The Karnival Kid (1929)

Directors:

Walt Disney
Ub Iwerks

Release Date:

23 May 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Comedy | Animation | Short

Plot:

Mickey is selling hot dogs at a carnival next to the tent for Minnie the Shimmy Dancer. He gets into an argument with the barker...

Plot Keywords:

Carnival | Roller Coaster | Kat Nipp | Carousel | Minnie Mouse

Cast

Walt Disney	...	Mickey Mouse (voice) (uncredited)
Marcellite Garner	...	Minnie Mouse (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Walt Disney
Ub Iwerks

Produced by
Walt Disney	....	producer

Original Music by
Carl W. Stalling		(uncredited)

Animation Department
Ub Iwerks	....	animator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Walt Disney Productions

Distributors

• Celebrity Productions

Runtime:

8 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Powers Cinephone Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

The first cartoon in which Mickey Mouse speaks. His first words are "Hot dogs!"

Goofs:

Continuity: Mickey is supposed to have only four franks for the hot dogs, but in one shot there are five.

Quotes:

Mickey Mouse: [first words spoken by Mickey Mouse] Hot dogs, hot dogs.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Circus (1932)

Mickey finds his voice, but the setting sure isn't Disneyland

From the very first shot you know you're in Cartoon Dream World: the setting is a rowdy carnival in full swing, but our view of the festivities is blocked by swirling helium balloons. When the balloons drift away it's revealed that a cow is dangling from them, levitating over the crowd, grinning happily and blowing on a noise-maker that uncoils like a snake and emits a "Bronx cheer." Floating above a peanut vendor (who happens to be a pig), the cow razzes him with this device and scares him so badly the vendor leaps out of his clothes. Now clad in underwear, the angry peanut vendor uses a sling-shot to burst the cow's balloons. The cow plummets to the ground but is cheerfully unfazed, which she demonstrates by turning to the camera and defiantly blowing a raspberry right in our faces. And that's just the first shot!

It looks very much like something produced by the Fleischer Studio, and we expect to see Koko the Clown and Betty Boop pop up any second, but this is actually a Disney cartoon dating from the earliest days of Mickey Mouse. The atmosphere sure is different from what we expect, based on familiarity with Mickey's later, buttoned-down adventures in suburbia; this cartoon has a low-down attitude quite unlike Disney's later output. Here, Minnie Mouse is a midway dancer who makes like Little Egypt while a monkey beats out a tattoo rhythm on bongos and the barker promises "she'll put you in a trance/with her hoochy-coochy dance." Mickey is a hot dog vendor who sasses the barker and tries to make time with Minnie. THE KARNIVAL KID marked the first occasion when the Disney animators gave the Mouse dialog to speak, but it was made before Walt himself began supplying the voice. It's not the familiar innocent squeak, either; as befits the setting, Mickey's voice is a bit raspy, as you'd expect from a carny worker.

There's a startling scene where Mickey sells Minnie a frankfurter that is far more suggestive than anything the Disney folks attempted later on. To pay for it, Minnie reaches into her stocking for her money supply—which makes Mickey blush—but when she attempts to bite into the hot dog the thing suddenly comes to life and attempts to escape. Mickey catches it, pulls down its "pants" and gives it a good spanking. (I'm not making this up!) The frankfurter pulls its pants back up, weeps with shame, then bites Mickey's finger and escapes again. And then, having no place else to go, our story culminates in a midnight serenade. Outside Minnie's trailer Mickey strums his guitar while two disreputable-looking cats yowl "Sweet Adeline" in weird, nasal tones. After the tune has received an extended rendition the film wraps up with an anticlimactic gag entirely unlike the neat resolutions we find in the Disney studio's mature work, and when the show is over you still feel like you've just seen a Fleischer cartoon.

This film is historically significant because it's Mickey Mouse's first real "talkie," but in a larger sense it signifies the road not taken for its production house. If you ever wondered what Disney cartoons might've looked like if the animators had been loonier and naughtier, more like the gang at the Fleischer Studio or Termite Terrace, then take a look at THE KARNIVAL KID. I don't believe the guys at Disney ever got this low-down again, but perhaps that's just as well.