Mickey Cuts Up (1931)

Why so much hype?

Crappy film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a fun Mickey and Minnie cartoon, where they tend to their yards while singing and dancing to some very catchy and toe-tapping tunes. It makes you feel cheerful and happy enough to join in the song and dance.There's also some slapstick fun when Pluto chases a cat with a lawnmower tied to his tail, trimming ahead as he ran. Very fun stuff here!Grade A

This starts out with Mickey mowing the lawn. What we don't see at first is that Pluto is pulling the lawn mower. As our mouse friend does his yard work, Minnie is planting and enjoying flowers. Things go amiss when a black cat shows up. First he attacks Mickey who is in a birdhouse fooling around. Then Pluto gets into the act. By the time everyone is done, the is massive destruction of property. Pluto's natural pursuit of the cat is at the center of it. The animation is pretty good and the story is interesting.

This is an early Disney short featuring Mickey Mouse. There will be spoilers ahead:This is another short long on music and short on plot. It's really a series of set pieces driven by gags. The scene where Minnie does a duet with a bird is very nice. It's triggered by Mickey playing "barber" to a shrub.There's more than one run in with a cat, which causes no end of trouble later on. Though this starts out with Mickey mowing his lawn (Pluto's actually harnessed to the mower and is technically doing the work) most of this is Mickey flirting with Minnie, with a few really good gags.What energy there is to this is supplied by a hungry cat which makes a couple of mistakes, thus setting up a good bit of the action here. It's a recipe for disaster and laughs. Pluto and cats typically don't see eye to eye and this short is no exception. Cat + Dog + lawnmower=mayhem.This short is available on the Mickey Mouse In Black and White Disney Treasures DVD set and is well worth tracking down. Recommended.

Not one of my favourites by all means, but I do like it very much indeed. If there is anything that I didn't like so much about it it was that while Mickey and Minnie's dance sequence after that of the turtle was cute, it was little different to what we have already seen before and added little to the rest of the short. That aside, Mickey Cuts Up is charming and lots of fun. The animation is clean and bounces along beautifully, Mickey imitating a bird sticking out its head in the birdhouse was the standout, and the music has jaunty character all the way through. I loved the gags as well, those with the owl and fish may disturb some but were funny to me and that of Mickey acting like a turtle with the birdhouse on his back was playful in a deliciously innocent sense. Mickey and Pluto with the lawnmower and the interplay between Mickey and Minnie were positively charming, and you will get much pleasure from the wonderfully chaotic climatic chase sequence. Minnie is pretty and likable and Pluto is his usual energetic self, but Mickey is the revelation here. His charm, innocent-and very childlike playfulness and cheeky nature make him come alive and into character that feels real. All in all, a really well done short that manages to make yard work, my idea of a nightmare in honesty, fun. 9/10 Bethany Cox