Mickey Mouse in Vietnam

Short Subject (commonly known as Mickey Mouse in Vietnam) is a 16mm underground animated short film. The director was Whitney Lee Savage (father of Adam Savage, of MythBusters fame);[1] the producer and head designer was Milton Glaser. It was produced independently in 1969 and has a total running time of one minute.[2]

Short Subject
Screenshot from Short Subject
Directed byWhitney Lee Savage
Produced byMilton Glaser
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Max Cats and Whittesey Sledge Studios
Release date
1969 (1969)
Running time
1 minute
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Mickey Mouse is seen walking happily until he sees a sign reading "Join the Army and See the World"; he then walks offscreen and comes back with a helmet and gun; he arrives at Vietnam during the war via a cruise ship; however, moments after while walking in the grass he is shot by an enemy. The short ends with Mickey lying dead on the ground, his smile turning slowly into a frown.

Production

The short was produced under the auspices of a studio named Max Cats and Whittesey Sledge Studios. According to Glaser, it was meant for the Angry Arts Festival which, according to him, was "a kind of protest event, inviting artists to produce something to represent their concerns about the war in Vietnam and a desire to end it"; Mickey Mouse was chosen due to being a symbol of innocence.[3][4]

Reception

It received an award from the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in 1970.[5] According to Glaser it was positively received from the audience.[3][4]

Conservation status

The film was erroneously thought to be lost for many years. It was shown under its French title Mickey au Vietnam or Mickey Mouse au Vietnam at the Festival Côté court de Pantin in France in 1998[6] and 2003.[7] In both cases, the copy came from the French distributor ISKRA. The Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal, Canada, used its own copy in 2004.[8]

On April 22, 2013, a YouTube user uploaded the video.[9][10][11][12] Five years later, on July 31, 2018, the full short was uploaded by another YouTube user CDCB2 on a distorted VHS print which is low-faded; this version includes the opening and closing titles, the SMPTE Universal countdown film leader, and a Telecine Compact Video Systems servants entrance Disney segment VHS slide, both of which were absent in the 2013 upload, as well the audio track, which, until then, was assumed to be completely lost. The music prominently used in the soundtrack is The Gonk by Herbert Chappell, which was popularized by George A. Romero's horror film Dawn of the Dead.

See also

References
  1. Doctorow, Cory (23 June 2013). "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam". Boing Boing. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  2. John Grant, Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: from Mickey Mouse to Hercules, 3rd Edition, p. 31
  3. Metzger, Richard (October 1, 2017). "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam". Dangerous Minds. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  4. Solway, Carl (July 19, 2013). "A Rare 1968 Anti-War Short "Mickey Mouse In Vietnam" Has Resurfaced Online". Carl Solway Gallery. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  5. Filmmakers Newsletter, vol. 4, p. 55 (1970).
  6. Côté-court, 1998, p. 40
  7. Côté court, 2003, p. 64
  8. "Mickey Mouse au Viêt-nam (Short Subject)". La revue de la Cinémathèque (in French) (77). Montréal: Cinémathèque québécoise. 2003–2004.
  9. "Mickey Mouse In Vietnam: Anti-War Animation By Milton Glaser Shows Character's Sad Demise", Huffington Post, June 24, 2013.
  10. David Haglund, "Watch the Long Lost Anti-War Short 'Mickey Mouse in Vietnam'", Slate (magazine), June 21, 2013.
  11. Gabriel Grand, "When Mickey Mouse fought in Vietnam", Salon, June 23, 2013.
  12. "The Bootleg Files: Mickey Mouse in Vietnam", Film Threat, June 28, 2013.
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