Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The Adventures of Mickey Mouse

Since I had so much fun with the Looney Tunes yesterday, I decided to continue with my shorts marathon. Did a batch of black-and-white Disney shorts from the 30's today, starting with "The Mail Pilot." Mickey's a daring pilot who dodges air pirate Pete while making sure that the mail gets through. "Mickey's Gala Premiere" picks up the Hollywood satire thread from yesterday. The premiere of Mickey's newest short is attended by many of the top celebrities of the period (some in costume for what then would have been their latest film). There's even a fictional "short within a short" that looks very much like a real Mickey cartoon of the early 30's. Police officers Mickey and Donald have to capture "The Dognapper" who has stolen Minnie's prize pooch. Thief Pete leads them on a chase through a saw mill in a spoof of melodramas.

Worked on writing for a little while after breakfast. Actually, I did some re-writing. Leia specifically asks to see the Sword of Wisdom. Yasmin says no, but she can come to her house the next day to talk about archaeology and Central American cultures. She now lives in a mansion, rather than a yacht, as was my first thought.

Broke for lunch at 1. Made a smoothie with the last of the kale/apple mix and ate peanuts while watching more Mickey shorts. Minnie brings a very young Morty and Ferdie around to see what their uncle does all day in "Mickey's Steamroller." As cute as the little boys are, they get into mischief when they take off on the steamroller as Mickey and Minnie flirt. The other two chase them around town, avoiding all the damage the runaway roller causes. "Mickey In Arabia" has him rescuing Minnie from Bedouin Pete, while riding a drunk camel and encountering a passel of Arabic stereotypes. Pete also captures the mice in "Shanghaied," this time on the high seas. Mickey has to duel with the nasty cat (using a swordfish as a weapon) to free his beloved. "Mickey's Mechanical Man" is a robot he's trained to be a boxer. He ends up losing in a match against a fighting gorilla, but Minnie's horn may get him back in the ring.

It started to rain when I was half-way to work. The rain stopped shortly after I arrived, and it wouldn't rain again while I was there. Other than being late for break because I had to gather carts, it wasn't really that busy today. Along with the carts, I did the inside trash, gathered baskets, shelved some candy, and returned cold items.

The rain started up again as I rode home, and it's been off and on (sometimes heavily) for the rest of the night. I perked up the gloomy evening with leftovers and a double-dose of Eleanor Powell, MGM's top musical star in the 1930's and early 40's. My reviews for those films are at the Musical Dreams Blog:

Double Feature - Born to Dance and The Broadway Melody of 1940

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