The Fire Fighters (1930) User Reviews

Mickey to the rescue

[MissSimonetta · 8/10 · 13 March 2013]

My favorite Mickey cartoons are the ones which are more story and character focused rather than the ones which seem to be mildly entertaining musical numbers with a little bit of plot sandwiched in-between. I also love it when Mickey plays the hero and has to use his cunning and bravery to get out of situations. He's much more interesting when this side is allowed to be shown in addition to his everyman personality. All of this can be found in "The Fire Fighters".

The story is simple: Mickey and his motley crew of firefighters have to stop a fire in an apartment building, as well as rescue Minnie who's stuck on the top floor. There's plenty of great gags packed in there. The pacing is tight; this cartoon never once drags like the more musical-themed ones do. And the ending is very cute, showing why Mickey and Minnie are such an adorable couple (which makes me wonder why they have yet to tie the knot). Anyways, great cartoon. Watch it.

Very funny cartoon about Mickey and company as fire fighters

[llltdesq · 8/10 · 6 August 2014]

This is an early Disney Mickey Mouse short. There will be spoilers ahead:

This is a rather funny short with Mickey, Horace and quite a few others as fire fighters. The insurance rates there must be through the roof, because they're pretty lousy at fighting fires.

You get the standard gags about sliding down poles at the station, with some cute bits with a ladder thrown in. They race to the fire but only Mickey makes it there and he's having a rough time.

Mickey discovers that Minnie is in the building and immediately focuses on saving here and forgets that the building is on fire! We then get the typical jokes found in animated shorts of the 1920s-30s about rescuing people from burning buildings and Minnie is ultimately saved. The animation is good and the gags are funny.

This short is available on the Mickey Mouse In Black and White Disney Treasures DVD set and is well worth tracking down. Recommended.

Some Better Animation

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 5 April 2018]

Mickey is the fire chief. He lives among all the firefighters in the station. When a big fire is reported, he springs into action. It isn't easy because none of the things that are supposed to go right, do. He eventually needs to rescue Minnie. The great thing about this one is that each of the vignettes works on its own and presents some downright funny stuff. Nicely done.

Mickey fumbles.

[OllieSuave-007 · 6/10 · 26 March 2018]

This is an average cartoon where Mickey and a band of firefighters try to extinguish a burning apartment building, while trying to help its residents escape. Mickey tries to save Minnie, after spectacularly failing to extinguish part of the flames.

The characters getting ready to exit the firehouse and onto the fire scene was pretty entertaining. But, Mickey's inability to extinguish the flames was a letdown.

Grade C+

One of the hallmarks of this film studio's so-called humor . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 24 November 2021]

. . . is the sudden debriefing. During THE FIRE FIGHTERS, Mickey Mouse is tasked with rescuing an imperiled Minnie from a top floor window of her highrise tenement building. Though it's clear that this endangered female has already suffered a mortal amount of smoke inhalation, the plucky rodent insists upon going through with what seems to be, in essence, an exercise in body retrieval. As a lunging would-be hero rodent latches onto his sometimes love interest, he briefly debriefs her. Since this is a Pre-Code cartoon, the randy animators were able to get away with such an assault against feminine virtue.

Great fun

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 16 August 2012]

Disney and Mickey Mouse rarely disappoint in my book, and The Fire Fighters while not one of their best is still a winner. Perhaps it is not a major advance in animation and the idea does read of the typical Mickey rescues Minnie formula. However, there is much to enjoy still. The story even with a familiar idea is still tight in narrative, and The Fire Fighters is full of great gags such as Mickey inhaling and drawing a spider, the alarm sequence, Mickey spilling the water, the ladder coming down the pole, Horace drinking water and spilling it over the fire and the bit with the clothesline. The gag with the bloomers is one we've seen before, but is incredibly sweet still. The animation is fluid and clean, and the music is lovely and characterful. Mickey is always likable and his personality, primarily his frustration which we see visibly and really feel for him, is just great. Minnie is not as interesting but still charms and you do genuinely get the sense that Mickey and Minnie do care for one another. In a nutshell, not one of the greats but still lots of fun. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Mickey Enters The Hot Spot

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 5 September 2002]

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Chief Mickey & Horace Horsecollar are two of THE FIRE FIGHTERS who respond to save Miss Minnie from a blazing conflagration.

A fun, rather frantic, little black & white film. Music mavens will recognize "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight" as the engine speeds to the fire. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's voice; look fast to spot Clarabelle Cow among the bystanders. The Disney artists deliver the requisite number of udder & bloomer gags.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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 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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.