Purely Joyful Movie!

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Fantastic!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

In this cartoon short from Walk Disney, Mickey gets a package from Australia: a kangaroo and its baby roo, both complete with boxing gloves (for some unknown reason, Disney characters randomly get animals mailed to them from all over). As a result, Mickey practices boxing with the adult while the baby annoys Pluto to no end. There is really nothing entertaining or funny about this cartoon, just Mickey acting all smiles and cheerful as he gets pummeled in the boxing match, and the annoying baby roo feeling free to eat Pluto's food and to drive him crazy. Basically, very boring. I know I might be analyzing too much on a cartoon short, but, there is really nothing remarkable about the short, except for the fact that Pluto "talks" in this cartoon with a voice-over, which I thought was rather unique. I did chuckle at a few points, but other than that, this cartoon is not a winner for me.Grade D--

"Mickey's Kangaroo" is at 9 minutes an unusually long short film from Mickey's (not very) early days. It is still black-and-white and features the duo as they run into a kangaroo. And of course, also back then 80 years ago, they still had small kangaroos in their belly bag. And boxing kangaroos was also a thing back then already. So Mickey keeps playfully going against the big one, but obviously has no shot at all at winning. Meanwhile, Pluto tries to keep the little one away from his food. No success here either. I must say I did not find this one here as good as some other Mickey cartoons from that era. It was mostly slapstick, but not really smart or funny and maybe it is even true that these films only work for 7 minutes. Not recommended.

Mickey's Kangaroo is not a bad cartoon, but compared to other Disney cartoons(though it is far from the worst) I didn't care as much as I wanted to for it. The animation is smooth and fluid, and the music is full of character and energy. I also liked how they showed the love Mickey and Pluto share for one another at the beginning, the boxing match between Mickey and the cute kangaroo and the gag when Mickey gets caught in the hay bailing machine. Pluto is great to watch mostly, buy Mickey aside from the boxing is sidelined and is not very interesting as a character here. Other than a couple of gags like the hay bailing machine gag I personally didn't find much funny or of note in Mickey's Kangaroo, and the story is rather routine and not as crisply paced as it has been. Pluto's inner thoughts talking was unnecessary with the menacing tone rather odd, we know from what was already on screen what Pluto was feeling so having the voice as well seemed overly-obvious overkill to me. All in all, moderately enjoyable but at the same time nothing outstanding. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This short is on a DVD box set "Walt Disney Treasures : Mickey Mouse in Black & White #2" and I bought it when was on vacation with my family. This short became one of my favorites out of the collection; I thought it was "bouncy-touncy" fun.It started when Mickey got a package-crate from a Leo Buring from Australia. And to his (and Pluto's) surprise, the crate started jumping around and then...SMASH! Out comes a boxing kangaroo and her joey. I knew it's girl because boy kangaroos don't have pouches. Anyway, Pluto did not like the idea of that "grasshopper" and her kid invading his premises. You know, we get to hear his thoughts voiced by Pinto Colvig, who also does his barks and pants. I noticed the kangaroo and joey are drawn the same way as Mickey, and also the joey almost sounds like Roadrunner from Warner Bros.I love it when Pluto chases the little hopper, he gets wet thanks to the joey hopping on the giant water pump. Then Pluto goes for a rough ride of a wheelbarrow, and land in a garbage dump. With his back paws stuck on springs, Pluto bounces up and down to the little kangaroo's delight. They hop for a little bit before Pluto hops a little too high and smashes head-first into the roof of a greenhouse. Pluto doesn't realize the little kangaroo now became attached to him by resting in a corset "pouch" he had previously bounced straight into from a clothes line before the greenhouse. A bit of risqué business huh? Overall this a great cartoon and now I have gone "Kanga-Crazy!"