The Flying Mouse (1934)

 The Flying Mouse (1934)

This is how The Flying Mouse was made and how it became a major milestone in the Disney studio, enjoy (:

Story Development

The Flying Mouse started production/story development around July of 1933, with the production # of US19, later becoming 20 after switching it with “The Wise Little Hen” (which was Donald Duck’s debut) David Hand was director in The Flying Mouse. Of course inspired by their past cartoons about fables. It is unknown if The Flying Mouse followed the Aesop Fable of “The Bat, The Bird, and the Beast”, but it’s most likely it wasn’t, because both stories are different. But the studio did follow a fable from 1668 called “The Jay Dressed up in the Peacock’s Feather” as inspiration and story development help.

Anyway, the Disney studio wanted to try something differently with this cartoon and tried to make their first short with feeling and emotion. During development, the song “Who’s Afriad of the Big Bad Wolf” from the Three Little Pigs became extremely popular and a hit in the 1930’s. So to continue that success, Walt tried to make other songs that hopefully could be memorable like Who’s Afriad of the Big Bad Wolf. Frank Churchill made the score for the short, and most memorably, the song “You’re Nothing but a Nothing”, which became the short’s musical staple.The song didn’t become memorable with audiences. Walt wanted to get more personally involved with the film, and personally directed, something he hasn’t done since 1929, a part where after the mouse got picked up by the wind, got his rear end struck by a spike vine. David Hand resonated with Walt to not do this but Walt insisted it would get laughs. It didn’t. Walt would later direct himself an entire cartoon, which became “The Golden Touch” (1935), and according to him it was the worst cartoon he ever did in his career. Anyway, story development ended in March of 1934.

Animation

Animation is unknown to the public when it started, but it must’ve started around January-April 1934. This time, the animators now really wanted to add feeling and emotion into the cartoon and the characters, so the top animators in the studio worked in this short, like Fred Moore and Ham Luske. Backgrounds were drawn by Carlos Manriquez. Anyway, here are the entire list of animators and what they animated.

Marvin Woodwad (mice playing, mice running from the flying mouse’s shadow, mouse returning home)

Cy Young (bird crowd, and the flying mouse imagining himself with wings)

Bob Wickersham (mouse’s failed attempts at flying, and the baby bird with the mother)

Ham Luske (Mouse in the tub and the mouse getting spanked, and mouse with bats)

Hardie Gramatky (mother washes sister mouse, and the mouse saving the butterfly)

Fred Moore (Mouse talking to the fairy, and mouse reflecting in the pond)

Nick George (Flying mouse tries to fly in the air)

Harry Baile (Mice at play fleeing mouse)

George Drake (Cottage closes as the family takes refuge)

Leonard Sebring (Mouse kicked from cottage to cave)

This was the studio’s third attempt at making personality animation, or in better words, make a character look like it’s thinking. This was first tried with the Three Little Pigs, but instead of thinking, each pig moved differently according to it’s personality. The second try was the 1934 film “Playful Pluto”, where animator Norm Ferguson tried to animate Pluto like he’s actually thinking, trying to get a piece of flypaper out of it’s body.

This time, the studio now tried again with the Flying Mouse combining personality and emotion, which was achieved well. So good in fact that when a young artist Frank Thomas saw this in theathres, he then decided to join the Disney studio because according to him, it was an entirely different type of picture, where a cartoon character didn’t just move but thinked. Frank Thomas would later convince Ollie Johnston to join the studio too, which both ended up decided to do because it was either working at Disney, or the WPA (which was a government created job during the Great Depression). The two later became one of the most legendary Disney animators and possibly in the world.

Release & Reiusses

The cartoon was finished around June of 1934 and was shipped to Technicolor for developing, which the cartoon like all other Disney shorts used 3-strip Technicolor. The Flying Mouse was released on July 14, of 1934, lasting 9:16 (833ft on 35mm) and with a negative cost/budget of $31,386.82 USD (or 736,000 dollars as of March of 2026). Before it’s announced release, it had a premiere 2 days before at Radio City Music Hall accompanied with Walter Lang’s “Whom the Gods Destroy”. And a week before that, the short’s music was put on radio on KHJ. The film anyway, became an extreme success, finally financing Disney for other big productions which later down the line helped with the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The mouse and the mother even appeared in Mickey’s Polo Team as a cameo. Sadly, it’s songs didn’t become a hit like “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”, but it became a major milestone in personality animation, which also led to other personality cartoons.

The cartoon then later went into the vault and wasn’t reissued until the late 70’s and early 80’s when home video finally became a thing. It was released in a rare VHS of Silly Symphonies, but later got released on “Walt Disney Treasures: Wave 1: Silly Symphonies” on DVD, which that DVD became the first in the series to be released. On Blu-Ray, it was placed as a bonus feature in Dumbo: 70th Anniversary Edition, along with Elmer Elephant, which today is the best way to watch in the cartoon in HD. Sadly, The Flying Mouse hasn’t seen any rereleases and probably won’t.

"Playful Pluto" (1934) Part where Pluto seems like he's actually thinking

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Sources:

Frank & Ollie (1995 Documentary)

Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Classics (2006 Book)