I have always enjoyed the cartoons with Mickey, Donald and Goofy individually, and even more so together. While it is still a good, solid cartoon, Tugboat Mickey is not one of their better outings. The story is rather routine and reminded me a lot of The Whalers(the main reason why the ending wasn't so much as a surprise) and especially Clock Cleaners, and Mickey's re-design takes some getting used to especially as Donald and Goofy are kept the same. However, there is much to enjoy as Tugboat Mickey is beautifully animated especially in the colourful backgrounds, and the music is very energetic. The gags are familiar in a way, but they are still very funny especially with Donald's temperament with the steam piston and Goofy's confusion as the grate keeps closing on him. Mickey is not as funny but he is still likable and all three characters are impeccably voiced as always. Overall, a good cartoon if not one of the best. 8/10 Bethany Cox
9 Reviews
"Help, goodbye, we're sinking!"
classicsoncall9 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Two years following their prior high seas adventure in "Boat Builders", Mickey, Donald and Goofy team up once again in a similar tale, this time aboard a ship, and roused to action when they hear a distressing S.O.S. from the Steamship Gigantic, about to flounder on a dangerous Rocky Reef. Goofy has to contend with an uncooperative coal furnace door, while Donald Duck has a bit of trouble getting in gear himself. Finally breaking free of the harbor, the trio come to realize that the S.O.S. broadcast they heard could just as well have been intended for themselves, as the intrepid sailors wind up in the drink. Excellent animation and vibrant color highlight this quick seven minute film, and Disney fans should find themselves well pleased.
Are We Sure That Uncle Walt's Vocal Talents Are Present.........?
redryan6418 September 2016
...........AS IT SURE sounds like a substitute to us!!
TAKING ON YET another group team comic effort, the Disney Studios' answer to the Brothers Marx & Ritz, as well as Laurel & Hardy, the Stooges, etc.gives their best in team effort.
PERHAPS THIS COMBINATION of character concept was getting just a trifle stale or maybe the creative talent was being allocated in a greater proportional configuration to the animated features; like SNOW WHITE, PINNOCHIO, BAMBI, DUMBO and FANTASIA.
OUTSIDE OF THE obvious buffoonery of the actions by the true supporting characters of Donald & Goofy and the now much more straight laced demeanor of the "Top Banana", Mickey; the big development was the physical appearance of this anthropomorphic trio. This goes especially for their facial construction and make up.
SOMETIME BETWEEN THE earlier short, BOAT BUILDERS and this maritime outing, an editorial policy decreed that Mickey especially needed an upgrade.
PRODUCTION ON WHAT was originally to be called "the Concert Feature" had a segment starring Mr. Mouse in it called The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the feature, now dubbed FANTASIA, showcased this more complex countenance.
WE RECENTLY VIEWED this short along with BOAT BUILDERS on Turner Classic Movies' FROM THE Disney VAULT Feature with Leonard Maltin.
TAKING ON YET another group team comic effort, the Disney Studios' answer to the Brothers Marx & Ritz, as well as Laurel & Hardy, the Stooges, etc.gives their best in team effort.
PERHAPS THIS COMBINATION of character concept was getting just a trifle stale or maybe the creative talent was being allocated in a greater proportional configuration to the animated features; like SNOW WHITE, PINNOCHIO, BAMBI, DUMBO and FANTASIA.
OUTSIDE OF THE obvious buffoonery of the actions by the true supporting characters of Donald & Goofy and the now much more straight laced demeanor of the "Top Banana", Mickey; the big development was the physical appearance of this anthropomorphic trio. This goes especially for their facial construction and make up.
SOMETIME BETWEEN THE earlier short, BOAT BUILDERS and this maritime outing, an editorial policy decreed that Mickey especially needed an upgrade.
PRODUCTION ON WHAT was originally to be called "the Concert Feature" had a segment starring Mr. Mouse in it called The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the feature, now dubbed FANTASIA, showcased this more complex countenance.
WE RECENTLY VIEWED this short along with BOAT BUILDERS on Turner Classic Movies' FROM THE Disney VAULT Feature with Leonard Maltin.
What should young kids do when they think gas . . .
pixrox18 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . is seeping into a closed space? Why, strike a match, of course! This is the recommendation of the villainous Dizzy gang midway through TUGBOAT MICKEY, when the Goof Dog observes "Gosh, gas is leaking" and immediately causes a big explosion by lighting up. What fun! By the end of this pernicious film, the title vehicle has been blown to smithereens. The trio of evil arsonists--Goof Mutt, Don Duck and the rodent vermin Mickey--are depicted none-the-worse for wear, encouraging America's impressionable youth to conduct their own experiments with pyrotechnics. How much were the censor board, public health and law enforcement authorities paid to "look the other way" over such incriminating movie mush, rather than alerting our U. S. Homeland with a specific Public Service Denunciation of each and every new Dizzy incitement to mayhem?
Smackdown on the Water
Hitchcoc12 January 2019
As the boys grab their tugboat and head off to do a rescue, just about everything goes wrong. Good intentions seldom work well in these cartoons. But it allows for series of pratfalls that kids would have enjoyed as a come on to the main feature. It is beautifully drawn with lots of color and a good deal of detail.
Three Sillies At Sea
Ron Oliver15 June 2003
A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.
TUGBOAT MICKEY, along with crewmen Donald Duck & Goofy, attempts to rush to the rescue of a quickly sinking ship.
Here is another classic little film, with excellent animation and lots of good laughs. Many younger viewers may not understand the final gag, what with all the changes in American popular entertainment since 1940. Walt Disney provides Mickey with his squeaky voice; Clarence Nash does the honors for the Duck.
Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.
TUGBOAT MICKEY, along with crewmen Donald Duck & Goofy, attempts to rush to the rescue of a quickly sinking ship.
Here is another classic little film, with excellent animation and lots of good laughs. Many younger viewers may not understand the final gag, what with all the changes in American popular entertainment since 1940. Walt Disney provides Mickey with his squeaky voice; Clarence Nash does the honors for the Duck.
Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.
Misadventures at sea.
OllieSuave-00712 June 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of the Disney cartoons I first watched and grew up with. I thought it was wildly entertaining and chaotically fun as we see Mickey, Donald and Goofy try to get their tugboat in order so they could go and see an allegedly singing ship. Obviously, nothing goes accordingly to plan as Mickey has troubles with a seagull, Goofy tries to get coal in the steamer and Donald grapples with the engine.
The animation is vibrant and has some very excellent sequences, including the scenes where the tugboat is racing across the sea. When I was a kid, I felt a little sorry for the three characters as their boat ***spoiler ahead*** blows up and never makes it to their destination. It wasn't until years later that the supposedly SOS call was just a radio station broadcasting an episode of a fictional show, so, that would be feel better about the story's outcome. ***spoiler ends *** It's great fun seeing the three characters together.
Grade A
The animation is vibrant and has some very excellent sequences, including the scenes where the tugboat is racing across the sea. When I was a kid, I felt a little sorry for the three characters as their boat ***spoiler ahead*** blows up and never makes it to their destination. It wasn't until years later that the supposedly SOS call was just a radio station broadcasting an episode of a fictional show, so, that would be feel better about the story's outcome. ***spoiler ends *** It's great fun seeing the three characters together.
Grade A
Nice and Funny Short
amberalvia22 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This short film was nice to watch and I think possibly watched this at Grandma's apartment on an old TV, I remembered watching the scenes with Goofy and Donald Duck on it. I could barely remember watching it on Grandma's old TV.
Anyways, The story is decent because the radio that Mickey heard was just an radio show and somehow tricked Mickey, Goofy and Donald into thinking that's the ship is really sinking. The animation is quite detailed and I would say the animation had an very good direction.
The art in this detailed as well, but also very nice.
The voice acting is fine, Danny Webb voiced Goofy in this short instead of Pinto because he was possibly at MGM cartoons at the time voicing some characters in Tex Avery shorts.
Danny sounded a bit different from Pinto, it sounded okay nonetheless, I saw some similarities of the short, and it reminds that of Boat Builders because of the boat being a bit similar, The Whalers because of the somewhat similar concept and Clock Cleaners in which Donald fought and talks back to the machine and yet throwing a tantrum at it and Pelican is somehow similar to the sleepy stork and Mickey telling it to leave.
The humor is at it's finest.
Overall, It's an great short film with an great deal of details, good color palettes the same thing with the art and an great animation direction.
10/10.
Mindless Mickey.
BrettErikJohnson7 August 2004
A significant portion of this animated short shows Goofy trying to load up some coal to be burned in order to get Mickey's tugboat moving. Meanwhile, Donald struggles with a piece of machinery and Mickey stands around until the boat gets moving. Wow...the comic genius involved is downright mind-blowing!
I know I'm being a bit of a downer, but it is disappointing that Mickey and his gang were always trying to cull laughter from idiocy instead of cleverness. "Tugboat Mickey" continued to employ that strategy. It used broad, uninvolving humor and the "surprise" ending was obvious from the get-go. 1/10
I know I'm being a bit of a downer, but it is disappointing that Mickey and his gang were always trying to cull laughter from idiocy instead of cleverness. "Tugboat Mickey" continued to employ that strategy. It used broad, uninvolving humor and the "surprise" ending was obvious from the get-go. 1/10
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