Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Admirable film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a rather odd Mickey Mouse cartoon, where he is part of a chain gang who likes to sing and dance. Old goodie-two-shoes Mickey ends up in prison, which is something very unconventional for the beloved mouse. Definitely a different Mickey cartoon - a little suspenseful but minus the laughs. Grade C

THE MOUSE WAS approximately two years old then; being in human years, that is. In this early strictly Black & White cinematic world, Mickey was most often portrayed as being quite mischievous and wasn't above doing some shenanigans on his own. Settings varied widely in these days and whatever bits of mischief that he had been up to prior to this picture, it did manage to land him in the hoosegow.WE OPEN WITH a highly varied assembly of prisoners all hooked up together. Present are a huge hog, some canine types, Clarabelle Cow (a Female!) and Mickey Mouse. They are under the direct supervision of Peg-Leg Pete and some other equally nasty tempered Goons.AFTER SOME MUSICALLY choreographed rock-breaking in the prison yard, all hell breaks loose as a huge and seemingly spontaneous jail break erupts. Mickey, being the shameless little rascal that he was in those days, joins in and manages to spring himself with the aid of a teeter board and the weight of his ball and chain.NOW, THIS WOULD perhaps have been a highly uneventful foray into cartoondom, save for what happens next. A pair of bloodhound doggies were sent in tandem with a prison guard holding their leashes in pursuit of the now escaped Mickey. After a short while, the young rodent was relocated back in his cell, singing as joyfully as ever.WELL, BOYS & GIRLS, the Bloodhounds were both drawn as the same character. It was the very lovable, irrepressible pup; who we all now know as Pluto! This was his first appearance.AND NOW YOU, my dear Schultz, you have "the rest of the story!"* NOTE * With a very respectable tip of the hat to the late Mr. :Paul Harvey (1918-2009).

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.Mickey Mouse attempts a daring escape from THE CHAIN GANG which holds him captive.This enjoyable little black & white cartoon is notable as the film debut for Pluto, who does double duty by playing both of the bloodhounds which chase Mickey into the swamp. Clarabelle Cow is one of the inmates on the chain & Pegleg Pete portrays one of the scurvy guards. That's the classic 'Prisoner Song' which the Mouse and his buddies perform shortly before the escape attempt. Walt Disney provides Mickey with his squeaky voice.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a storm of naysayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

The early Mickey Mouse cartoons show a Mickey different from the solid, dependable mouse we've grown to know in his later years. Could it be that, in his formative years, Mickey was a scamp and a rapscallion? Actually, Mickey displays the same irreverence the Marx Brothers display and The Chain Gang is a prime example. Very good cartoon and one that will see print again. It surely deserves to and soon. Well worth tracking down. Recommended.