Hitchcoc
Mickey and Pluto decide to go fishing by the ocean. They have little success because Pluto has an encounter with a clam and Mickey with a seagull. What could have been the enjoyment of the simple things becomes an incredibly unpleasant day. The clam seems a bit over the top. I've never liked seagulls. Basically it's about two pleasant characters having their days ruined through no fault of their own.
classicsoncall
Sometimes simple is best as in this final Mickey Mouse animated cartoon from 1953. Mickey and Pluto's picnic lunch comes under attack by a disruptive clam before an enterprising seagull arrives to steal Mickey's fish bait at every opportunity. The short has a mere seven minute run time which was probably plenty even way back in the Fifties for those with a short attention span. Seeing this one along with a couple others on Turner Classics the other day reminds me of being a kid and having my parents take me to a local movie house where these cartoons were a welcome accompaniment to the main feature. They say you can't go back again, true enough, but with these shorts it's a neat way to revisit one's childhood.
MissSimonetta
By 1953, Mickey Mouse's great short subjects were behind him. The experimental excitement of Steamboat Willie, the atmosphere and adventure of The Klondike Kid, the silly fun of Ye Olden Days-- all gave way to the watering down of Mickey's character and the decreasing profitability of the short films. Sure, those black and white cartoons are technically crude in comparison to the later shorts of the 40s and 50s, but they have more character than the Technicolor blandness of that later period.As far as Disney shorts go, you can do worse than the final of the classic era Mickey Mouse shorts, The Simple Things. It's not a clinker by any means, as it possesses a few charming moments and competent character animation. But it is certainly not terribly entertaining or re-watchable. More focus is given to Pluto and the hungry seagull which torments him more so than Mickey, showing just how bland his character had become by the early 1950s.As a big fan of 1930s Mickey Mouse, it depresses me how dull the character became, but at least we have later shorts like Runaway Brain and the direct to DVD Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers to compensate for decades of snooze fests.
