Disney Shorts - Teachers Are People (1952)

September is here and I miss being in school already. That's what happens when you graduate college. I remember grade school. I remember the wobbly chair I had to sit in, the desk with lines carved into it, the nasty things carved into the bathroom wall, eating mush for lunch, art class, recess, singing in chorus, the difficult decision of what you wanted to do with the rest of your life (which I'm still trying to figure out). I remember the transition from elementary to middle to high school and college. School was a big part of growing up. You make some good friends, you make mistakes, learn from them, and reminisce. It would only make sense for me to write about relatable Disney content.  My second blog post, this one specifically, is dedicated to the hard-working men and women who work hard to educate the minds of the young generation of students with bright futures. I hope you have a good sense of humor.

If there's anything I love about the "Goofy" shorts of the 1950's is that the character could be placed in many different everyday situations. That's not to say he had great roles beforehand, but he goes from satirical instructional shorts to stories about living the life of a 50's suburban father. Goofy was the everyman, and Walt Disney himself came up with the idea of this change, hoping it would gain Goofy back his personality that he felt was dying in popularity. While each short would always open with the title "Walt Disney presents 'Goofy,'" he was usually called "George Geef" in the cartoon dialogue. These cartoons, while putting Goofy in an everyday life situation, would bring out  His clothing changed from a casual style to a business attire. He was the person that every working-class adult could relate to. In different cartoons, Goofy would have a different career, which made way for more comedy.

Teachers Are People is a 1952 short film in which Goofy plays a school teacher who has to cope with the antics of of a classroom full of children, while they distract him with little things. We open with the jazzy version of Goofy's usual theme music. Fall is here and it's the beginning of a school year (or I could assume. They never specify what day it is). An interesting thing to point out is our narrator. You are hearing the voice of Alan Reed, who would later gain fame in the animation world as Fred Flintstone. The narrator's voice makes him sound excited and eager to describe the typical day in elementary school. We see children leaving their houses, being dressed by their mothers, and making friends on the sidewalk, on their way to school as the bell rings. We are also introduced to Goofy's character, the teacher.

As Goofy stands proud, the narrator describes him as "fair, honest, understanding, and intelligent." He takes out a stop sign to help the kids cross the street. But as soon as he puts the sign back in his pocket, the cars start running again, making Goofy react quickly to run back to the sidewalk. This is something I like to call "scare comedy."

This cartoon shows an example of how Disney exaggerates everyday problems in a Goofy short for comedic affect. Before walking into the classroom, Goofy gets into some umpire gear and then a strong wind blows as he opens the door, indicating how wild and crazy the young children act when the day begins. Goofy slowly struggles to walk in as if he was going through a snowstorm and dodges every book and pencil thrown in his direction. Goofy blows a whistle to calm everyone down and the kids sing a rendition of "Good Morning to You." (When I was in elementary school, we would recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then recite a poem about staying away from drugs). One kid named George, who plays a running gag throughout the episode, fires a sling shot at the teacher and Goofy takes it away and puts it in a drawer of other confiscated toys. Most of them being firecrackers, guns, and a grenade. (Because every school takes kindly to a kid with a deadly weapon, right?).

While Goofy does role call, he finds George sneaking out of class to play hooky and go fishing. He then asks the kids to pass in their homework, which the assignment was to give the teacher a fresh apple. And Goofy eats all of these apples. (He definitely lost all of his teeth later that night. Kids, apples may be healthy but for the love of god, don't eat more than one a day).

During the geography lesson, the kids are carving into their desk, soaking their classmates' pig tails into a jar of paint, and throwing paper airplanes. The school bell rings, interrupting Goofy's geography lecture. He overhears young George through the window at recess telling a joke to a group of kids (which you obviously hear mumbling instead). After eaves-dropping on the kid's dirty joke, Goofy decides to skip a particular health lecture.

After recess, it's time for a spelling lesson. George is asked to spell "cat" and threatens his classmate by holding a pistol to his head to give him the answer. He spells the word wrong and shoots water at the other kid. We get a messy art lesson and then a test, where every kid is cheating off of each other's papers.

Finally, it's the end of the school day and its time to clean the schoolhouse. George sets off a bomb and the school explodes. The cartoon closes with George in detention, writing multiple times on the blackboard, "I will not bomb the school again." (Even Bart Simpson never got in trouble for that) This is the part of the cartoon that is the most controversial in this day. I don't think anyone in that decade would've imagined how much of a huge issue school violence has become in America. This isn't the kind of routine that would be written on one of today's cartoons, but that's not to say Teachers Are People isn't an enjoyable cartoon. On the Walt Disney Treasures DVD release of this cartoon, Leonard Maltin states that we should "try to put ourselves back in a more innocent time and place and to remember that this cartoon is all in fun."

It's really hard to pick out a Goofy short and call it the best. The 1950's is one of my favorite decades for Disney animation. I like the background art style, done by Art Riley, who also did the dramatic woods scenery in Bambi among other Disney projects. Everything looks modern (for the time), and detailed to look suburban.

Teachers Are People is a prime example of the many settings Goofy can be thrown into. Definitely check out this and other Goofy shorts. I don't see this one airing on the Disney Channel anytime soon, but you can find this one on the expensive and out-of print Walt Disney Treasures: The Complete Goofy 2-disc DVD set.

Disney Shorts - The Nifty Nineties (1941)

The Nifty Nineties is a classic Mickey Mouse short film directed by Riley Thompson. The film pays homage to the romanticism and nostalgia of the 1890's (see, we're not the only generation who gets too nostalgic for the 90's, am I right?), and centers around Mickey and Minnie on a typical Sunday afternoon in the said time period. What was called "The Gay Nineties" was the equivalent to our "decade nostalgia." The culture of the 1890's was a popular setting for films in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's. Our favorite mice are The Magnificent Ambersons, Meet Me in St. Louis, and the popular Citizen Kane to name a few. The short was released by RKO Radio Pictures on June 20, 1941.
at the turn of the century, which was an era that became progressively extensive to the American cinema of the time period, giving us such acclaimed feature films as

This happens to be one of my personal favorite Mickey shorts. When I was very young, I had this cartoon on a VHS compilation titled Sweetheart Stories, so I remember this short well. As the years passed, I began to realize how the content they portrayed went right through my three-year-old head. More on that as we dive into The Nifty Nineties.

We open off the typical way a Disney cartoon would open at the time. A big close-up image of the main star(s), the name of the star, Walt Disney's name, and a brand name on the bottom (mostly, Technicolor). We usually get a piece of exciting music in the background, but for this particular film, we get the unusual - a song. This is normal for a 1950's Donald Duck short, but for the mouse, we usually get an instrumental. This is an original song titled The Gay Nineties, which gives us an idea of the time period the audience is about to enter and how some reminisce about memories of the historical era. Lyrics include "A day in the nineties when Grandma was a girl / The horseless carriage was quite the show / Grandpa fussed when the thing wouldn't go / ...Come take a look in our picture book." This song commemorates traditions and norms within the time, where a man would own operate a car while trying to impress a woman. There are songs throughout the short, all done by a vocal quartet, known as The Sportsmen, and actually features famous voice-actor Thurl Ravenscroft (known for voicing Kellogs' "Frosted Flakes" cereal mascot, Tony the Tiger, as well as singing the famous Christmas song, You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch), making this one of his earliest projects for Disney.

We are now welcomed to look at a scrapbook, giving us the nostalgic value of the decade, starting with a black & white image of our round-eared star, dressed in a Victorian outfit, complete with hat, cane, and dress shoes. We fade to color and Mickey takes a stroll through a public park. He passes by a painting of the Bloomer Girls baseball team, and notices Minnie Mouse in a pink bonnet. "Strolling Through the Park One Day" is heard in the background, while Minnie purposely drops her handkerchief, hoping for Mickey to pick it up and kindly hand it to her. 

It works, and the two hold hands and walk to a nearby theater, where they attend a vaudeville show. "Vaudeville," for those who don't know," is a type of entertainment that was popular in the early 20th century, and features a variety of acts such as a comedic song and dance. (This is the kind of act that made the Three Stooges well-known). In this case, as they sit down, their show opens with a slideshow story titled "Father, Dear Father," and showcases images of a girl trying to get her alcoholic father to leave the saloon and come home to help her mother take care of their dying baby. This depressing story shows images of the girl being neglected by the punch-drunk man she once called "Dad," while Mother takes care of the baby in distress. We get a sad reaction from Minnie, while Mickey tries to comfort her by saying "Don't cry. It's only a show." This is the part that

 went through my head as a kid. Very young children wouldn't understand the concept of the story. This scene was cut from airings on the Disney Channel, yet it stays intact on all official home media releases. On it's "Walt Disney Treasures" DVD release, film historian Leonard Maltin states that while there is nothing funny about an alcoholic, the cartoon is "making fun of an entertainment staple of the time - the melodrama."

Laughs light up the theater, as we get a slapstick comedy act called "Fred and Ward: Two Clever Boys from Illinois." The two song and dance men tell jokes, hit each other with canes, and dance. These two men are caricatures of Ward Kimball and Fred Moore, two famous Disney animators who even voiced their characters too. Remember that joke you thought was funny when you were little? "Why did the chicken cross the road"? This cartoon is where I first heard that joke.

After the show, Mickey and Minnie take off for a ride in Mickey's Brass era car. They ride around town and say hi to

Goofy, riding on a penny-farthing bicycle, with the typical Goofy slapstick. The two also meet Donald, Daisy, and their nephews on a bicycle built for five, each with a horn. Mickey decides to speed things up only to impress Minnie, and loses control of the car. They drive through a barn and crash into a cow, ending with laughter.

It's interesting to think about how much of a piece of American history this short film is really made out to be. Going into the theater to see this film in 1941, I'm sure most moviegoers who grew up during that time period gained a nostalgic feel, being reminded that history is never forgotten. Years later, it's another example of one of our country's many changes in society. The animation is very nice, as it's always been during Walt's time. The layouts were taken from the late Charles Conner, an artist part of the Richmond Group in Richmond, Indiana. The music, keeping in tone with movement, goes back to the Mickey Mouse shorts of the 20's and 30's. I appreciate it more as an adult than I did as a child. If you're looking for something kind and heartwarming in a Mickey short, this one would be a good one to recommend.