Highly Overrated But Still Good

Crappy film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This cartoon kinds of reminds of of a later Disney cartoon, Donald Duck's The Riveter. Mickey tries to save Minnie in this one from Peg Leg Pete at a highrise construction site. Plenty of action, adventures and some slapstick moments. Not a bad earlier Mickey cartoon. Grade B

This Oscar-nominated short is among the best of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. Not only is it abundant in gags and excellent animation, but it sports several strong character moments.It is a remake of the Oswald silent "Sky Scrappers", featuring the same set-up: Mickey is a construction worker, Pete's his boss, and Minnie a seller of boxed lunches. While the original was cute, this manages to improve upon it in many ways. The relationship between Mickey and Minnie is stronger and sweeter than that of Oswald and his gal, and the memorable tunes really make it stick with you. The ending is uplifting, and certainly must have resonated with Depression audiences who needed some hope in that dreary time.

Mickey Mouse operates a steam shovel; Pegleg Pete is his foreman; Minnie Mouse sells box lunches. Mickey must save the day when Pete makes advances to Minnie."Building a Building" is a marvelously inventive film that takes full advantage of its construction-site setting for gags and thrills. Heroic little Mickey is utterly sympathetic as the adversary of the brutish Pete, even though the mouse's careless work habits (he's so focused on Minnie that he accidentally throws dirt and bricks on Pete) give his boss good reason to be angry with him.Pete's attempts to kiss an unwilling Minnie remind us of how Mickey has changed in a few short years. In "Plane Crazy" (1928), it was Mickey trying to force himself on her. She even had to jump out of his plane to escape him.

BUILDING A BUILDING is a Mickey and Minnie Mouse cartoon and is one of the few Mickey cartoons to have been Oscar nominated. The earliest cartoons in the series were not eligible for the award, as it wasn't created until the 1932 Oscars--several years after the first Mickey cartoon, PLANE CRAZY (1928). And, oddly, the wonderful full-color Mickey cartoons of the mid to late 30s were ignored by the committee in favor of Silly Symponies cartoons by Disney. It's a shame as he was a great character, as were Goofy and Donald. I guess this sort of cartoon for the masses wasn't deemed artsy enough to merit nomination.BUILDING A BUILDING finds Mickey working at a construction site. When Minnie comes to the place selling box lunches, Mickey goes ga-ga and pays little attention to what he's doing, but being a cartoon he naturally isn't killed. A bit later, the boss, Pegleg Pete, sees Minnie and kidnaps her. So it's up to Mickey to rescue his sweetie. I liked how as Mickey fought this huge bully, Minnie didn't just stand there passively (like you see in so many films)--no wonder Mickey was in love! The cartoon has a bit more singing than usual and because of this, the humor is a bit less pronounced than a typical Mickey Mouse cartoon. Overall, it's pretty ordinary for the franchise--with the typical finely drawn animation and backgrounds as well as very charming characters.