That Duckfan's Eponymous Animation Review Series
Dec 29, 2020 23:28:25 GMT
That Duckfan and mousemaestro like this
Post by Mesterius on Dec 29, 2020 23:28:25 GMT
I have to say I really like this cartoon. Mickey's personality here is great, much more fun than in most of the later shorts, and I don't mind his design all that much either. The animation of him by (I'm 99% sure) Freddy Moore is frikkin' amazing -- there's something lyrical about the way Mickey dances about the screen raking up the leaves.
And interestingly enough: in most cases, dead elements suddenly becoming sentient beings who fight the main characters in Disney shorts are utterly uninteresting to me. But in this case, it works for me because the personality of the whirlwind is pretty fun... and Mickey is also always kept squarely in the spotlight; the whirlwind doesn't run off with the entire show. Plus, there's a great twist in the end when he calls on his father and it becomes clear that Mickey bit off more than he could chew when taking on the whirlwind in a fight.
Is it Freddy Moore? I always thought it was Ward Kimball, but then they worked together in the same department and I am terrible at telling apart all the different animators. They both worked on this short, but I have no idea who did which character or what scenes.
Yeah, Ward Kimball would be my second guess... and I haven't even checked online credits for this short. They both had a great flair for wonderfully exaggerated, cartoony animation. And I would certainly think that Moore was chiefly responsible for redesigning Mickey here.