This year we’re doing not one, but two classic Mickey Mouse shorts set at Christmas time. The first one, Mickey’s Orphans, was a cartoon I had failed to mention years ago when doing a scattershot look at Mickey-related Christmas specials. Today’s subject, Mickey’s Good Deed, was mentioned in that post and is the second Mickey Mouse Christmas cartoon released just a year after Mickey’s Orphans. In that it’s fascinating to see how much the look of the shorts has changed in just a short time. The animation is sharper and Mickey’s features are more rounded making him resemble the corporate overlord he would become. It’s also still in black and white as Mickey’s first color toon was still years away though a colorized version has been released for those who just can’t bare to watch a cartoon devoid of color.

Mickey’s Good Deed has some additional notoriety attached to it. When Disney started releasing its Walt Disney Treasures line in the early 2000s, it wanted to make sure it included all of the short form cartoons that spanned a given era. The problem there is that some cartoons have not aged particularly well when it comes to what is acceptable and what is not. The Donald Duck World War II era shorts are the most famous and most obvious of these as they depict Japanese men with yellow skin and offensive accents. Disney’s solution for its more controversial material was to place them in “The Vault,” which just meant they were sectioned off on the DVDs with a mandatory video explanation from film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. And sure, it’s a little annoying for the adult collector that might have preferred to just watch all of the shorts in chronological order, but in the grand scheme it’s not a big deal. Kids like these cartoons too and if a parent doesn’t want them to see it then that’s fine.

Why do I bring up the subject of this virtual vault? Because today’s subject exists in that very vault on Mickey Mouse in Black and White Volume II. It’s a bit crazy to think of the Mickey Mouse of today doing anything controversial, but he’s had his dances in the past. And with this cartoon the issue that landed Mickey in the vault is a fairly common one for this era: black face. Just look at any of the old cartoon shorts featured here at The Christmas Spot and, more often than not, there’s a black face joke in them. From a modern perspective it’s pretty nuts how prevalent it was with Christmas cartoons and they’re almost all found with toys. On the other hand, this particular instance is almost comical to the point where I didn’t even notice it on first viewing. I had to watch the cartoon again and really pay attention to some of the details. I won’t make you do the same. And I suppose it goes without saying, but just in case, I’m using the original 1932 release in black and white. The colorized version is fine as far as that type of thing goes. It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but it still looks unnatural. Black and white is beautiful too, folks.

The cartoon begins with Mickey (Walt Disney) playing his cello with his dog Pluto (Pinto Colvig) on a snowy, city, street. There’s a Christmas tree in the background among the subtly lit homes, though the streets are surprisingly absent of life. Mickey is playing “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful” on his cello and soon the streets show some signs of life with horse-drawn sleds zooming by in the distance and people passing by on the sidewalk who appear to be finishing up some Christmas shopping. As they walk past Mickey, they flip a coin into a tin cup Mickey has at his feet. Pluto howls along to the melody pausing to chew on his own ass which causes a flea to get tossed into the snow. Pluto resumes his “singing” while the flea eagerly jumps back into the warmth of Pluto’s fur.

Mickey, apparently content with his haul, stops his playing and shakes the cup enthusiastically to excite his dog. They march off to a nearby restaurant and the pair gaze inside at the food on display. Pluto barks his approval at Mickey’s intended purchase, but when Mickey dumps the contents of the cup into his hand he finds nothing but nuts and bolts. He angrily tosses the worthless scraps in the snow and drags his cello behind him as he walks off. Pluto starts to follow, then turns around and returns to the restaurant to lick the window. There appears to be a large ham behind the glass that Pluto is dreaming of enjoying.

If it wasn’t clear yet that Mickey is poor in this short, it’s driven a home a little more when we see him turn and face the window of a home. His shorts feature a patch on the back, a telltale sign of a poor character in a cartoon, and the ends of his shorts are little rough looking too. It’s clear Mickey needs to keep performing in order to earn money enough to eat. Mickey looks inside a large home, and then turns around with a smile as he resumes playing the cello with Pluto at his side. Inside the house, we see a wealthy pig (I mean that literally) who is trying to entertain his kid (Disney) with toys, but the kid just keeps crying. The house looks massive with a big central staircase and a large Christmas tree. A butler stands nearby ready to assist his employer with whatever he needs.

The guy (Colvig) and the butler (uncredited, but I assume it’s Pinto Colvig) keep handing toys to the little swine who just keeps howling. Apparently, nothing will satisfy him. Nothing, that is, until a sound gets the kid to jump on his feet and run to the window. Outside, he hears Pluto barking and upon seeing the dog declares that he wants it. He immediately goes into a tantrum and his father grabs a wad of cash from his pocket, slams it in the palm of his servant, and demands him to get that dog! The butler does as he’s told and exits the home and calls for Mickey. Mickey, thinking he’s in some sort of trouble, immediately stops playing and goes into a run. The butler chases after him trying to tell him he just wants to buy his dog. Mickey yells back that the dog is his pal and he’s not for sale. The butler, likely knowing that rich guys don’t take “No” for an answer, grabs Mickey by the tail and continues chasing him thinking that this will surely get the mouse to sell his best friend. Pluto helps out his pal by biting the butler on the ass forcing him to let go of Mickey and allowing the two to escape.

As Mickey and Pluto share a smile, they hit an icy patch in the road. It looks more like a frozen pond and it causes both to drop to their rears and slide across the ice. Mickey loses his grip on his cello which slides off the ice and into another street where a horse drawn sleigh is there to crush it. Mickey races over to inspect what remains of what was likely his most prized possession as some kids from the sleigh (also pigs) shout a “Merry Christmas!” Read the room, kids.

Mickey barely has time to mourn the loss of his cello as the sound of a woman weeping gets his attention. In a nearby shack, a mother cat (Marcellite Garner) has her head buried in her arms at a kitchen table as she sobs. On the wall is a picture of a cat in jail with the word “Father” below it. The breadbox is empty and crawling with vermin while a fish that’s entirely bones swims circles in a bowl. On the fireplace, there hangs 12 mostly ratty looking stockings and a “Deer (sic) Santa” pinned to the mantle. Above the mantle is a calendar alerting us that it’s Christmas Eve. The camera continues to pan and we see a bed full of nine sleeping kittens. Above them, images of Santa play above. He appears to be a human and his sleigh contains just four reindeer.

Outside, we find Mickey who has witnessed this sorry state. He too is crying and Pluto looks pretty sad as well. He knows that there’s no Christmas morning coming to these kids, at least not the one they’re dreaming of, but what can a poor mouse do about it? One look at Pluto and a smile returns to his face. He grabs the dog and takes off down the street. Oh no, Mickey, don’t do it! Don’t sell your dog to the rich pig with the spoiled son! He’s your best pal! And you would just be helping out a family of cats – your mortal enemies!

Despite my pleading, Mickey does just that. He rings the bell at the rich pig’s house and the butler answers the door. Before he does, Mickey gives Pluto a kiss on the nose and then tells the butler he’s willing to sell provided he gives his dog a good home. The butler enthusiastically hands over a few bucks. Mickey then looks at his dog with sadness in his eyes, he starts to tell him “Good bye,” and moves in for a hug, but the butler snatches the dog before he can and slams the door in Mickey’s face causing a bunch of snow to fall off the roof and bury the mouse. He pops his head out and immediately smiles at the fistful of dollars he now possesses and races off.

Inside, Pluto is introduced to his new master. The little pig is excited for the dog and gestures for him to come close, only when Pluto does the kid wallops him on the head with a mallet. The little shit laughs and then smacks the likely concussed dog in the face with the same mallet causing him to roll backwards. Pluto winds up on some toy train tracks with his head clearly still spinning for the double shot inflicted upon him by the little pig. Laughing, the twerp walks over and switches on the train which crashes into Pluto’s rear causing him to jump. It’s a fairly sizable train which just keeps on truckin’ forcing Pluto to run from it. If you’re thinking the kid’s dad is going to step in and discipline his son well you would be wrong. We instead see him cheerfully shake the hand of the butler for now that the little porker has a doggy to abuse he’ll presumably no longer annoy them.

We then cut back to Mickey who is walking through the streets with his arms overburdened by boxes and decorations, including a fully decorated Christmas tree. Emerging from the top of the pile is a single balloon and it would appear to be the reason why this cartoon landed in the dreaded vault. It’s a round balloon that appears to be a blackface design with little, curly, bits emerging from the top for hair. It’s not the most obvious blackface gag I’ve seen in a cartoon. Actually, it’s probably the least obvious. Some of that is due to it being in black and white. If the nose weren’t black one could maybe convince themself it’s a clown, but it is what it is. And if you’re wondering, it’s presented exactly the same way in the colorized version.

Mickey takes his bundle of gifts and such to the dilapidated little shack. Inside, the mother cat is still at the table crying seemingly resigned to the fact that her kids aren’t waking up to toys and food on Christmas. Mickey, dressed in a Santa hat and false beard, slyly opens the door to the dwelling and quietly drags his bundle into the home. He creeps over to the bed and lifts the covers to find a whole lot more kittens underneath than previously thought. He doesn’t seem dismayed about it as he’s still smiling that trademarked Mickey smile.

Mickey lays the blanket back down and creeps over to the fireplace. Along the way he kicks a little duck toy which quacks and he has to stifle the sound quickly. He steps on the tail of some weird cat creature toy that squeaks which gets Mickey to jump a little and drop the duck toy. He puts a toy cow in a stocking which lets out a moo and it’s clear these kids are heavy sleepers. Or their mom cries really loud and often and they’re used to sleeping through that. A toy doll cries out “Mama” while a Jack-in-the-box pops out to reveal a caricature of comedian Jimmy Durante who gives a “Ha cha cha cha” as Mickey tries to stifle it. Durante got around during this era.

There’s a pan back over to the kittens and they’re somehow still sleeping. Mickey’s eyes are on them as he creeps away, but naturally slips once again on another toy and crashes into the wall causing a bunch of pots and pans to land on his head. He scrambles out the front door and turns to look through the window as the kittens jump out of bed. They gleefully start playing with their toys and Mickey looks on with a smile. They mostly seem to be playing with the toys as intended with only one appearing to be mildly destructive with a drum. Meanwhile, back at the rich pig house, Pluto is raising Hell because the little brat (I’m assuming) has tied a bunch of stuff to his tail causing him to rampage through the house. On his tail is a whole, roast, turkey, a kettle, fork, and some other stuff I can’t quite identify. The kid is on a counter throwing whatever he can find at the dog while the father stands off to the side with a scowl on his face as he’s clearly lost control of this situation.

The kid grabs an entire bowl of fruit and hurls it at his dad’s face knocking him to the ground. Pluto beats it into the living room where the butler is standing on a ladder and placing an ornament at the top of the tree. It’s not a star, one of those gaudy, pointy, tree toppers that probably has a proper name, but I don’t know it. Pluto runs by though and knocks the guy off the ladder while the kid picks up a massive cake and lobs it at his father. He’s a pretty good shot as he nails the elder pig in the face and has a good laugh. He then sets his sights on the dog again while Pluto retreats to the top of the tree. The kid grabs some garland and yanks on it, but it causes the tree to rebound and send Pluto flying into the father pig along with the decorations from the tree. The aforementioned pointy tree topper finds its way into the pig’s rather large rear end which has to hurt. He angrily jumps up and orders the butler to throw the dog out. The butler does as he’s told, while the kid starts screaming “I want doggy!” The father pig has had enough though and grabs his son and lays him over a knee and starts wailing on his bare ass. The butler stands by approvingly. Maybe this is part of the reason why this cartoon landed in the vault?

Pluto, in a snowbank outside, pops his head out and hears the cries and slapping sounds coming from inside. He smiles and laughs clearly enjoying this display of child abuse. He doesn’t have time to relish in the child’s agony though as he starts sniffing the snow-covered ground clearly in search of his best friend. His sniffing takes him right into a curb though and the poor dog whacks his head again. He’s going to have some permanent damage.

We cut to Mickey sitting by a fire in the cold snow roasting a sausage on a stick. He must have saved a little money for some food, but he doesn’t look happy. On the other side of the fire, a snow Pluto sits as a reminder of the friend he’s missing. Mickey looks positively miserable, and I suppose he should considering it’s Christmas, he’s alone, and has no home. Pluto’s nose leads him to his pal and he burrows into the snow to climb the hill to where Mickey sits. Mickey pulls his hot dog from the fire to take a bite, then holds it out to the snow Pluto as if to offer it a bite as well. At the same time, Pluto emerges from the snow popping out of the snow effigy of himself and gleefully takes a massive bite of the hot dog. The music quickly shifts from somber to jaunty as Mickey cries out “Pluto!” and the dog leaps into his arms. If you were worried about Mickey going hungry after Pluto ate the rest of his sausage, worry not, for Pluto still has a whole turkey tied to his tail. Mickey sees the turkey and scoops it up. He rips a drumstick off and hands it to his best friend who gobbles it up bone and all while Mickey takes a bite out of the rest of the bird. He says “Merry Christmas, Pluto!” who barks in return, though there’s no audio for his bark so it’s kind of weird.

And that’s the end! A bummer we ended on an audio hiccup like that, but at least it’s a happy moment. I don’t know how I feel about his one. Mickey does do a good deed by helping to give some poor kittens a happy Christmas. They get a lot of toys, but they definitely need some food. I guess we can assume Mickey included some food among those packages too. At least, I hope he did. It’s more of the cost of the deed that I take issue with. Selling your dog, your only companion, just to buy toys for some kids? It’s noble, but shortsighted. I guess we can reason it that by selling Pluto to a rich pig Mickey thinks he’s doing right by his pal. He has a hard enough time providing for himself, let alone a dog too. Maybe it’s the responsible choice to give the dog a good home. After all, he has no idea how terrible that home will turn out to be for Pluto.

The other aspect of this short that’s a downer is thinking about what’s next for Mickey and Pluto. They have no money, no home, and no cello to make money with. Sure, they have a turkey, but that’s only going to last so long. I guess Mickey has that Santa hat and beard still so he can sell it, but there’s probably not much of a market for that on December 25th. I guess the simple solution here is to not think about what would come next. And as a Christmas short, it’s fine. I just think the feel good aspect of Mickey’s good deed is undermined by the tragedy of him having to sell Pluto to make that deed happen. It all worked out in the end way better than Mickey could have predicted, but the ride to get there doesn’t work that well. Perhaps because this was released during the Great Depression, the studio couldn’t make it too syrupy. They apparently wanted to keep this semi-realistic by not having a mythical being like Santa Claus provide for these kids. He doesn’t exist in this cartoon. I guess it’s bad for the kids of 1932, but perhaps more era appropriate as delivered.

At least visually I think this short still holds up. There’s plenty of good character animation as this one goes more for that than outright gags. It’s actually short on those and they’re mostly limited to Mickey and the toys. None of the gags are memorable and there’s not really a laugh out loud moment. There’s satisfying moments with the most satisfying being perhaps the spoiled kid getting spanked. I’m not ashamed to admit I enjoyed seeing that kid get what was coming to him even if I’d never strike a child myself. Maybe a more elegant form of comeuppance could have befallen the kid that wasn’t so direct. The climactic embrace between Mickey and Pluto is probably as equally satisfying. It’s an embrace I’ve seen countless times as it was featured as a clip in the NBC broadcast of Mickey’s Christmas Carol back in the 80s. I think this was the last cartoon from that broadcast featured in clip form that I had to track down. It was a mission of mine once upon a time to see all of the cartoons featured there so mission accomplished.

Mickey’s Good Deed is not a Christmas classic, but it is a better Christmas cartoon than Mickey’s Orphans. As a short form, it gets a recommend from me just because it doesn’t require much of an investment in time and I enjoy the visuals. The snow, especially, looks so cold and appropriately miserable. There’s no real cozy moments to be found, instead this one is just harsh. The warm confines of the rich guy’s house are juxtaposed with chaos and animal cruelty making them anything but cozy. And if you want to watch this cartoon you can easily do so via YouTube. Disney is not protective of its classic shorts, especially those in black and white that will never be added to Disney+, so you have options. Even the colorized version can be found easily enough. If you prefer to go legitimate, it is on the set Mickey Mouse In Black and White Volume II, but that’s probably not cheap since it’s been out of print for about 20 years now. It was also released on VHS way back in 1986 on Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas and the colorized version was released on DVD in 2005 as part of Holiday Celebration with Mickey & Pals collection. That last one is not a bad collection of shorts, but few of them are actually Christmas cartoons. And it too is long out of print, but if you’re a collector of classic cartoons, it might be worth owning just to have the colorized version of this cartoon even if it doesn’t look as good. And if you like Mickey, be sure to keep coming back each day because we’re not done yet with the famous mouse this year!