Mickey's Athletes: A Quick Look Back at Early Cartoon Sports

Alright, so Mickey's Athletes. Is this worth pulling up today? Honestly, for most folks, probably not. 🙅‍♀️ Unless you’re really, _really_ into old cartoons, or perhaps studying the early days of animation, you might find it a bit… thin. But if that’s your jam, then yes, there’s some fun to be had here.

This little short just dives right into it: Mickey, played by a very young Mickey Rooney, and his friends are competing in all sorts of athletic events. Think early Olympic spoofs with animals. 🤸‍♂️ It’s mostly quick gags, one after another, which is pretty standard for these old shorts.

One moment that actually stuck with me was this absurd high jump attempt. One of the characters, a tall, gangly sort, tries to clear an impossibly high bar. He fails, of course, but the way he stretches and contorts, it’s a pretty _neat trick_ of early animation for making the impossible seem almost… plausible for a second. That kind of fluid motion wasn’t always a given back then.

The whole thing feels a bit like a string of visual jokes. There’s a scene with a race where everyone’s cheating in increasingly silly ways. It’s not subtle, but it doesn’t try to be. You can almost feel the animators just having a blast drawing whatever wild ideas popped into their heads. 🤪

The voice work, with Delia Bogard and Marvin Stephens alongside Rooney, is all very energetic, but it’s definitely of its time. Sometimes it’s hard to make out what they’re saying over the music and general chaos. It's not a deal-breaker, just a little muddled.

What’s kind of charming about it is how unpolished everything feels. The lines aren't always perfect, and the backgrounds are often super simple. But that’s part of its appeal, I think. It shows the craft, the actual drawing, rather than something overly slick.

I also kept wondering if some of these characters were supposed to be specific animals or just generic, cartoon-y types. Like, there’s a dog and a cat, but then there are others that are just… _things_. It’s kind of endearing in its ambiguity.

The sports themselves are a bit secondary to the gags, honestly. The football segment, if you can even call it that, devolves into a pile of bodies and flying limbs faster than you can blink. No real strategy, just pure, unadulterated cartoon violence. 😂

It’s a quick watch, maybe five or six minutes, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. You definitely don’t get a deep narrative, but that's not what these shorts were for anyway. It’s a snapshot of a different era of entertainment.

So, if you appreciate the historical context, or just want to see some early, energetic animation, give it a shot. Otherwise, you can probably skip this one and not feel like you missed some profound cinematic experience. It's just a fun, simple cartoon. ✨