A little imagination goes a long way, and what a wonderfully vivid one the collective Disney animators had at this time... This is one of my all-time favourites, it's hands-down one of those timelessly special Disney shorts that seem to only get better with age, and that have the rare ability to make you feel like a little kid again for a moment while you're watching them. And this one, clearly inspired by Lewis Caroll's "Through the Looking Glass", is a real strange and entertaining little ride from beginning to end! Mickey falls asleep and enters a topsy-turvy dream mirrorland wherein many enchanting sight gags abound. Almost everything is alive and has a personality. Soon to be mean! Mickey shrinks down to the size of an actual mouse, but doesn't seem too troubled by it, and engages in a little dance with a pair of magician's gloves in one fabulously charming sequence... That's the part I always remembered about this short. Everything's just swell until Mickey also dances with the Queen of Hearts and makes the king jealous - at which point the fun 'trip' turns into a perilous flight for freedom! Ha, I love how he just tosses the alarm clock back in the drawer without a second thought and goes straight back to sleep! This is my favourite incarnation of Mickey with the iconic little red pants and yellow shoes and the adorable black dot eyes! At the start he's just kind of an observer, than a musical star in the middle, and an action hero by the end. I love the ink-pen machine gun! It's the playful innocence and heroic spirit of Mickey that made him such a lovable and endearing character. The lasting nature of this short and in particular the elaborate scene with the gloves had apparently not been lost on the Disney company because the gag with the gloves would later be imitated by the genie during the "Friend like Me" sequence of 1992's "Aladdin". Also there's a dog-like foot stool that's a little precursor to the one that appeared way down the line in "Beauty and the Beast", and then of course, there are those beautiful cards which make the short feel somewhat like a testing ground for "Alice in Wonderland" which came 15 years later. The entire deck of cards is especially well detailed and fascinating to look at. Undoubtedly, it must have been a gruelling nightmare animating, inking and painting all the cards featured here, but it was well worth it for the effect they achieved. The way they fold and scatter and leap in a coordinated line looks just amazing. The gloves and the cards are the short's strongest points in my opinion. The madcap structure is slightly reminiscent of the surrealism of the most fantastic Fleisher animations, only a lot less dark and threatening, and a whole lot easier on the eye. Practically every richly detailed and gorgeously animated moment of this looks excellent. I especially like the strange membranous effect when Mickey passes through the mirror. Still so utterly magical, even now. Not crude, not bland, nor dull but perfect. A little treasure!
Review of Thru the Mirror
