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Plane Crazy
Minnie gives Mickey a horseshoe as a good luck charm before his flight
Directed byWalt Disney
Ub Iwerks
Produced byWalt Disney
Animation byUb Iwerks
Hugh Harman
Rudolf Ising
Production
company
Distributed byCelebrity Productions
Running time
6 minutes (one reel)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plane Crazy is an American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The cartoon, released in 1929 by the Walt Disney Studios, was the first creation of the character Mickey Mouse. It was made as a silent film and given a test screening to a theater audience on May 15, 1928, but failed to pick up a distributor. Later that year, Disney released Mickey's first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, which was an enormous success. Following this, Plane Crazy was released as a sound cartoon on March 17, 1929. It was the fourth Mickey film to be released after Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho, and The Barn Dance (1928).

Synopsis

Mickey is trying to fly an airplane to imitate Charles Lindbergh. After building his own airplane, he does a flight simulation to ensure that the plane is safe for flight but the flight fails, destroying the plane. Using a roadster and remains of his plane to create another plane, he asks a young mouse girl, Minnie, to join him for its first flight after she presents him with a horseshoe for good luck. They take an out-of-control flight with exaggerated, impossible situations. A cow briefly "rides" the aircraft. This is Clarabelle Cow making her first appearance, though the cow is actually an early, more "cowlike" predecessor of Clarabelle named Carolyn. Mickey even uses a turkey's tail to use as a tail for his plane. Once he regains control of the plane, he repeatedly tries to kiss Minnie. When she refuses, he uses force: he breaks her concentration and terrifies her by throwing her out of the airplane, catching her with the airplane, and he uses this to kiss her. Minnie then parachutes out of the plane using her bloomers. While distracted by her, Mickey loses control of the plane and eventually crashes into a tree. Minnie then lands, and Mickey laughs at her. Minnie then storms off, rebuffing him. Mickey then angrily throws the good luck horseshoe given to him by Minnie and it boomerangs around a tree, hitting him, ringing around his neck, and knocking him out; this causes stars to fly out toward the screen, with one of the stars filling the screen up, ending the film.[1]

Production

The short was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks was also the sole animator for this short and spent just two weeks working (at a rate of over 700 drawings a day to finish it) on it. The sound version contained a soundtrack by Carl W. Stalling.[2]

This was the first animated film to use a camera move. The POV shot from the plane made it appear as if the camera was tracking into the ground. In fact, when they shot this scene, they piled books under the spinning background to move the artwork closer to the camera.

Characters

Mickey Mouse is portrayed in Plane Crazy as mischievous, amorous, and has often been described as a rogue, much like Disney's own Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and it has been speculated that the cartoon started production as an Oswald entry.[citation needed]

DVD release

Plane Crazy (as well as Steamboat Willie) has been released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD collections twice:

Legacy

File:Mickey's Toonplane.png
Mickey flying the Toonplane in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

References

  1. ^ "Clarabelle Cow (From Disney) - WeirdSpace".
  2. ^ "1928: Plane Crazy". Disney Shorts. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  3. ^ "Lost on a Desert Island".