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Plane Crazy is a Walt Disney cartoon that was distributed in 1929 and had been shown at a test screening a year earlier, in 1928. It is notable for being the first cartoon starring Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse to ever be produced. It also features Wienie and, in picture form, Charles Lindbergh.
Description
Mickey Mouse and some of his barnyard friends, including Wienie, work on building a homemade aeroplane as Mickey tries to emulate his hero, Charles Lindbergh. Mickey invites Minnie Mouse to join him on the inaugural ride, which turns out to be quite a crazy one.
Continuity
- Lost on a Desert Island (1930) depicts very similar, and perhaps the very same, events as the beginning of this comic story. Both show Mickey Mouse and his barnyard friends being inspired by Charles Lindbergh and building a plane, which Mickey then flies with Minnie, who jumps off the plane and uses her undergarments as a parachute. Despite the major similarities, the two don't line up exactly, with one notable difference being the ending. In Plane Crazy, Mickey crash lands in the same barnyard he took off from, with he and Minnie being on bad terms due to his aggressiveness. In Lost on a Desert Island, he crash lands on the titular desert island, with him and Minnie having seemingly parted ways on good terms.
- The Mail Pilot (1933) also shows Mickey learning how to fly, albeit under completely different circumstances. Quite possibly, when Mickey said he was going to "learn to fly" in The Mail Pilot, he was referring to learning how to fly professionally-made airplanes as opposed to homemade ones.
- The airplane Mickey builds in this short, or a near facsimile, appears in certain episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006 - 2016), where it is referred to as the Toon Plane.
Behind the Scenes
Plane Crazy was released on March 17, 1929, even though it had been test screened a year earlier on May 15, 1928. It was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be produced. It was directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, who also wrote the story. Iwerks, Hugh Harman, and Rudolf Ising animated it, while Stalling composed the music for the sound release.[1]
Three cartoons starring Mickey were released before it: Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho, and The Barn Dance. This means that while Plane Crazy was the first of the Mickey Mouse cartoons to be produced, it was the fourth to be widely distributed.
