The Little Whirlwind

The Little Whirlwind is a 1941 animated short subject, part of the Mickey Mouse series, produced by Walt Disney for Walt Disney Productions. The short was released by RKO Radio Pictures on February 14, 1941. The film was directed by Riley Thomson, and animated by Ward Kimball, Fred Moore, Ken Muse, Jim Armstrong, Les Clark, John Elliotte, Fred Jones, Walt Kelly, and Frank Follmer with effects animation by Art Fitzpatrick.[2] It was the 110th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the first for that year.[3]

The Little Whirlwind
Theatrical poster
Directed byRiley Thomson
Produced byJohn Sutherland
Walt Disney (executive)
StarringWalt Disney
Thelma Boardman
Music byOliver Wallace
Animation byWard Kimball
Walt Kelly
Kenneth Muse
Fred Moore
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
February 14, 1941[1]
Running time
8 min (one reel)
LanguageEnglish

The short involves Mickey's attempts to help Minnie with her yard work, despite the presence of several (anthropomorphic) twisters as foils.

Synopsis

While walking by Minnie Mouse's house one day, Mickey Mouse is enticed by the aroma of a cake Minnie is baking. Promised a slice if he cleans the yard, Mickey immediately jumps into raking up the fall leaves littering Minnie's lawn.

While working in the yard, a small tornado named Moses as tall as Mickey comes along and makes his work more complicated: first the youngster hops into the basket and leaps over Mickey countless times before he pounds the basket in place, shaking it to check if it's snared. After he throws the leaves in, Moses pounces on him, spins him around, grabs his hat, and taunts him. Angered, Mickey pounces on the youngster Moses, who spins him around and scoots away, leaving Mickey's hat on his head. Both Mickey and the youngster have a tug'o'war on the basket until it shatters on Mickey, who is entangled. Then, Moses makes an army of leaves and marches around the house. Mickey manages to trap Moses with a sack, which he ties and punts away. The tornadoling retaliates with just 2 punches, then attempts to get away, with Mickey hot on his heels. As Mickey chases him with a rake the terrified Moses calls out for his mother.

The mother tornado, unamused with Mickey tormenting her offspring (and unaware of what her child has been doing to Mickey), furiously pursues him. Her angry rampage causes chaos and destruction through the farm fields and grasslands until she lifts the lower portion of her gigantic body and slows Mickey's movement. When the twister finally sucks Mickey in, he is sent for a spin until he ends up falling into Minnie's water fountain.

After the two tornadoes leave, Minnie, unaware of the whole incident finds her garden in a complete mess causing Mickey to get her cake thrown in his face which he proceeds to eat.

Production

Much of the animation of the big tornado is taken from the 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoon The Band Concert.

The Little Whirlwind was the debut for a newly updated Mickey Mouse design: Mickey was given ears that worked in perspective (in lieu of his traditional, unchanging circles for ears), in addition to a slimmer body, larger head, hands and feet as well as buck teeth (the latter lasting for just two shorts; Canine Caddy was the other), and the absence of a tail. This cosmetic change was relatively short-lived, and only lasted for the duration of World War II.

Voice cast

Home video

The short can be found on the Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse In Living Color Volume 2 and on Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites Starring Mickey Volume 1. It was included in the 2018 Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Celebrating Mickey compilation.

See also

References
  1. Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8365-5284-4.
  2. "The Little Whirlwind". www.bcdb.com
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 107–109. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
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