The Beach Party
Studio: Disney Release Date : November 5, 1931 Series: Mickey Mouse

Cumulative rating:
(3 ratings submitted)

Synopsis

Mickey and the gang frolic on the beach.

Characters

Mickey Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Clarabelle Cow
Horace Horsecollar
Pluto

Music Sources

Carroll, Harry and Harold R. Atteridge : "By the Beautiful Sea "


Distributor(s)

Columbia

Cut Scenes

  • Censored in 1980s: Pluto's battle with a crab, Mickey pumping up inner tube by using Pluto as a pump

Television

Donald's Quack Attack (Season 1, Episode 26)

DVD

United States

Mickey Mouse in Black and White - Volume 2

Germany

Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume 2

Technical Specifications

Running Time: 7:40
Animation Type: Standard (Hand-drawn-Cel) Animation
Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1
Cinematographic Format: Spherical
Color Type: Black and White
Negative Type: 35mm
Original Country: United States
Original Language: English
Print Type: 35mm
Sound Type: Mono: Cinephone

Reviews and Comments

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From Jerry Edwards :

A beach party with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Clarabelle Cow, and Horace Horsecollar is interrupted by a disgruntled octopus accidentally pulled ashore by Pluto. After a free-for-all, Mickey gets rid of the octopus by lassoing it with a rope attached to an anchor. Several fun gags, especially during the battle with the octopus. One good laugh is when Clarabelle loses her swimsuit while swimming. Mickey becomes entangled in the suit and is washed ashore in it. Clarabelle, seeing that "something" is in her suit, whacks it with a board - clobbering Mickey in the process.

From Ryan :

This short was pretty good, but It would not be one of my favorites. I liked the scene where Mickey got caught in Clarabelle's bloomers and washed up on the shore. Clarabelle hits the bloomers, thinking there's something in there. She sees it's Mickey and walks away.

From Bill :

This is in my opinion a great early short, not because it had lots of action and sight gags, but because two of my favorite characters, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow had major roles in it. Many people do not realize how pivotal they were in the development of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons. As with most of the Mickey shorts, animals were very prevalent because of Walt's love of animals from his four years on the farm in Marceline. But Horace and Clarabelle were the first to have meaningful roles, not just animal "extras". They ended up as good friends of Mickey and Minnie. Good sight gags, Horace and Clarabelle going down the beach as a train, and the whole gang fighting off that angry octopus. I also loved it when Mickey got tangled up in Clarabelle's bathing suit, She clobbers it, thinking something else was in them, not knowing it was poor Mickey. Another 8 .

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

In my opinion, when you’re watching a Disney short, you should feel good at the end. The “magic” that is associated with Disney these days is probably more a corporate marketing term than anything else, but the origins of that came from the great feeling you would get watching Disney entertainment. The Beach Party is a great example of that. After watching it, you just feel happy.

Much of this short reminds me of one of my absolute favorite Mickey shorts, Hawaiian Holiday. Instead of Donald and Goofy joining the festivities in that short, it’s Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow here. But these gags are some of the best in Horace and Clarabelle’s career.

Mickey and the gang head to the beach to enjoy an afternoon of recreation, including a picnic. The fun ensues as we see each member of the party proceeding down the beach in a line. Horace and Clarabelle come first, then Pluto, then we see Minnie looking like she is wearing a huge hoop skirt. Then, we slowly get the reveal that it’s actually Minnie riding on top of a huge beach umbrella carried by Mickey. It’s a very fun visual trick by the animators.

Pluto again has some of the best gags in the short. Like in the later Hawaiian Holiday, he gets into it with a crab. His involvement here is limited to some circling and a quick fight, but it’s funny stuff. He also gets to drag in the main antagonist of the short, an octopus.

It starts when Mickey flings a chain of link sausages towards the ocean, and Pluto chases them. As Pluto dives into the water and manages to grab hold of the sausages, something pulls them back. It turns out to be an octopus rather than the sausages! The octopus quickly scampers onto land, menacing the beach party.

The resulting food fight with our heroes attacking the octopus is hilarious. Clarabelle serves as a cannon, getting jars loaded in her throat that she fires at the octopus. The others throw all sorts of various items at the octopus, in a futile attempt to cause retreat. Mickey finally saves the day by throwing an anchor over the octopus’ head and catching it with the tail end of the rope attached to the anchor.

That’s just a few of the gags. There are many, many more. Clarabelle gets her rear end in a tube, then loses her bloomers. Horace dives into the water as it retreats and hits his head. Pluto drinks coffee trapped on his head. All of it makes the whole short really funny and a great example of fantastic Disney animation “magic.”


From Mac :

I've got to agree, this one's a lot of fun. Not only does it contain loads of irresistible rhythmic and bouncy animation and music, there's a lot of fun gags. Horace pulls off a couple of gags that are cartoon standards, but I can't think of earlier examples off the top of my head. One would be when dives off the board and straight into the sand leaving a Horace-shaped hole. The other is when he eats corn on the cob – typewriter style!

The funniest moment for me was when Clarabelle lost the bottoms to her bathing suit at sea and Mickey accidentally drifts inside. Thinking they contain some kind of sea creature, Clarabelle clobbers them and shakes Mickey out on shore. When she see who it is she walks off very indignantly as if he had it coming. She must have thought he was some kind of pervert!

This cartoon sees the return of the octopus from Frolicking Fish. According to the animator draft there should have been an extra final scene with the octopus thumbing his nose with all eight hands. I'm not sure if this scene was cut or simply never animated. The character design includes no hands so I imagine it would be a tricky gag to execute!