Three Blind Mouseketeers

THE THREE MOUSKETEERS gives a cartoon spin to the Alexander Dumas tale of "all for one" as they have to use their combative skills with sword and derring-do to defeat a fat cat bent on their destruction. "My traps are set in every room, those cats are munchin' to their doom." Predictably, the mousketeers outmaneuver the traps either by remarkable luck or skill (or both) and the sleeping cat (who dreams about victory) is soon awakened by the rather boisterous musketeers as they congratulate each other on escaping his booby traps.

The rest of the cartoon is strictly a series of cat-and-mouse chases with the mice winning at every turn. The scene where one of them is hiding under a teacup is reminiscent of the later gag used for Lucifer in Disney's full-length "Cinderella".

Nothing really extraordinary here, although it's clear to see that the animation techniques were undergoing vast improvement by 1936.

Three Blind Mouseketeers (1936)

*** (out of 4)

The title characters - three blind mice - are hated by a large cat who plans to capture them no matter what it takes. The cat comes up with some very clever traps but will the mice be able to avoid them while at the same time taking the cheese? The traps used in this Disney short were decades ahead of the SAW series that's for certain. With that said, this here is certainly an entertaining short but I think it falls well short of being a classic. Still, there is some great stuff here including the music score, which really pumps you up as you watch the film. Another major plus are the four characters as the three mice are certainly likable and the cat is such a good villain that you love to hate him. I think the first portion of the short works best as we see the mice trying to steal the cheese.

The concept of this short film is a mix between the literary work The Three Musketeers and the children's song Three Blind Mice. The result is a good, quite entertaining short film, with good animation and good character designs. One thing that can be credited is that it seems that this short film had served as inspiration for the animated version of The Three Musketeers, which starred Mickey, Donald and Goofy. It is because of the similarity that the title of the short film has with the movie and the cat that tries to catch the mice resembles Pete. That makes this short film also something interesting to watch because it is in some way comparable to the animated feature film of Mickey and his companions. The truth is another interesting piece of animation that is worth watching out of curiosity. My final rating for this short film is an 8/10.

Not really much to spoil. Old school Disney short revolving around three blind Mouseketeers, who walk into Captain Cat's many booby traps, but somehow come out on top, and outsmart that wily fat cat. For 1936, it's as much fun as a short can be, and it certainly entertains! The animation is great for its time, and I wouldn't have picked it for being in the 30s. More like the 40s, or at least, that was my initial impression. Enjoyable! There is not much more I can say about this short animated piece, other than I watched it via 'The Rescuers' DVD, so if you are interested in old school Disney shorts, it's worth a look.

***1/2 out of *****

"Three Blind Mouseketeers" comes across as a possible inspiration for the Road Runner-Wile E. Coyote cartoons, as the cat sets traps for the mice, who avoid them without realizing that they're in danger. Since I always preferred the Looney Tunes to any of the Disney stuff, I have to go with Wile E. Nonetheless, I did like that end sequence. In the end, the best version of "The Three Musketeers" is the 1973 and 1974 back-to-back movies directed by Richard Lester (they were planned for a few years earlier and Lester was planning to cast the Beatles, but that fell through and he assembled a different cast).

Anyway, this one's OK as entertainment. A piece of trivia is that Pinto Colvig, who did one of the voices, is best known as Goofy's voice.