History WesternAnimation / ClassicDisneyShorts

Back in the 1920s, during the late years of UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation, an animator named Creator/WaltDisney was starting up a new animation studio after he got in a dispute with Universal over a character of his, WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit. Disney, along with fellow animator Creator/UbIwerks, needed to come up with some new character ideas. Finally, he settled on one - a little mouse named Mickey.

The classic Disney shorts, made during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, centered around the adventures of a group of [[FunnyAnimal Funny Animals]] called the "Sensational Six" by Disney:

Occasionally, the classic characters would appear in [[Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon feature films]], usually anthology films like ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'', ''WesternAnimation/SaludosAmigos'', ''WesternAnimation/TheThreeCaballeros'', and, most famously, the ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' films. During UsefulNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation, WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale received [[WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers their own series]], as did [[WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987 Uncle Scrooge]], [[WesternAnimation/GoofTroop Goofy]], [[WesternAnimation/QuackPack and Donald]]. Recently, they've made appearances in series such as ''[[WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse Mickey Mouse Works]]'', ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'', ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseClubhouse'', ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse2013'' (which itself is a close SpiritualSuccessor to the Classic Shorts), ''[[WesternAnimation/MickeyAndTheRoadsterRacers Mickey Mouse Roadster Racers & Mixed-Up Adventures]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseFunhouse'', as well as the direct-to-DVD ''WesternAnimation/MickeyDonaldGoofyTheThreeMusketeers''. Some of these characters, mainly Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, also feature prominently in the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' games. The second game paid [[GenreThrowback tribute]] [[{{Homage}} to]] [[{{Retraux}} black and white Disney shorts]] with the level "Timeless River", and the third game features several UsefulNotes/GameAndWatch-style minigames themed to these shorts, known collectively as "Classic Kingdom".

* HateSink: The trope is {{parodied|Trope}} in "Mickey's Mellerdrammer" with Horace Horsecollar playing the evil [[Literature/UncleTomsCabin Simon Legree]]. His costumed appearance is so ugly [[MirrorCrackingUgly a mirror shatters from it]]; the audience boos at him whenever he shows up on stage; and when he begins to whip Uncle Tom (played by Mickey Mouse himself in {{Blackface}}), [[ProducePelting they start pelting him with all kinds of rotten fruit]] even when [[MeanCharacterNiceActor he stops playing the character for a curtain call]]. Ironically, Horace as Legree is perhaps the only part that modern audiences could enjoy in this outdated and racist short.

* CatchPhrase:
-->'''Mickey:''' "Swell!" "Hot dog!" "Gosh!" "Oh, boy!" "Gee..." "Hiya, pal!" "See ya real soon!" "Y-y-y-yes, ma'am!" "For gosh sakes!"
-->'''Donald:''' "Hiya, toots!" ''"SO!"'' "Aw, phooey." "Aw, nuts." "What's the big idea?" "You can't do that to me!" "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" "Well, I'll be doggoned!" "Why, you doggone stubborn little... ''(incoherent muttering/squawking)...''" ''"WAAAAAAAAAK!!"'' "Uh-oh!" "That's the last straw!"
-->'''Goofy:''' "Gawrsh!" "Ahyuck!" ''"AHHHHHHHH-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!"'' "Somethin' wrong here..." (singing) ''"Ohhh, the world owes me a livin'... deedle-didle dodle-didle dum..."''
-->'''Minnie:''' "Oh, my!" "Isn't that sweet!" "Oh, ''Mickey''..."

* ''WesternAnimation/The Legend Of Coyote Rock'' (1945)

* ArtEvolution: The earliest Disney cartoons were very crude-the construction of the drawings was just piled on top of each other, using lots of rigid shapes, straight lines and symmetry with rubbery limbs, making the drawings look flat and move in a very mechanical, floaty way. In the mid-'30s, this started changing when the animators like Creator/FredMoore began using more pliable, organic shapes combined with line of action and more refined timing and squash and stretch, which gave them the illusion of mass and weight, as well as actual construction on the heads and bodies to allow them to look three-dimensional and properly turn them in space-compare Mickey from his earliest cartoons like "The Chain Gang" to the Mickey in "Pluto's Judgement Day" and "On Ice", or example. And in a brief time in the '40s, Fred Moore did away with the symmetry of Mickey's design in shorts like "The Little Whirlwind", making him look much more loose and organic, but also earning the moniker of "Drunk Mickey" from the animators (the original model sheets for Mickey's "Little Whirlwind" model even have some very questionable dialogue written on them related to drinking).

* TeamRocketWins: PegLegPete actually defeated Mickey for Minnie's affections in "The Barn Dance", albeit partially because [[LaserGuidedKarma he was the one acting like a gentleman for once]], whereas Mickey was basically [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness too lead-footed]].

*

''WesternAnimation/ForWhomTheBullsToil'' (1953)

''WesternAnimation/ForWhomTheBullToils'' (1953)

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* ABloodyMess: Done in a ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'' short, where he and the nephews go camping. Donald puts ketchup on himself to get his nephews thinking he's severely injured. [[GoneHorriblyRight Unfortunately for him, it works a little too well, as he gets bandaged up from head to toe like a mummy]], as is typical of those shorts. Sixty years later, they pull the same trick on him in a ''Mickey Mouse Works'' short. It ''almost'' works. It also happens at the end of [[Squatters Rights]] with Pluto.

*
''WesternAnimation/TheLoneChipmunks'' (1954)

That's 16 well crafted compilation [=DVD=]s to collect. Good luck finding them all, though, since they only saw a limited release. They're loaded with great extras and for the most part the films have been cleaned up really well, however so it may very well be worth tracking them down.

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl0AiuiqP-E The Nifty Nineties]]'' (which was a throwback to TheGayNineties, as in the ''18''90s) had Mickey and Minnie go to a vaudeville theater and watch a non-animated slideshow done in the sketchy style of John Held, a RoaringTwenties illustrator who also liked to send up TheGayNineties.

* ForgottenTrope: In ''The Nifty Nineties'', modern viewers may be perplexed by the inclusion of the rather morbid "Father, Dear Father" segment featuring a vaudeville slideshow version of the song "Come Home, Father!", about a little girl trying to get her drunkard father to leave the tavern and return to his family. This is a caricature of art produced by the temperance movement; the way it portrayed the effects of alcohol consumption would have been familiar to those who remembered the 1890s and who saw the short at the time it was released.

* MoodWhiplash: The first segment of the Vaudeville sequence in "The Nifty Nineties" is a magic lantern show entitled "Father, Dear Father", about a little girl trying to get her alcoholic father to leave the tavern as her little brother is dying at home. Minnie bawls her eyes out as Mickey tries to comfort her. The next segment features the dancing, joke-cracking duo of Fred and Ward, "two clever boys from Illinois". Mickey and Minnie share a good laugh over their antics.