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In the detailed opening scene of the crowds, a character turns around and excitedly notices the audience in the cinema. Being able to notice and do the impossible is a typical trait of Goofy and it looks just like him (minus the buck teeth) too! Then in the scene where the referee keeps getting punched, we hear Pinto Colvig's distinctive Goofy laugh whenever anything goes wrong. I wonder if Goofy's running gag from Mickey's Revue was held back from an idea they planned for this cartoon? Although, in "Revue" the design is different with 'Dippy Dawg' being much more elderly looking.
The other thing I've been pondering about is the final scene. I think it reuses animation from a much earlier silent era Disney cartoon. Check out the drawings of the characters – those bodies and five fingered hands sure look like 20's designs to me. It's an odd mix really since it appears a 1930's cow and pig's head have ben placed on 1920's hippo bodies! You can even see what looks like the old top-hatted version of Pete! I just wonder what cartoon it was from originally.
The final year of Alices included Alice's Auto Race and Alice's Channel Swim, neither of which I've seen. Both featured sports events, presumably with big crowds of onlookers. Perhaps the crowd here was lifted from one of those earlier shorts.
The Barnyard Olympics, the latest short, helped me come to this realization. This short is all about wacky fun, from the first frame to the last. It is a classic Disney style short, in that it features great storytelling, follows a compelling character all the way through, and features wonderful gags and animation.
The thing that makes this one stand out to me is the way that Mickey and his antagonist are matched up throughout. After some brief scenes of the other events going on in The Barnyard Olympics, we get to see Mickey competing with a larger cat, probably Pete, although it’s a different design.
And by the way, it would be tempting to pass over those early scenes, but they contain some wonderful gags. There is a boxing ring where a goat is refereeing between two bruisers and ends up getting clocked himself, then we switch to the same scene in a wrestling ring, and the combatants and goat get tied up in knots, literally. Both are great scenes, but don’t linger too long, getting the joke in and getting out.
But as I said, it’s the interplay between Mickey and his adversary that makes things work here. Pete (I’m assuming it’s him) tries many things to keep Mickey from winning the triathlon event they are competing in. My favorite is right at the beginning, when he knocks Mickey backwards onto a crate of soda bottles, and Mickey keeps running on top of the spinning bottles like a treadmill. It takes a shot from Clarabelle’s noisemaker to get Mickey going.
The race itself is a burst of energy, with the constant motion of the characters and the stopping points for gags making for a fun combination. From the stripping of Mickey’s boat in the rowing segment to the mashups of the various bicycles in the final segment, each piece deviates from the norm and makes the short better for it.
When Mickey wins, as you know he has to, it’s because Pete accidentally catapults him over the finish line and into the winner’s cup. And in the victory celebration, is that Oswald down in the left corner, under the cup? It makes for a great finish to this fantastic short, easily one of my favorites so far.