Cumulative rating:	(3 ratings submitted)

Synopsis

Characters

Pete (Voice: Billy Bletcher) Mickey Mouse (Voice: Walt Disney) Goofy (Voice: Pinto Colvig) Donald Duck (Voice: Clarence "Ducky" Nash)

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Distributor(s)

United Artists

The Mickey Mouse Club

• Season 1, Episode 3
• Season 3, Episode 33

France

Le Meilleur de Goofy

Italy

I Capolavori di Pippo

United States

Mickey Mouse: The Black and White Years

Japan

Mickey Mouse: The Black and White Years

Mickey Mouse: A Star is Born

Japan

Milestones for Mickey

Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show

United States

Mickey Mouse in Black and White - The Classic Collection

Germany

Mickey Mouse in Black and White

Running Time: 9:18

Production No.: UM-30

MPAA No.: 656

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: RCA Sound Recording

Reviews and Comments

From Lee Suggs :

This is often identified as the last black and white Disney (or Mickey Mouse) short. It is not the last one. That honor belongs to the next Mickey short, Mickey's Kangaroo (1935), which was the last Mickey Mouse (And Disney) short in black and white. This short is an example of how the trio shorts can succeed. Numerous gags result from their efforts to fix Pete's car. The gags are funny because each one provides a way to destroy a little more of the car. The short's ending, and Pete's reaction to what happens to his car, are truly classic. This is what a Mickey, Donald, and Goofy short can be.

From Jerry Edwards :

Full of action and gags - I love the main gag that the squeak they're looking for is caused by a cricket. Pete comes across as a gangster in this cartoon. The colorized version adds to my enjoyment of the cartoon.

From Ryan :

This is one of those shorts in which the characters are faced with an everyday problem. In this case, it's fixing a car and to make matters worse, it's Pete's car. Pete threatens to do something to them if they don't fix it in 10 minutes. This is again one of those cartoons that I saw at the Disney Store in Chicago. Remembering the cut scene that was listed on this website, I watched for it and you guessed it, it wasn't there. In fact, if I can recall, the scene where Pete steps on the horn has been deleted as well, so the version that's shown on TDC is more complete.

From Per Blomén :

I have seen this in color on the Danish Television and a funny thing was that Donald's legs were black.

From Bill :

One of the best "fab three" shorts. The gags were fast and furious and the animation was spot on. The Leonard Maltin introduction to this short stated that Mickey was not as broad a character as Donald or Goofy. That statement rankles me. In this short the gags were well spaced for each and all were just plain funny. This short reminded me of The Three Stooges in many ways. Goofy kicking Donald to answer and Mickey saying "yes M'am" to Pete. The best gags were Mickey trying to get the rim off himself and Goofy balancing the car on the lift with poor Mickey in it! A good short needs good gags and writers to go with it and this one had both!

From Politzania :

Starting with the March 1935 release of Mickey’s Service Station, the animators started to develop Goofy’s character beyond the laugh. According to the Encyclopedia of Disney’s Animated Characters, Disney Animator Art Babbit was largely responsible for giving Goofy his bumbling personality. The article on Goofy cites one scene from this short as demonstrating, “Goofy’s glorious art of taking as long as possible to achieve as little as possible”. Having Goofy team up with Mickey and Donald provided lots of story opportunities. Generally, they would have a job to do, but would become separated from each other at some point. Each would then attempt a task using their own skills and talents (or in the case of Goofy, lack thereof) and eventually meet back up to share the fruits of their labors. Two shorts that are considered the highlights of this “trios” series are Clock Cleaners, first released in October, 1937, and Lonesome Ghosts, from December of that same year.

From bcToonist2837 :

In one of the last black-and-white Mickey cartoons, Pete plays as the bad guy to poor Mickey, Donald, and Goofy who work as auto mechanics. Pete gives the trio only ten minutes (nearly the time of the cartoon itself) to fix the squeaking problem of his car. Of course, one should expect a poor job completed in such a small amount of time. In a series of humorous attempts to find the "bug" which is causing the squeaking problem, each of the mechanics tear apart the car. They also put it all back together at the last minute after the squeaking has been taken care of. The scene that made me chuckle the most has to be at the beginning when Pete accidentally steps on a car horn which happens to be lying on the ground. The horn makes a "raspberry" noise, and he blames it on one of the mechanics.
See all comments by bcToonist2837

From Soren :

The first short of the "Fab Three" is wonderful, and it's great that we have at least one black&white cartoon of them working together. Some people (included Leonard Maltin, a cartoon lover, but never an expert -like most of the critics) said that Mickey Mouse here showed animators problem to find him gags. Well, I strongly disagree with this view that many people like to follow (I know it's the internet era, and everyone simply follows the most famous opinion around). I understand it's difficult to see to simple viewers but it's pretty simple: What makes Donald funny are his reactions to situations with rage and frustration: he is usually the cause of his own problems. What makes Goofy funny is his random and clumsy approach: the great fun is not what happens to him, but the silliness of how he's gone there. What makes Mickey funny (let's remember he's an old-school character) is what happens to him, thanks to his full expressiveness: it's about his easy-going and committed approach: when something happens to Mickey you don't see it coming, just like him, and he reacts the best he can (which is often incompetence) . So, aggressive gags like Donald ones are not that needed with Mickey; to be funny he even needs a simple, old school situation to try his best, as it's always been.
See all comments by Soren

From David Gerstein at Ramapith :

But in Two Gun Mickey Mickey's not exactly a lovable loser. He's a swashbuckling winner for whom a lot simply goes annoyingly (and comically) wrong along the way—like a punch from Pete knocking him out of everything but his underwear.

From Mac :

"It really does seem to be the jump from Two Gun Mickey to Mickey's Man Friday in which some level of exuberance just leaves the character."

I'm afraid I have to agree. I think that letting this happen to Mickey was one of Walt's biggest 'mistakes'. There's still something special about the Mickey of the color cartoons. As a child, he became my favorite character even though I only had the chance to see Mickey cartoons from 1935 onwards - there was just something about him. However, it's undeniable that Mickey has 'lost' something and just at a time where his cartoons could have become really spectacular too. A pity.

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

I hadn't pinpointed it like that, David, but after reading your comment, I went back and watched both shorts you mentioned. You're absolutely right. There's something missing in Mickey's Man Friday - that heroic, loveable loser mentality - that was there in Two Gun Mickey.

From David Gerstein at Ramapith :

"It’s hard to identify with him more than the fondness you already hold for him as a viewer..."

And we wouldn't hold that fondness if we hadn't seen the cartoons from 1934 and earlier, with Mickey as a real personality. It really does seem to be the jump from Two Gun Mickey to Mickey's Man Friday in which some level of exuberance just leaves the character.

From Brian :

I agree that the production team seems to be struggling to figure out what to do with Mickey in this one. Mickey’s only gags that I can recall are him getting stuck in an empty tire rim hoop and getting tangled in an inner tube. This leads, conveniently, to him finding the “source” of the squeak, a single cricket. Even though all the characters seem to be able to get the car to squeak in a similar manner no matter what they touch!

I remember there being some discussion back when the Ub Iwerks shorts were being reviewed that Ub wanted Mickey to be an “everyman” and Walt wanted him to be a swashbuckling hero. It looks like Walt came around to Ub’s way of thinking, but it also appears that Walt was right to begin with and there just isn’t much for Mickey to do, (other than get tangled up in things), if you cast him as “the working stiff.”

Looking forward to seeing how things evolve!

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

We’re back to black and white for Mickey one more time in Mickey’s Service Station, but it’s also notable in that it’s the first of the “Fab Three” shorts. Mickey, Donald and Goofy work together in this one, to create the amazing chemistry and laugh a minute fun that they would become known for over the next few years.

Like many of those later shorts, this one starts with the three of them on the job. This time, it’s as the attendants at a service station. The trouble comes when Pete, in his typical bully role, drives up with his souped up roadster, and demands that Mickey and the gang get rid of the squeak in his car in the next ten minutes.

What follows is a rapid fire succession of gags, as the three tear Pete’s car to pieces trying to locate the source of the squeaking sound. Donald tears off the front grille and unwinds it like a sweater, Mickey pries a tire loose, Goofy climbs on the engine block and reaches all the way to the bottom, curving up to goose himself. That’s just the beginning.

This is Disney animation at its finest, no doubt. The characters each get their own spotlight, and it is here that we see them developing the distinct personalities that they would become known for over the years. Donald grows more and more frustrated as he can’t locate the source of the sound. Goofy ends up harming himself more than anything else and Mickey is well, the least interesting of the three.

Whereas Goofy has his clumsiness to distinguish him, and Donald is the irritable one, Mickey doesn’t have a single distinguishing characteristic. It’s here that we are finally seeing what the animators dealt with, having a corporate symbol as the lead character. Mickey can’t be a goof or be angry all the time, so he simply goes through the short trying his best.

I guess you could say that Mickey is the hero, but that’s probably overstating it a bit. It is Mickey who discovers the source of the squeak, a little cricket. But Mickey is more the loveable loser than a hero type. It’s hard to identify with him more than the fondness you already hold for him as a viewer of these shorts. Just my opinion, of course, but it demonstrates what a change has come over our favorite mouse in the years since Steamboat Willie.

My two favorite bits in the whole short come near the end. First, Goofy accidentally jacks up the hastily rebuilt car, and ends up catapulting the entire lift mechanism into the air, landing in Goofy’s pants. Goofy stumbling about and trying to get the car safely back to the ground is classic Goofy.

The final bit is Pete entering his car and starting it up. It predictably falls apart, but then the engine turns into a dog like character and starts chasing him. The humor of seeing Pete run off into the sunset chased by this car he obviously mistreated cannot be missed.

Mickey’s Service Station marks an ending and a beginning – the end of Mickey in black and white, but the beginning of the trio shorts – with Mickey, Goofy and Donald working together. I am really looking forward to the next set of shorts featuring these three, because they are some of my favorites.