Hitchcoc In this early Disney film, we have Mickey Mouse attempting to build a plane. All the hard work goes for naught as it crashes into a hundred pieces. But he soon discovers an old jalopy. He adds wings and a propeller to it and off he goes. But before takeoff, who should appear but Minnie. She is invited to fly with him, but he has only one thing on his mind. She holds her own and things play out in an amusing way.

MisterWhiplash If you go on YouTube, you're bound to find or two uploads of Plane Crazy, the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon produced by Walt Disney productions in 1928 (his way of finding a new character after losing Oswald the Rabbit at Universal). And while the short was originally done as a silent short - from a biography I read, Steamboat Willie was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon - it can now be watched with sound. On the one hand it's crazy to think that it would ever be silent considering how the music and sound effects and occasional voices for Mickey and Minnie (both from Uncle Walt) work so in sync and, really, perfectly with it all. And yet on the other hand it's easy to see how everything is told visually, without any real dialog being needed anyway (there is a moment where Minnie goes "Who, me?!" when Mickey asks her to go on the plane, but it could be left off just as well).The gags come quick and fast, but the story is tight considering the suspense that happens once Mickey and Minnie get up in the air. Actually in a way this has more character stuff than in Steamboat Willie, which in that case was a little bit of story (the set up of Mickey as a captain and being chased by proto-Pete), but then with a lot of gags involving the playing of animals as musical instruments. Here it's all about this: what will Mickey get Minnie into next, and will he wise up and not be such a jerk? It's great to see an early Mickey short like this for a couple of reasons aside from the sharp quality of the animation - the timing of it all makes it, well, timeless far as storytelling goes, even with the old-school iris - one is that Mickey is not the perfect, bashful gentleman/mouse of later cartoons. He's actually kind of a jerk, and it's refreshing in that Bart Simpson way.The second reason is how self-conscious the creators, Disney and Ub Iwerks, were in some of the visual gags. It may have one of my all-time favorites, one that lays kind of the blueprint for cartoons for decades to come: at one point Minnie decides she's had enough of Mickey's horsing around and gets up and leaves to parachute off the plane (luckily her dress will do). Mickey follows her off, and we see him just suspended in the air, in a straight line really, without anything showing him going down. It's only when HE realizes he's off the plane that he rushes back to get on the plane, only for it to crash. That is the magic of animated comic cartoons right there in about 15 seconds of celluloid: you don't know you're going to die until you notice it.

Mightyzebra For a great portion of my life I thought that "Steamboat Willie", the Mickey Mouse cartoon made straight after this one, was the first cartoon of our favourite cartoon mouse. However, I discovered this cartoon, "Plane Crazy" and have just watched it on Youtube and read that THIS cartoon actually holds the fame. Why all the fact books say that "Steamboat Willie" is Mickey's debut I have not a clue. Personally I prefer this cartoon to "Steamboat Willie", as I found it more entertaining, funny and more sweet (near the beginning, towards the end it is not very sweet, but still quite entertaining). Not to say that "Steamboat Willie" pales considerably in comparison, I enjoyed both cartoons very much. Anyhow, in "Plane Crazy", Mickey Mouse is planning for a plane flight (in those days planes were less than 30 years old and would have probably been particularly exciting in a cartoon). With the help of another animal as an engine, Mickey tries flying the plane that a few other animals have made for him, but unfortunately it does not work very well and it crashes. Downhearted, Mickey attempts to make a new plane, starting with a normal motorcar (it is a cartoon, it is NOT realistic). His girlfriend (obviously Minnie Mouse), gives him a horseshoe for luck before Mickey takes off in his new plane. Will this flight be a success..?I recommend this cartoon to anyone who likes or is interested in Mickey Mouse and to people who just enjoy watching old cartoons. Enjoy "Plane Crazy"! :-)

Ron Oliver A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.With Charles Lindbergh as his hero, Mickey Mouse has gone PLANE CRAZY.Mischievous Mickey is determined to get in the air in this very early Mouse cartoon. Animator Ub Iwerks is responsible for most of the visual shenanigans which fill the little film. The bovine with the ponderous & perilously vulnerable udder is an early incarnation of Clarabelle Cow making her film debut.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a storm of naysayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.