The Flying Mouse

9 minCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

The Flying Mouse is a Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney, directed by David Hand, and released to theatres by United Artists on July 14, 1934.^[1] The use of color here was rather innovative as it is set during the course of a single day.

Plot

To the tune "I Would Like to Be a Bird", a young mouse fashions wings from a pair of leaves, to the great amusement of his brothers. When his attempts to use them fail, the mouse got blown backwards and his rear end crashes into a thorn, he falls into the tub and shrinks his sister's dress and gets spanked by his mother. When a butterfly calls for help, he rescues it from a spider. When the butterfly proves to be a fairy, the mouse wishes for wings. But his bat-like appearance doesn't fit in with either the birds or the other mice, and he finds himself friendless; even the bats make fun of him, making a point that he is "Nothin' But A Nothin'". The butterfly fairy reappears and removes the mouse's wings, telling him: "Be yourself and life will smile on you". Then the boy mouse runs all the way home where he is reunited with his mother and 3 mouse brothers.

Production

The Flying Mouse boy and his mother make an appearance as spectators in the 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Polo Team.

Voice cast

• Bat: Billy Sheets
• Male voices: The Three Rhythm Kings
• Bird whistles: Marion Darlington
• Laughing mice: Marcellite Garner^[1]

Home media

The short was released on December 4, 2001, on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies - The Historic Musical Animated Classics.^[2][1] Prior to that, the featurette also appeared on the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition: Silly Symphonies VHS in the 1980s.

It was also released as a bonus feature, alongside fellow Silly Symphony short Elmer Elephant, on DVD/Blu-Ray releases of Dumbo.

References

External links

• The Flying Mouse at IMDb
• The Flying Mouse at the Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts