Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Distributor: United Artists
Short Synopsis
On a stormy night, a sinister figure snatches Pluto from his kennel and carries him off to a castle on a hill. Mickey follows to rescue his dog. Inside, the Mad Doctor is preparing an experiment: he plans to graft Pluto's head on to the body of a chicken, to see whether the resulting egg will hatch something that barks or crows. Mickey makes his way through the castle's booby traps, past animated skeletons and through hidden passages, and is caught and strapped to a table beneath a whirling circular saw. As the blade descends, he has to suck in his stomach to stay out of reach. At the last moment, Mickey wakes up: it was all a nightmare, and Pluto is safe at home.
Why It Matters
- It is a horror film first and a Mickey cartoon second. Thunder, shadows, a skeleton that falls apart and reassembles, and the gleaming saw make it unusually frightening, and the shadowy staging borrows directly from Universal's Frankenstein (1931). The surgery plot is still gruesome in a way Disney rarely allowed again.
- Its scariness made it one of the most controversial Mickey shorts. Some cinemas refused to show it, it was reportedly banned in the United Kingdom and in Nazi Germany, and it was never reissued. Disney also failed to renew its copyright, so it is in the public domain.
Notes and Trivia
- The Film Daily, in February 1933, called it one of the liveliest cartoons to come along.
- A poster for the film sold for $138,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2006, a record for a cartoon poster at the time.
- The Mad Doctor, sometimes called Doctor XXX, later turned up as a villain in Disney comics and video games.
- See also: The Haunted House (1929).