Cartoons
Early readers of A MOUSE DIVIDED wanted to see the cartoons the books describes. So here they are, chapter by chapter. All are available on YouTube: please let me know (at jeffryan1@gmail.com) if any of them get taken down. Some of these are old enough to be in public domain -- ie, no one owns them anymore. Others are still owned by Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, etc. Their various copyright holders have the right to remove them at any time if they so wish: most leave them up because it's free advertising.
(Note: This may may get prohibitively long, so I may break this up into chapters.
Chapter 1: Lightbulb (1928)
Here's the 1928 one-sheet drawing credited to Ub Iwerks.
Chapter 2: Show Me (1920)
Reminder for those born before 1929: these are silent cartoons. They were made to be watched with an organist. if you cannot afford to hire an organist to watch these cartoons, an organist may be provided for you free of charge by the court.
Here's a snippet of Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur, from 1914. The full-length version of just the aniamted footage runs about 9 minutes: A longer version that includes live-action footage of McCay himself interacting with Gertie, capturing his vaudeville act.
A Mutt and Jeff cartoon, Domestic Difficulties, from 1916.
An Out of the Inkwell featuring Koko the Clown.
Grouch Chasers (Note: Oscar the Grouch does not appear):
Colonel Heeza Liar (the title was a gibe as ex-President Theodore Roosevelt) in Heeza Liar at the Bat:
The Katzemjammer Kids in Policy and Pie:
A silent-era star who didn't make the final cut into the book: Farmer Al Falfa. (The cowlicked Alfalfa from The Little Rascals might be named after this charatcer.)
A lightning sketch, with a brief live-action cameo by a visored, pre-mustache Walt Disney:
A great example of bad cycling in animation, and how a little bit of proofreading saves a lot of embarasment embarassment embarassmint embarrassment later on.
One of Paul Terry's Aesop's Fables, called A Cat's Life.
The first true Disney cartoon, Little Red Riding Hood, from 1923.
Chapter 3: 23 Skidoo (1923)
The first Alice in Wonderland cartoon. Many more are online, albeit in a grainy version not made any better due to digital choppiness.
Chapter 4: Alice Blue (1924)
Head to 2:11 of Alice the Toreador for an early glimpse of Mickey Mouse, circa 1924!
Chapter 5: Rabbit Season (1927)
Here's Oswald's first appearance, Trolley Troubles.
After that came PoorPapa: this was originally animated, and rejected, with an older pudgy version of Oswald. that version hasn't survived, but this updated version has. (I was going to write "new," but it's still from 1927.)
Breaking news! A long-lost 1928 Oswald film has been found! here's a few snippets of "Sleigh Bells":
Chapter 6: Flyover Country
Behold the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy! (Caution: parents, please screen this before you show it to your kids. I wish I was joking.)
Chapter 7: The Rat Race
Behold the very second Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Gallopin' Gaucho! (Note for everyone but Argentines: A gaucho is an Argentine cowboy.)
Chapter 8: Whistler
Behold the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound, Steamboat Willlie! (Bonus: here are the lyrics to what Mickey's whistling:
Steamboat Bill, steaming down the Mississippi,
Steamboat Bill, a mighty Man is he
Steamboat Bill, steaming down the Mississippi,
He was trying to break the record of the Robert E Lee!
Chapter 9: Barnstormer
Behold, the very fourth -- okay, that joke's getting old. Here's The Barn Dance.
Chapter 10: What’s Opera, Doc?
The Opry House: This one's a stone-cold classic.
The Skeleton Dance: think of this as a precursor to Coco.
Chapter 11: Striptease
I really don't want to Google "racist blackface cartoons." You can do that if you so wish, and I'll join you in Chapter 12.
Chapter 12: The Trenches
The Barnyard Battle: Mickey in what was then called The Great War.
Chapter 13: Idle
If you really want to watch one of the worst Mickey cartoons of all time, I can't stop you. Here's The Plow Boy.
The next Mickey cartoon, When the Cat's Away, is a remake of...
Alice Rattled by Rats. Watch them both, and see how they've improved upon their animation and gag-writing.
Chapter 14: Hat Tip
The Karnival Kid contains Mickey's first words...and they're not "hot dog!" They also contain the first use of Mickey Mouse ears.
Chapter 15: Yoo-Hoo!
Mickey's Follies, featuring Minnie's Yoo-Hoo, which became an early Disney theme song.
Any Spanish speakers out there? I took French, so I have no idea whats El Terrible Toreador means in English. (Note: the first two Silly Symphonies pull heavily from Mexican culture. This could be because, to quote Raymond Chandler, Los Angeles back then had "all the personality of a paper cup.")
Chapter 16: Locomotion
Will you choo-choo-choose to watch Mickey's Choo-Choo?
Chapter 17: Paper Doll
The Jazz Fool.
Springtime.
Hell's Bells.
Chapter 18: The Lion and the Mouse
Jungle Rhythm, the first Mickey in a while that let him leave the barnyard.
Chapter 19: Dread
The Merry Dwarfs. Believe it or not, Walt Disney is right about the plural of dwarf being dwarfs, and Oxford linguist (and fantasy writer) JRR Tolkien, who preferred dwarves, is wrong.
The Haunted House. Fans of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series take note: Mickey calls the embodiment of death "Ma'am". Death is female.
Chapter 20: Ups and Downs
Wild Waves, the last Walt-and-Ub Mickey Mouse cartoon. (sniff!)
Summer.
Autumn.
Winter.
Chapter 21: Flipping Out (1930)
The two-color premiere of Flip the Frog, Fiddlesticks, guest starring, uh, Wickey Wouse.
Meanwhile, here's the sad Mickey Mouse cartoon Just Mickey. Film yourself trying to get through it: maybe it'll go viral.
The much better (but black and white) Flying Fists.
There are a whole lot more Flip cartoons, too many to list. Well, that's not true: they're listed on YouTube, and occasionally show up in Futurama before the Planet Express ship crashes into them.
Chapter 22: Ideation (1930)
The first shot of Cannibal Capers is definitely worth watching.
The Barnyard Concert: some of the last bits of animation Ub did at Disney.
Arctic Antics: the very last bit of animation Ub did at Disney.
The Cactus Kid: Disney begins to get its post-Ub groove back.
Chapter 23: Plutocrat (1931)
Here's Pluto's first appearance, The Chain Gang, although he's not the dog he'll become.
Want to hear Pluto speak like a person? Watch The Moose Hunt.
Want to see Pluto stand up like a person? Watch The Birthday Party.
Chapter 24: Merch Madness (1932)
Disney's first color cartoon, Flowers and Trees. Who cares if the story's an old chestnut: an old chestnut is one of the leads! (I use that same joke in the book, and will reuse it here because it is a funny joke, and I did the research to verify the antagonist was in fact a chestnut.)
Mickey's Revue, the first to feature Dippy Dawg, later The Goof, later Goofy, later Senator J. Frederick Goofington of Idaho.
Chapter 25: The Big Bad (1933)
Iwerks's Flip the Frog replacement, called Willie Whopper. There are loads more online if this is your speed.
If you've never seen The Three Little Pigs, you're eight minutes away from remedying that.
(Note there are a few more "pig" cartoons, that Walt never liked: I'm trying to keep this page under a mile on scrolling length, so if you want to be a completionist, they're called The Big Bad Wolf (1934), The Three Little Wolves (1936), and The Practical Pig (1939).
Parade of the Award Nominees: Step 1) Wonder who the heck all these so-called famous people are, 2) realize that fame is fleeting and people a hundred years from now won't know any of our celebrities, 3) feel existential dread. All in three minutes!
Chapter 26: Duck Season (1934)
First, here's Ub Iwerks's version of The Little Red Hen.
Now here's Disney's version, called The Wise Little Hen, and the debut of Donald Duck.
Chapter 27: Snow Job (1935)
Here's The Golden Touch, the last short Walt Disney directed. If you click on this link, you will never get the ten minutes back.
A shorter and exponentially better film is The Band Concert, considered maybe Disney's best short ever.
Chapter 28: Loony Bin (1936)
The Old Mill was a test for upcoming Snow White animators: those sweeping perspective shots were made with the multiplane camera. Most all of Disney's output at this time were trying out one thing or another for eventual use in Snow White.
Chapter 29: The Forecast (1937)
Hawaiian Holiday, one of the few non-Snow White films Disney made in 1937.
This is the year of Disney's -- and the world's -- first feature-length cartoon: Snow White and the Nine Dwarfs. (Nine? Six? Something like that: I forget the specifics.) Eighty years of four-year-old girls agree: this is a great movie. But features aren't on YouTube -- go (legally) rent them.
Chapter 30: Shoveling (1938)
Disney's so invested in features they had little output for 1938, save for upcoming work on Pinocchio and Bambi and Fantasia.
Chapter 31: Deerstalker (1939)
Mickey's Surprise Party was made for Nabisco, and features the most shameless product shilling this side of Kursty the Clown.
How does a Brave Little Tailor defeat a giant? Find out! This one's great!
Chapter 32: Prodigal (1940)
This one's a mandatory watch: The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia. You'll notice something new every time you watch it.
Chapter 33: Wildcat (1941)
If you watch this and feel the uncontrollable need to buy Canadian war bonds, then Walt Disney's done his job.
Chapter 34: The New Spirit (1942)
Disney can make even paying taxes exciting and funny. Coming up next: Goofy watches paint dry!
Chapter 35: Snafu (1943)
Der Fuhrer's Face: This legendary Donald Duck cartoon has him imagining life as a German citizen under Nazi rule.
Chapter 36: Overlord (1944)
The whole cartoon from The Eye of Vichy used to be uploaded, but I can only find a clip of it. It's enough to let you know what French movie-goers saw in lieu of Disney cartoons during occupation.
Chapter 37: Pencils Down (1945)
The full 8-minute clip of a malevolent Mickey Mouse attacking Japanese folk heroes is up, though: it features much better animation, but the same anti-American prejudices.
Chapter 38: Tomorrowland (1946–present)
I don't have any clips for this chapter. I have plenty of opinions of the film Tomorrowland--a rare misfire from Brad Bird--but that's not germaine.