favorites go ice skating on a frozen river (!). Mickey impresses Minnie with his skating acrobatics, Goofy (dressed in awful hillbilly gear) tries to fish using tobacco instead of worms and Donald torments poor old Pluto by sticking skates on his paws and watching him fall all over the place.Donald soon gets what he deserves when a huge gust of wind takes him and his kite/sail thingy off the edge of the waterfall (which mysteriously has not frozen even though the river has). Mickey tries to rescue him but succeeds only in humiliating Donald further. But he did deserve it this time.A very cozy cartoon for Xmas time.