Mouse in a Haunted House
There was a time when ninety percent of all the medical research in this country was focused on the tricky subject of brain transplants: armies of renegade surgeons with thick Hungarian accents were forever yanking out brains from the skulls of guys, and popping them into the skulls of different guys, and those different guys were always wearing gorilla costumes. No, really.
Our film, “The Mad Doctor” is the Disney version — a nutty medico wants to switch the heads of a chicken and Pluto Pup. It’s up to the kid with the bowling ball ears and nifty red shorts to come to the rescue in today’s 1933 classic directed by David Hand. For a Mickey Mouse cartoon, this is pretty potent stuff, full of scary flourishes and gruesome details — the crazy scientist shows us an explicit diagram, complete with bloody saw! The Disney team may have been emboldened knowing (WARNING: SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!) that the whole thing turns out to be a dream in the end. Ummm…nice twist! M. Night Shyamalan would be proud.
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On July 26th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Every time he says “Pluto!” I think of Mr. Bill.
On July 27th, 2006 at 12:00 am
“Pluto!” does sound like “Oh Noooo!”
Are those Ub’s skeleton designs?
This toon had no credits that I coud see.
I like the 6 legged spider skeleton at 0:05:13 that gets reduced by Micky to a skull with 6 stubby bones for legs. What a great image!
On July 27th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Iwerks started his own studio in 1930, so he would not have been there when this cartoon was made.