Plane Crazy
Encyclopedia
Plane Crazy is an American animated
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 short film directed by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 and Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....

. The cartoon, produced in 1928 by The Walt Disney Studio, was the first to feature the character Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...

. It was made as a silent film and given a test screening to a theater audience on May 15, 1928, but failed to pick up a distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...

. Later that year, Disney released Mickey's first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...

, which was an enormous success. Following this, Plane Crazy was released as a sound cartoon on March 17, 1929. It was the fourth Mickey film to be released after Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho
The Gallopin' Gaucho
The Gallopin' Gaucho was the second short film featuring Mickey Mouse to be produced, following Plane Crazy and preceding Steamboat Willie. The Walt Disney Company completed the silent version on August 2, 1928, but failed to distribute it widely...

, and The Barn Dance
The Barn Dance
The Barn Dance , first released on March 14, 1929, was the first of twelve Mickey Mouse shorts released during that year. It was directed by Walt Disney with Ub Iwerks as the head animator...

(1929). This leads to some ambiguity as to which is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, as Plane Crazy was the first to be produced while Steamboat Willie was the first to be released. The Walt Disney Company considers Steamboat Willie to be Mickey's debut.

Synopsis

Mickey was apparently trying to fly an airplane to imitate Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...

. After building his own airplane, he did a flight simulation to ensure that the plane is safe for flight but the flight failed, destroying the plane. Using a tractor and remains of his plane to create another plane, he asks Minnie to join him for its first flight after she presents him with a horseshoe for good luck. They take an out-of-control flight with exaggerated, impossible situations. An un-anthropomorphic cow briefly "rides" the aircraft. This is Clarabelle Cow
Clarabelle Cow
Clarabelle Cow is a Disney fictional character within the Mickey Mouse universe of characters. Clarabelle Cow was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1928. Clarabelle is one of Minnie Mouse's best friends and is usually depicted as the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, although she has also...

 making her first appearance, though the cow is actually an early, more "cowlike" predecessor of Clarabelle named Carolyn. Once Mickey regains control of the plane, he repeatedly tries to kiss Minnie. When she refuses, he uses force: he breaks her concentration and terrifies her by throwing her out of the airplane, catching her with the airplane, and he uses this to kiss her. Minnie then parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

 out of the plane using her bloomers
Bloomers (clothing)
Bloomers is a word which has been applied to several types of divided women's garments for the lower body at various times.-Fashion bloomers :...

. While distracted by her, Mickey loses control of the plane and eventually crashes into a tree. Minnie then lands, and Mickey laughs at her. Minnie then storms off, rebuffing him. Mickey then angrily throws the good luck horseshoe given to him by Minnie and it boomerangs around a tree, hitting him and ringing around his neck.

Production

The short was co-directed by Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

 and Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....

. Iwerks was also the main animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...

 for this short and reportedly spent six weeks working on it. Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were credited for assisting him; these two had already signed their contracts with Charles Mintz, but he was still in the process of forming his new studio and so for the time being they were still employed by Disney. This short would be the last they animated under this somewhat awkward situation. The sound version contained a soundtrack by Carl W. Stalling.

This was the first animated film to use a camera move. The POV shot from the plane made it appear as if the camera was tracking into the ground. In fact, when they shot this scene, they piled books under the spinning background to move the artwork closer to the camera.

Characters

Mickey Mouse is portrayed in Plane Crazy as mischievous, amorous, and has often been described as a rogue, much like Disney's own Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...

 (It has been speculated that the cartoon started production as an Oswald entry).

Besides Mickey, Plane Crazy was also the first appearance of Minnie Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an animated character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minnie has since been a recurring alias for her. Minnie is currently voiced by actress Russi...

 and Clarabelle Cow
Clarabelle Cow
Clarabelle Cow is a Disney fictional character within the Mickey Mouse universe of characters. Clarabelle Cow was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1928. Clarabelle is one of Minnie Mouse's best friends and is usually depicted as the girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, although she has also...

.

DVD release

Plane Crazy (as well as Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...

) has been released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures
Walt Disney Treasures
The Walt Disney Treasures is a two-disc DVD set of classic Disney works. They cover work from the studio's earliest days to their more recent work...

DVD collections twice:
  • On disc one of Mickey Mouse in Black and White
  • On disc two of The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as part of a tribute to animator Ub Iwerks

Legacy

  • In 1930 the story of Plane Crazy was adapted and used for the first story in the newspaper comic strip Mickey Mouse. This adaptation, entitled "Lost on a Desert Island," was written by Walt Disney
    Walt Disney
    Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

     with art by Ub Iwerks
    Ub Iwerks
    Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....

     and Win Smith.
  • In the Mickey Mouse short The Nifty Nineties
    The Nifty Nineties
    The Nifty Nineties is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on June 20, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. The film stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse and romanticizes the decade of the 1890s....

    (1941), Mickey and Minnie's car runs out of control and runs into a cow. The scene was taken almost directly from Plane Crazy.
  • The cartoon "Mickey's Airplane Kit" (1999) from the series House of Mouse featured a similar premise in which Mickey built his own airplane to impress Minnie.
  • In the television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
    Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
    Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is a children's television series, that premiered in prime time on Disney Channel on May 5, 2006. The program was originally part of the Playhouse Disney daily block intended for preschoolers...

    (2006-present), Mickey regularly flies the plane from Plane Crazy which he calls the "Toonplane."


External links

(official posting by Walt Disney Animation Studios)
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