24 Days of Waltzmas, Day Four: Mickey's Good Deed

Mickey’s Good Deed (1932)
Starring: Mickey Mouse, Pluto
Setting: City Streets

Plot: A Depression Era Mickey Mouse and his flea-ridden dog, Pluto, work as starving street performers, struggling to scrounge up enough change to survive.

Stocking Stuffers:
That Christmas tune Mickey is playing on his stand up bass is “Come All Ye Faithful.”

Mickey’s arch-nemesis, Pete, makes an appearance in a framed photo as the jailed, absentee father of the impoverished kitty cat family.

In stark contrast to Mickey, actual life sized mice appear in the cats’ empty pantry.

As Mickey roasts a weenie with a mouse-made “Snow Pluto,” the Star of David appears to shine overhead.

Putting a Bow on It:
This was one of the more touching and plot-heavy of Disney’s Christmas shorts.  In fact, this one’s story plays much more like a Chaplin-esque short film rather than a simple cartoon, stringing a bunch of slapsticky gags together.  Mickey and Pluto’s heroism is on full display here too as they ignore their own sad lot in life and decide to sacrifice their own companionship to give a penniless litter of kitties a Christmas morning they would soon not forget.  And, whether Mickey realizes it or not, his act of charity was to the benefit of the family of his very own mortal enemy, Pete. 

No, you're not crazy - Amy Melissa reviewed this short on the blog too.
For her review in 2012, click here.