Foreverisacastironmess123 Review of Magician Mickey

Magician Mickey (1937)

The many marvels of magician Mickey Mouse's masterful magnificent magics!!!

[9/10 · 22 December 2013]

I've always dearly loved this one. The animation is rustic yet gorgeous, and the grand theatre setting is highly charming. It's one of the shorts that have the added bonus of featuring all three of the big Disney stars, and I've always found that the trio effect of them alone sets a strong tone as well as a lot of fun. Goofy kinda sits this one out as a stagehand, but Mickey and Donald are equally used and the characters play off each other beautifully. The action of this one is just nonstop, with a veritable plethora of mesmerising and well, magical sight gags! They're simple, but some of them are quite clever and colourfully creative. Mickey looks really cool in that classic magician getup! And I don't think he's playing, I think that mouse is packing some *real* magic! And Donald really asks for it. I just love him as a totally hilarious heckler! It makes me laugh when he gets hosed with the pink ice cream! There's such wonderful sight gags, I love the intricacy in the animation of the birds as Mickey directs them back into the cage, I love the repeated gag of Donald barfing up the cards, which makes him madder and madder every time it happens, and whenever he does so the last card to come out is the ace of hearts! And that's my favourite animation, of the cards, they're all so finely detailed. I also particularly enjoy the fluid animation of the egg trick, where Donald is poured out of the top hat and is topped-off with his beret and a satisfying "pop" sound! There is also the impressive scenes where Donald is shrunk and then turned into a string of paper Donald figures, Donald fighting a cactus, Donald being transformed into a kangaroo, walrus - monkey!!! And for me, the absolute coup de grace is fortunately the big climax where Donald gets even by firing dazzlingly bright swirls of colour out of a flare gun that send Mickey spinning up into the air, where he ends up bringing the house down on all three of them! The animation effect of the magic 'bullets' looks simply amazing. I thought it looked like coloured sand or chalk or something. Whatever the technique was, they worked a visual wonder. So many brilliantly done little gems to take in that all help to make this one such a joy to watch! Not to mention the soundtrack which subtly drives the story, which was also very nice and complemented the action perfectly. This Mickey short is as terrific as it ever was. I love it, I think it's a near perfect gem of a Disney short.