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Mickey's Kangaroo (1935)

★★½ — Mickey's Kangaroo (1935)

Mickey's Kangaroo is a short from Walt Disney Productions released in April 1935, arriving during a particularly productive stretch for the studio as it was quietly building toward the ambition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). David Hand directed, a workhorse of the Disney shorts unit who would go on to serve as supervising director on Snow White itself. The vocal cast is the usual in-house trio for the period, with Pinto Colvig (the voice of Goofy and Pluto) doing the animal work and Walt Disney himself still voicing Mickey, a role he held until 1947. The short is notable, in a minor historical sense, as one of the last Mickey cartoons to feature Pluto in a genuinely central co-starring role rather than a supporting one.

Mickey’s Kangaroo is a tiny little relic, just 8 minutes of vintage Disney charm from 1935, and honestly, it shows its age. It’s Mickey Mouse doing his usual cheerful, can-do thing, this time trying to manage a hyperactive kangaroo that causes chaos wherever it hops. The animation is surprisingly lively for its time, and you can see the early steps toward the smoother, more expressive style Disney would perfect just a few years later. For a 90-year-old cartoon, the movement and timing hold up better than you’d expect. But as a viewing experience, it’s pretty thin. The plot is basically “kangaroo breaks things, Pluto gets annoyed,” repeated three times with slight variations. There’s not much of a punchline, and the gags feel stretched even at such a short runtime. It’s cute in a “oh, look how they used to make cartoons” kind of way, but not really funny or memorable on its own. Still, it’s worth a quick watch for animation history fans more for curiosity than enjoyment.

Rating: ★★½ | Year: 1935 | Watched: 2025-08-28

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Where to watch (UK)

Stream: Disney Plus
Physical: Amazon UK

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