"You ain't paid the rent!"
Moving Day is a 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon, although the bulk of the short is centered on his co-stars, Goofy and Donald Duck (but mostly Goofy).The short begins as Mickey and Donald are pacing around their house, worrying about their overdue rent. Cue sheriff Pete thrashing the door of their house, barging in and threatening the duo with an eviction notice. After he leaves, the duo begin packing up their belongings as hastily as possible, just in time for Goofy to stop by in his ice truck. The attention of the short then centers on the Goof for the bulk of the cartoon, as he wages war with a sentient piano that resists every attempt of his to load it into his truck, while Donald struggles with a plunger that got stuck onto his tail feathers.
This short provides examples of:
- Animate Inanimate Object: The piano which hounds Goofy for most of the short.
- Attack Hello: Mickey attempts to answer the door while Sheriff Pete is pounding on it. He opens up a small hole in the door and gives a cheerful "Good morning", only for Pete to punch through the hole and send him flying.
- Blatant Lies: Donald attempts to make Sheriff Pete go away by yelling, "Nobody home!"
- Chekhov's Gag: Both the gas leak and Pete's lighting his stogie (and using Donald's beak to do it). Both happen separately during the short, but near the end of the short, when it looks like he has the upper hand against Mickey, Donald and Goofy, Pete makes the mistake of lighting another stogie in triumph with gas still leaking. Only when it's too late does he realize his folly.
- Double Take: Donald when he finally realizes he has a plunger stuck to his tail.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The font used to say "Rent 6 months overdue" on the calendar would later be used for the Walt Disney signature logo.
- Enmity with an Object: Goofy vs. the piano.
- The Freelance Shame Squad: Our heroes (or at least Donald) have a laugh at Pete's misfortune.
- Funny Background Event: After Goofy gives himself away, as the camera follows him you can just make out the piano rolling off the truck.
- Here We Go Again!: The plunger gets stuck to Donald's tail again at the end.
- Inflating Body Gag: Donald gets thrown beak first into an open gas line, filling his body with gas until he deflates and flies around the room.
- Oh, Crap!: When Pete strikes a match to light his cigar in triumph over our heroes, only after he does so does he notice the gas leak our heroes had mistakenly caused. He has only a nanosecond to react in wide-eyed alarm before the lit match causes the gas to explode and level the house.
- Outfit Decoy: Goofy props up his hat by the window to make the piano think he's watching. Unfortunately, Goofy then blows his own cover by going to the front door to razz at the piano.
- Out of Focus: Mickey himself, typical of his later shorts. Most of the short transitions between gags from Goofy and Donald.
- Overly Long Gag: Goofy trying to catch the piano rolling off his truck. Even after cutting away to the others, when we cut back, they're still at it.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Oh, yes. Pete isn't a Lawman Gone Bad here... Mickey and Donald haven't paid their rent for half a year, but Pete is still portrayed as the bad guy for serving them with the eviction notice.note
- Repeat After Me: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have this habit that often occurs in their trio shorts.Mickey: The sheriff!Donald: The sheriff!Goofy: Ahyuck, the sheriff?!Mickey: We gotta move!Donald: We gotta move!Goofy: (to nobody) We gotta move!
- Silly Walk: Animator Art Babbitt gave Goofy his distinctive shuffling walk in this cartoon.🎵 Oh, the world owes me a livin', deedle-idle-dodle-diddle-dum, ahyuck! 🎵
- Squashed Flat: Goofy suffers this after the piano runs him over.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The ending has Pete accidentally blow up the house by lighting a match next to an open gas line.
- Too Dumb to Live: Subverted somewhat with Pete, who does live.
- Villainous Breakdown: Pete has two: first, when he catches Mickey, Donald and Goofy in the act of trying to make off with his furniture, and second, after the house blows up and they make their escape with all the furniture leaving Pete (with a "For Sale" sign smashed over his head) to yell after them to stop from amid the rubble of their old house. As he flails his arms around, Pete accidentally turns on the hot water, which still seems to be working, which pours over his head.
- Villainy-Free Villain: Pete zig-zags with this role as he both was forcing Mickey and Donald out of their home but wasn't doing anything illegal since they hadn't paid rent in six months and physically man-handling Donald which certainly goes a bit further that his assigned duties. And keeping the furniture does seem like something of an over-compensation.
