Mickey Steps Out

{{Infobox film

| image = mickey mouse mickey steps out.jpg

| caption =

| director = Burt Gillett

| producer = Walt Disney

| story =

| narrator =

| starring =

| music =

| animator =

| layout_artist =

| background_artist =

| studio = Walt Disney Studios

| distributor = Columbia Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1931|07|10|ref1={{cite book |last1=Kaufman |first1=J.B. |last2=Gerstein |first2=David |title=Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History |date=2018 |publisher=Taschen |location=Cologne |pages=66–68 |isbn=978-3-8365-5284-4}}}}

| color_process =

| runtime = 7:31

| country = United States

| language = English

}}

Mickey Steps Out is a 1931 Mickey Mouse animated short film directed by Burt Gillett, produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was the thirtieth short in the Mickey Mouse film series, and the sixth of that year.{{cite book |last1=Grob |first1=Gijs |title=Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse |date=2018 |publisher=Theme Park Press |chapter=Mickey Steps Out |isbn=978-1683901235}}

Plot

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At home, Mickey Mouse gets ready for a date with Minnie, shaving and singing "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas". Doffing a straw hat and carrying a cane, Mickey sets out on his date. His dog Pluto wants to accompany him, but Mickey sends the dog back, tying him to his doghouse. As Mickey dances his way to Minnie's, Pluto comes along anyway, dragging his doghouse behind him.

Approaching Minnie's house, Mickey hears her playing the piano. He pokes his head in the window, whistling along with Minnie's pet canary. Pluto begins chasing a cat as Mickey enters the house. Minnie plays "Sweet Georgia Brown" as Mickey dances, showing off by balancing a broom on his nose and spinning plates.

The song-and-dance is interrupted when Pluto chases the cat into the house, knocking Mickey over. The chase causes chaos in the house, wrecking the piano and knocking over Mickey, who's hit by a falling cuckoo clock. The cat jumps into the stove with Pluto close behind, and the animals' battle sends soot flying everywhere. With all four characters now in blackface, Mickey cries, "Minnie!"; Minnie cries, "Mickey!"; Pluto cries, "Mammy!"; and the cat shouts "Whoopee!"

Production

This short is one of the only two Mickey Mouse cartoons in which Pluto speaks; the other is The Moose Hunt (1931).{{cite book |last1=Blumberg |first1=Arnold T. |title=Pop Culture with Character: A Look Inside Geppi's Entertainment Museum |date=2006 |publisher=Gemstone Publishing |isbn=978-1-888472-68-4 |page=85 |url=https://archive.org/details/popculturewithch0000blum/page/84/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}}

The cartoon ends with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto as "blackface stereotypes".{{cite book |last1=Sampson |first1=Henry T. |title=That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960 |date=1998 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-3250-X |page=230 |url=https://archive.org/details/thatsenoughfolks0000samp/page/230/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}} The blackface sequence has sometimes been cut on television airings.{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Karl F. |title=Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America |date=1997 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=0-7864-0395-0 |page=69 |url=https://archive.org/details/forbiddenanimati0000cohe/page/68/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}}

Reception

In a contemporary review, Motion Picture Herald said: "Mickey, the animated mouse, goes jazz with a vengeance while Minnie supplies the music and inspiration. Gained a number of laughs in New York, and good synchronization does its part."{{cite journal |title=Shorts |journal=Motion Picture Herald |date=October 3, 1931 |volume=105 |issue=1 |page=34 |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpictureher105unse/page/n43/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}} Motion Picture Reviews said that the cartoon contains "moderately entertaining misadventures", although "a few vulgarities might be dispensed with".{{cite journal |title=Short Subjects |journal=Motion Picture Reviews |date=October 1931 |volume=11 |issue=10 |page=9 |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturerev00wome_0/page/n95/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}}

In Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse, Gijs Grob writes of the ending: "This two-minute sequence is the first well-constructed finale in animation history."

Animated Short Films: A Critical Index to Theatrical Cartoons called it a "mediocre Mickey cartoon".{{cite book |last1=Boroweic |first1=Piotr |title=Animated Short Films: A Critical Index to Theatrical Cartons |date=1998 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-3503-7 |page=110 |url=https://archive.org/details/animatedshortfil0000boro/page/110/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}} However, Michael Barrier in Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age praised the improvement in the studio's animation: "Mickey moves with none of the monotonous rhythmic twitching so typical of the early Disney sound cartoons; instead, Mickey's movements have some of the variety, within the rhythmic framework of the music, that a human dancer's would have."{{cite book |last1=Barrier |first1=Michael |title=Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation In Its Golden Age |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-503759-6 |page=76 |url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodcartoon00barr/page/76/mode/2up |access-date=26 January 2024}}

Voice cast

Mickey Mouse: Walt Disney
Minnie Mouse: Marion Darlington
Whistling canary: Esther Campbell{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Keith |title=Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 |date=2022 |publisher=Bear Manor Media |chapter=The Walt Disney Cartoon Voices, 1928-70}}

Home media

The short was released on December 3, 2002 on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White.{{cite web |title=Mickey Mouse in Black & White Volume 2 DVD Review |url=https://dvdizzy.com/mmblackwhite.html |website=DVD Dizzy |access-date=26 January 2024}}

Television

The Delivery Boy was included in the TV show The Mickey Mouse Club (season 1, episode 68).{{cite web |title=Mickey Steps Out |url=https://www.intanibase.com/iad_entries/entry.aspx?shortID=143 |website=Internet Animation Database |access-date=February 15, 2020}}