User Reviews

. . . MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER are likely to remark "I keep seeing dead people." There's a word for anyone who would mix together deathless animated characters with mere mortals, and it is NOT Mickey (as in the adjective "Mickey Mouse"). No, the term for the pernicious practice of knowingly throwing together dead actors walking (no, Sean Penn is NOT old enough to be pictured here) with cartoons that might outlive them by four thousand years is "vampire." So, in the year 5933, when some kid asks an elder "Who ARE all these strange looking people supposed to be?" Pops will reply "Don't know; don't care, because they've all been dead for around four thousand years."

Released at the time which could very well be said to be the height of the popularity of Mickey Mouse, still before Donald and Goofy had become his permanent sidekicks in order to gain more laughs, MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER is remembered for two reasons: one, that its sole concept is about giving the public a riot recognizing caricatures of the stars of the early 1930's; and two, that it was the last program to be aired on BBC Television before Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. The latter fact seems to have been coincidental; while the station was showing this cartoon, all TV broadcasting from BBC was stopped in order to prevent German bombing planes from using the broadcast signals to their advantage. Naturally, the availability of TV was very limited in Britain at the time, so not too many of the population can have been bothered by the sudden interruption. Nevertheless, this cartoon was also the first thing to be aired when BBC resumed TV broadcasting after the war; by that time, this cartoon must have appeared as quite a nostalgia piece, as Mickey Mouse's appearance, and also his degree of popularity, had largely changed through that time.

However, even though Mickey Mouse was somewhat less worthy of note by the mid-1940's, when MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER was initially released in 1933, that possibility could hardly have been on Disney's mind. The story appears to be a mere excuse to do somewhat heartless, but often funny caricatures of the hottest movie stars of the era (sans King Kong, who was to be parodied in another Mickey-cartoon released the same year). Dozens of movie stars have come to attend the premiere of a Mickey Mouse-film: among the most notable are Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, both of whom were soon to make another hit in DINNER AT EIGHT; Greta Garbo, whose QUEEN Christina would be her next triumph; Clark Gable, a recent star at that point; The Marx Brothers, who were making DUCK SOUP at this time; Charlie Chaplin, who was undergoing a crisis regarding whether or not he should abandon silent films; Buster Keaton, who had just made his last, unhappy appearance with Jimmy Durante at MGM; Mae West, who had recently shocked audiences with her frank, sexual appearance in SHE DONE HIM WRONG; Boris Karloff, in-evidently presented as Frankenstein's monster; Bela Lugosi, likewise in the role as Dracula; Adolphe Menjou, who'd recently appeared in an adaptation of FAREWELL TO ARMS; Harold Lloyd, who had still not made it quite as good as he'd hoped for in talking comedies; Laurel & Hardy, most beloved comedy team of the time (and possibly still today); comedians Ford Sterling, Chester Conklin, Ben Turpin, Mack Swain and Harry Langdon as Keystone Kops (among these, only Sterling and Conklin actually ever appeared as Keystone Kops, by the way), and numerous others.

To do comical, wildly exaggerated portrayals of movie stars had been fairly common practice during the silent era; Felix the Cat had done FELIX IN Hollywood ten years before, and movies about star-crazed, naive young guys and gals such as SHOW PEOPLE with Marion Davies had been popular. With MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER, Disney did in other words use a quite tried-and-safe idea, which the studio was to use again a few years later in MICKEY'S POLO TEAM, to arguably better effect; whereas the idea of letting an entire polo team consist of well-known movie stars is quite genuine, it appears less inspired to throw in an older, authentic Mickey-film on the screen which the stars are watching, underscoring even more clearly that this film, in the end, is made for us to recognize the stars, whereas an actual story feels absent. Even so, the film is still interesting as it sort of documents the popularity which Mickey Mouse enjoyed at this point; during this very year, his stardom had reached greater heights as he was one of the very, very first cartoon characters (if not the first) to be gained his own comic magazine. Thus the sight of real-life movie stars celebrating his success seems to be more than sly advertisement on the part of Disney; in 1933, Mickey Mouse was truly one of the most popular movie stars to be found, and MICKEY'S GALA PREMIER, for all its amusing puns at Garbo, Chaplin and Karloff, is probably most fun to watch due to how it illustrates that point.

This is a Mickey Mouse cartoon that is absolutely jam-packed full of celebrity cameos. While I have seen similar sorts of things with Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny, I can't recall a single cartoon that crams as many movie stars into one short film! And, for fans of the golden age of Hollywood, it's an absolute must-see. You'll see appearances by Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Maurice Chevalier, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, a trio of ladies (I think one is Constance Bennett another is Joan Crawford and I am unsure of last--perhaps Carole Lombard), a quartet of men (Harold Lloyd, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson and Adolph Menjou), Joe E. Brown, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mae West, Mickey and Minnie, Pluto, Horace, Clarabelle, William Powell, George Arliss, Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, Greta Garbo, Will Rogers, Ed Wynn, Wheeler & Woolsey, Dracula, Mr, Hyde, Frankenstein, Harry Langdon, John Barrymore (as Svengali) and perhaps one or two others I couldn't identify. And, if you can identify the one or two others, let me know!

Overall, the film is a lot of fun and I loved the cute ending. Well worth seeing and its Disney Studios at its best during the black & white era.

By the way, the film seeing on the screen is "Galloping Romance"--a movie within a movie that was made for "Mickey's Gala Premier".

This is an early Mickey Mouse cartoon done by the Disney studio. There will be spoilers ahead:

The various cartoon studios did cartoons with caricatures of Hollywood film stars, to varying degrees of success. This is one of the better ones.

The caricatures come so fast and furious that I won't even try to list them all, just a few of the more obscure ones and the ones I enjoyed the most. Early on, there's one which most people these days would not catch, with Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore in character from the film Rasputin and the Empress. The Marx Brothers make their almost obligatory appearance, as do Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Maurice Chevalier, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and a raft of others.

Mickey, Minnie and Pluto make their grand entrance, with a great gag involving Pluto and a palm tree. Everyone enters the theater and they watch the premiere of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, which is itself pretty good, with some good gags which I won't spoil here. The ending is good and I won't spoil that either.

This short is available on the Disney Treasures Mickey Mouse In Black and White, Volume One DVD set and it and the set are well worth tracking down. Most highly recommended.

Mickey's Gala Premiere is a superb cartoon that I loved as a child and still love to this day. There is so much to love about it, with everything I love about the Disney cartoons present here. The animation is crisp, clean and beautifully shaded. I do agree somewhat about the character designs of some of the caricatures being on the slightly cruel, but never offensive, side, but that didn't deter me from enjoying, loving even, Mickey's Gala Premiere. Besides Mickey and the gang were animated perfectly I felt. I also loved the cartoon for its energetic music(as ever enhancing the action wonderfully without it feeling repetitive) and the glitzy, exciting Hollywood atmosphere. As well as having Mickey(the star of the cartoon), Minnie, Pluto(their stepping out the limousine signifies classic Hollywood), Horace and Clarabelle, there is the wonderful gag where Mickey keeps changing vehicles with a galloping xylophone, a turtle, an octopus and a kangaroo.

Mickey's Gala Premiere is notable also for three things. The caricatures, some I recognised immediately like Greta Garbo, Mae West, Laurel and Hardy, Joe E.Brown, The Marx Brothers, Maurice Chevalier, The Barrymores, Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks, and others like Will Hays(looking very like Prince Charles), Sid Graumann, Wheeler and Whooley, George Arliss and Janet Gaynor that I wasn't so familiar with. Also, the interesting use of the cartoon-within-a-cartoon with Galloping Romance, which is like Galloping Gaucho, The Birthday Party and The Cactus Kid all in one and with amusing if slightly predictable results. Finally, the "it's all a dream" ending; some may find this strategy a cop-out, and at first it did disappoint me, but after watching it many more times since then I realise that this approach was deliberate, not just because the cartoon like with the cartoon-within-a-cartoon idea was acknowledging its medium but also taking away any since of arrogance the cartoon could've had. The voice work from all is spot on.

In conclusion, a classic cartoon. 10/10 Bethany Cox