Studio: Walt Disney Studio (Mickey Mouse)
Distributor: Celebrity Productions
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
Mickey is a farmer, ploughing a field behind his horse and singing. Minnie comes by leading a cow and asks him to milk it. The cow takes a liking to Mickey and licks him; he rolls its tongue up like a window blind and gets on with the job, and presents Minnie with a full pail and a kiss, for which she hits him over the head with the pail. Back at the plough, a bee stings the horse, which panics and bolts across the field with Mickey hanging on, and by the time it stops the plough is in pieces. Mickey, undefeated, harnesses a pig and uses its snout as a plough to finish the field.
Why It Matters
- It is the first cartoon in which the cow who became Clarabelle Cow and the horse who became Horace Horsecollar appear, both still animals rather than characters; six animators share the credit, a sign of how fast the studio was growing in the months after Steamboat Willie.
- The copyright on this 1929 release has lapsed and it is public domain in the United States. Variety's reviewer complained that the sound at the screening he attended was nearly inaudible and that the film got laughs anyway, which was a testimonial to the gags; Disney's Cinephone sound system, licensed from Pat Powers, was the subject of such complaints for a year.
Notes and Trivia
- Walt Disney himself is credited for Mickey's voice, as he would be until 1947.
- The rolled-up tongue became a stock gag in barnyard cartoons across the industry.
- See also: The Barnyard Battle (1929), The Karnival Kid (1929), The Barnyard Concert (1930).