Plane Crazy

Plane Crazy is an American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The cartoon, produced in 1928 by The Walt Disney Studio, was the first to feature the character Mickey Mouse. It was made as a silent film and given a test screening to a theater audience on May 15, 1928, but failed to pick up a distributor. Later that year, Disney released Mickey's first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, which was an enormous success. Following this, Plane Crazy was released as a sound cartoon on March 17, 1929. It was the fourth Mickey film to be released after Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho, and The Barn Dance (1929). This leads to some ambiguity as to which is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, as Plane Crazy was the first to be produced while Steamboat Willie was the first to be released. The Walt Disney Company considers Steamboat Willie to be Mickey's debut.

Synopsis

Mickey was apparently trying to fly an airplane to imitate Charles Lindbergh. After building his own airplane, he did a flight simulation to ensure that the plane is safe for flight but the flight failed, destroying the plane. Using a tractor and remains of his plane to create another plane, he asks Minnie to join him for its first flight after she presents him with a horseshoe for good luck. They take an out-of-control flight with exaggerated, impossible situations. An un-anthropomorphic cow briefly "rides" the aircraft. This is Clarabelle Cow making her first appearance, though the cow is actually an early, more "cowlike" predecessor of Clarabelle named Carolyn. Once Mickey regains control of the plane, he repeatedly tries to kiss Minnie. When she refuses, he uses force: he breaks her concentration and terrifies her by throwing her out of the airplane, catching her with the airplane, and he uses this to kiss her. Minnie then parachute out of the plane using her bloomers. While distracted by her, Mickey loses control of the plane and eventually crashes into a tree. Minnie then lands, and Mickey laughs at her. Minnie then storms off, rebuffing him. Mickey then angrily throws the good luck horseshoe given to him by Minnie and it boomerangs around a tree, hitting him and ringing around his neck.^[1]

Production

The short was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks was also the main animator for this short and reportedly spent six weeks working on it. Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were credited for assisting him; these two had already signed their contracts with Charles Mintz, but he was still in the process of forming his new studio and so for the time being they were still employed by Disney. This short would be the last they animated under this somewhat awkward situation. The sound version contained a soundtrack by Carl W. Stalling.^[2]

This was the first animated film to use a camera move. The POV shot from the plane made it appear as if the camera was tracking into the ground. In fact, when they shot this scene, they piled books under the spinning background to move the artwork closer to the camera.

Characters

Mickey Mouse is portrayed in Plane Crazy as mischievous, amorous, and has often been described as a rogue, much like Disney's own Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (It has been speculated that the cartoon started production as an Oswald entry).

Besides Mickey, Plane Crazy was also the first appearance of Minnie Mouse and Clarabelle Cow.

DVD release

Plane Crazy (as well as Steamboat Willie) has been released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD collections twice:

• On disc one of Mickey Mouse in Black and White
• On disc two of The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as part of a tribute to animator Ub Iwerks

Legacy

• In 1930 the story of Plane Crazy was adapted and used for the first story in the newspaper comic strip Mickey Mouse. This adaptation, entitled "Lost on a Desert Island," was written by Walt Disney with art by Ub Iwerks and Win Smith.^[3]
• In the Mickey Mouse short The Nifty Nineties (1941), Mickey and Minnie's car runs out of control and runs into a cow. The scene was taken almost directly from Plane Crazy.
• The cartoon "Mickey's Airplane Kit" (1999) from the series House of Mouse featured a similar premise in which Mickey built his own airplane to impress Minnie.
• In the television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-present), Mickey regularly flies the plane from Plane Crazy which he calls the "Toonplane."

References

External links

• Plane Crazy on YouTube (official posting by Walt Disney Animation Studios)
• Plane Crazy at Mickey Mouse Follies: Black and White
• Plane Crazy at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Plane Crazy at the Internet Movie Database
• Plane Crazy at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts