Hawaiian Holiday (1937) Poster

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8/10
I am pretty sure this one was NOT banned.
planktonrules30 July 2012
I downloaded this cartoon from archive.org, as it's apparently in the public domain--a rarity for old Disney cartoons. However, why I downloaded it was because it indicated that this one had been banned--presumably for offensive content. Now THAT had my curiosity piqued--especially since I've seen this cartoon playing at the Disney resorts on their closed circuit TV--so it can't exactly banned! In fact, after watching it I noticed two things--there was absolutely nothing offensive about it AND despite the site saying it was from 1941, the film actually came out in 1937. Now for 1937, this was a very good film--with typically exquisite animation and backgrounds (the best of any studio at the time) and a nice sense of fun. Watch this one and see Pluto deal with a nasty crab and Goofy try (very unsuccessfully) to surf at Mickey, Minnie and Donald frolic on the beach. Well worth seeing.
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6/10
Typical hijinks
CuriosityKilledShawn30 January 2005
While on vacation in Hawaii Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto get up to the usual mischief. This short mainly focuses on surfing Goofy (in a ridiculous beach outfit) and his many failed attempts to catch a decent wave break and Pluto who just runs about on the beach getting shells stuck on his head. Donald doesn't do much other than burn his tail feathers in the fire and Mickey just serenades Minnie with his ukulele.

Not that funny (actually a bit boring) but vividly animated, as usual, which keeps your attention from drifting completely. Not the best Disney cartoon by far.
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8/10
Quite good
Ref6522 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
In Hawiian holiday Mickey,Minnie,Donald,Goofy and Pluto are off on holiday and doing a lot of stuff to keep themselves occupied.Goofy is trying to surf,Donald is avoiding harmful sea-creatures,Pluto tries to make friends with a starfish and a crab,Minnie is doing the "Hoola"and Mckey is showing off with a guitar.This is a funny short and anybody would like it.

Hardly anyone hates Mickey Mouse or dislikes him but people who are not fans might even find this funny for example the sea won't let Goofy surf the waves and they just keep hurling him back to the beach. This is a funny short and no one will be disappointed.Recommended to Mickey Mouse fans.
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Old enough for Medicare, but still fun.
mfiof15 January 2003
The title could be the synopsis, too: Mickey and his pals are on vacation in Hawaii. There is no plot, we simply see the characters engaged in activities appropriate for the islands. This being a cartoon, the fun also contains its quota of mishaps: Pluto has issues with a starfish and a crab, Donald lights his fanny on fire dancing a hula, and Goofy has a recurring headache trying to catch a wave on an uncooperative surf. Animation from this era often seems slower when compared to the breakneck pacing perfected by Bob Clampett and Tex Avery in the 1940s, but this time the unhurried gait fits the material perfectly. A Hawaiian vacation has to be mellow for us to appreciate the lush colors and meticulous backgrounds that occupy each frame. Noteworthy is the "split-screen" action above and below water level as Goofy searches for his surfboard (while under water, Goofy's animation is especially "fluid"). The real disappointment is Mickey himself. By 1937 he was already the "hole in the doughnut," and having Minnie carry him by hula-dancing to his slack-key guitar only draws attention to his lack of comic potential. What she ever saw in him is anyone's guess.
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6/10
Near the End
boblipton25 December 2002
An amusing cartoon that points up the major flaw with Mickey: he's just not very interesting. He's talented, graceful and so forth, but too much in control of any situation and lacks anything like an amusing character. The Disney solution was to give him a strong supporting cast, including Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto -- with his girlfriend, Minnie, in a grass skirt, dancing the hula. But in the following couple of years, the three supporting characters would each be given his own series of starring shorts, and Mickey would find himself largely out of a job, eventually turned into a corporate icon.

In the meantime, take a look at this one.
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7/10
The first thing that many if not most movie viewers . . .
pixrox122 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . ask themselves when watching films released by American studios PRIOR to the so-called "sneak" attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941 is to what extent said footage was actually valuable, solicitous or encouraging to the Axis of Evil, since it's so well-known that the mindless core supporters of America's treasonous Elephantine Political Party were serving as the nefarious "base" for a conspiracy of traitorous Quisling Fellow Travelers intent upon destroying Freedom, Democracy and the American Way of Life in our beleaguered Homeland. The Elephantine Party's official propaganda organ, known as the House of the Groaning Fat Cat One Per Centers, was notorious during this sorry Antebellum Epoch for providing the warmongers in Tokyo virtual road maps and engraved invitations to attack our fleet and troops on Oahu. HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY similarly depicts this key U. S. strategic outpost as a sparsely populated, totally undefended enclave inhabited by a few clueless jokers likely to offer NO resistance to a "sneak attack" that would be essentially an "inside job."
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6/10
A version of this film is included upon . . .
oscaralbert8 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . Disc One of "The Complete Pluto, Volume Two" under the "Bonus Features" section; this set was released Dec. 19, 2006. This alternate variation of HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY is narrated by Disney Modern-Day animator A-n-d-r-e-a-s D-e-j-a as part of something called "Pluto's Master Class." Andy mainly focuses on his perception that Pluto is very "rubbery." He also notes that the effects animators fleshed out the water in the Goofy surfing scene, and he shares a few bits of trivia that only a studio insider would know about.
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9/10
Fun with the Disney gang
TheLittleSongbird5 September 2012
There is not really a story to speak of in Hawaiian Holiday, but I did find it interesting to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto all in the same cartoon. And it is a great one. Hawaiian Holiday is vividly animated with the backgrounds well and truly luscious and the character designs all well drawn, even if Mickey's character design is not as rounded as it would be later. The music is energetic and sounds lovely throughout, while all the characters are engaging and the gags range from amusing to hilarious. Minnie doesn't have all that much to do, other than set the musical tone of Hawaiian Holiday, but she actually does that very well. Mickey is a likable character and has a good gag as a guitar player where his hands dance across the strings, but like Minnie he doesn't have much to do. Donald's main gag is very quick but is still one of Hawaiian Holiday's funniest moments, where the grass skirt he is wearing catches on fire. Pluto and Goofy are the ones actually who get a lion's share of the comedy. Pluto's cuteness and energy and his ability to resonate so much with the audience without saying a word is put to great use, and his encounters with the shellfish and the crab are very funny. If I were to say who was the funniest character of the five and who had the funniest moments, it would be Goofy on all counts. His attempts to surf are like a hilarious pre-view to what he would become chiefly famous for later, and it also shows what Goofy was best at, finding that something that is obvious to us is not so much for him. Overall, colourful fun with the Disney gang. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox
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7/10
Mickey and the Gang on vacation in Hawaii
classicsoncall13 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
No story here, but a fun look at Disney's premiere characters and how they looked almost eighty years ago, Mickey in particular having evolved artistically from his Steamboat Willie days of a decade earlier. Definitely a delight for young kids requiring no attention span, as the scenes shift quickly to fellow characters Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto, all attempting to deal with potential disasters while having a good time. Goofy has his hands (paws?) full with an uncooperative surfboard, as Pluto tries to avert trouble with a starfish and a sand crab. Mickey serenades on guitar, Donald has a near brush with disaster as his tail feathers go up in flames, while Minnie brings things to a close with a quick hula dance. The colors are brilliant in 1937 Technicolor and with it's mere eight minute run time, it will have you smiling and wishing you were a kid again.
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10/10
On The Beach At Waikiki
Ron Oliver23 July 2003
A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey & Minnie are enjoying their HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY, but the rest of the Gang are encountering troubles in Paradise...

Here is another very funny, excellently animated little film from Disney's Golden Age. The Mice have little to do with the plot but Donald's hula, Goofy's attempts at surfing and Pluto's encounters with a starfish & crab are very enjoyable. Clarence Nash supplied the Duck with his unique 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 blizzard of doomsayers, 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.
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8/10
Animated fun turning deadly serious
redryan6424 March 2015
FOLLOWING THE BY then well established format of having Donald Duck and Goofy playing the stooges to Mickey's straight man, this musically energized short puts the trio through their usual type antics. This picture, however, has the additional element of having Minnie Mouse present and both singing and doing some rodent-type sexy Hula.

IN ONE SENSE this is a fine example of what has been called "a clothesline picture"; that being a short subject that has a threadbare sort of a minimally constituted plot (if one at all), but exists only to provide to present a series of unrelated gags. (Warner Brothers ROAD RUNNER & COYOTE Cartoons are q fine example of this type.)

AS WE HAVE already stated, the funny business is left to Donald, Goofy and Pluto. The situations generally pit the trio individually against the forces of nature, some local sea creatures and their own pride and ineptitude. The scene quickly shifts to one of the three, only to shift again and keep our attention.

FROM WHAT WE have read elsewhere, there was a lot of interest in the then territory of Hawaii. It was a time in which the typical American viewed the Islands as being our own very piece of paradise.

IRONICALLY, WITHIN THE coming four years, it would become the focus on a very different event, namely the attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941.
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5/10
On the beach at Waikiki
utgard145 July 2015
Mickey Mouse and friends are vacationing in Hawaii where they get into one situation after another in their attempts to have fun. Goofy tries his hand at surfing but the waves aren't cooperating. Actually, the ocean kicks his butt. Donald sets his rear on fire then struggles with a starfish. Pluto has his own troubles with a seashell and a crab. Mickey and Minnie basically do nothing interesting. A slight but amusing short. Disney's first released through RKO after five years of working with United Artists. Nice animation and lovely colors. Good music, too. Funny in spots but nothing hilarious. A good way to kill eight minutes but nothing to write home about.
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9/10
Out on vacation.
OllieSuave-0078 December 2013
I first saw this cartoon short when it was part of a "Wonderful World of Color" episode, where Mickey and the gang is on vacation. Goofy has surfing problems, Donald learns dances too close to the fire with a grass skirt on, and Pluto has a riff with a starfish and a crab.

It's hilarious to see each of the characters having their own vacation problems, but it is all in good fun and sure to send laughter to the audience.

This is one of the best cartoons from Walt Disney to feature most of the entire gang: Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. Up until now, I still have laughs watching it, especially Donald's scenes. And, it makes you want to take a trip to Hawaii.

Grade A
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9/10
Mickey Is Secondary
Hitchcoc10 April 2018
I have to agree with the reviewer who came to realize that Mickey's rather docile character is lacking in charisma. So while this cartoon features his face and name, the bulk of the episode focuses more on his friends. Minnie is more interesting. Donald is more interesting. Pluto and Goofy are the main focus of this episode when you get right down to it. Considering how early in the animation game 1937 is, this feature is quite beautifully drawn and presented. The color and the sophistication of the animation works incredibly well. Pluto's encounter with a crab is very engaging.
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9/10
Aloha! Oh wouldn't it be good to go back and see these in the movie theatre for the first time? Ah... Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those sweet and very special older Disney animated shorts that's very memorable and gives a lovely warm feeling of nostalgia while you're watching it, at least that is what I get from it. It has such a nice fun-in-the-sun vibe to it, and the gorgeous animation is so lovingly well detailed and everything moves so fluidly, it's a beautifully bright short. The sight gags are all quite funny and charming, such as Pluto chasing the cartwheeling starfish that looks like a tiny elephant for a moment as it runs away, and when he and the crab are mirroring each other's scuttle, and it makes me laugh when the tough crab tips up the top half of its shell like a bowler hat! Also there is when Mickey is playing the ukulele with his gloved hands looking like dancing figures very similar to the dancing gloves from "Thru the Mirror." Goofy gets most of the action while trying to hang ten with the rather uncooperative ocean waves which tease him and avoid his ironing-board like surfboard and eventually hurl the hillbilly dog and his board all the way back onto land which creates a rather macabre sight gag of him being buried in the sand with the board looking just like his tombstone! The jokes are so excellently in time to the music but it doesn't feel like that's all the short is about, like with some of the earliest Silly Symphonies. I love Mickey's adorable black dot eyes and the funny old timey bathing suit that Goofy wears. It's a sweet animation that's all about the humour and fun, just a good old fashioned solid cartoon short of pure joy, they surely don't make them like this anymore. "Until we meet again!"
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8/10
Just great
afonsobritofalves3 April 2019
I remember when I was small and I saw this short, at the time it was my favorite short. One of the best Disney shorts. Highly recommend. Same very funny.
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The Gang on Vacation
Michael_Elliott15 July 2015
Hawaiian Holiday (1937)

*** (out of 4)

This all-star Disney short isn't a masterpiece but there are certainly enough funny moments to make it worth viewing. Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald find themselves in Hawaii on a vacation and while Mickey and Minnie dance away, the rest don't find the stay too pleasant. First of all, Goofy tries to go surfing but the water wants nothing to do with him. Second you've got poor Pluto running to a crab. Thirdly, Donald gets a bit too close to the fire. While the "story" isn't all that strong, there's no question that there are some hilarious moments to be had here with the highlight clearly being the sequence between Pluto and the crab. The beating poor Pluto takes is downright hysterical at times and especially as we see him just not being able to figure out what's going on. The animation is quite good throughout so fans of the characters will certainly enjoy this one.
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