Mickey, as seen in the short
An anti-war underground short created in 1969 by Whitney Lee Savage (father of Adam Savage, future host of MythBusters) and Milton Glaser.Officially titled Short Subject, it involves Mickey Mouse wanting to see the world, so he joins the army. He is sent to serve in the Vietnam War, but things take a turn for the worst the moment he arrives in Vietnam...
Initially thought to be lost, an incomplete copy was rediscovered in 2013 by a YouTube user, while the full video was uploaded five years later. Watch it here
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Also see Bambi Meets Godzilla.
Tropes found in this short:
- Anachronism Stew: The US didn't use steamboats or bolt action rifles in the 60s.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Mickey didn't even fire a round before getting killed.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Like many underground animated films of this era, it's in black and white.
- Downer Ending: Mickey gets shot in the head, and dies.
- Dying for Symbolism: The short uses Mickey as a symbol of innocence, and its loss during the war.
- Extreme Close-Up: The short ends with the camera zooming in on the face of Mickey's lifeless body, where his smile slowly forms into a frown.
- Go Out with a Smile: Subverted. Mickey gets shot in the head still with a smile on his face, but it slowly gives into a frown as he lays bleeding.
- Inexplicably Tailless: For some reason, Mickey is drawn without his tail.
- Le Film Artistique: Short runtime, black and white, and a bleak yet violent conclusion of the innocent protagonist (in this case, Mickey Mouse) all to hammer home a specific moral. Not surprisingly, it was made for the Angry Arts Festival, a "protest event" that encouraged artists to express their concerns about the Vietnam War and their desire to end it.
- Limited Animation: This being an underground animated short and not an official Disney cartoon, animation is only used as needed to carry out the intent of the short.
- Mood Whiplash: At first, it looks to be an homage to Mickey Mouse's 1930s shorts with a wartime theme, then suddenly, Mickey is unceremoniously killed after he sets foot on Vietnam.
- Pen Name: The short's only credits are for "Max Cats" and "Whitney Sledge".
- Perpetual Smiler: Up until the end of the short, Mickey keeps a smile plastered onto his face.
- Public Domain Animation: Whitney couldn't copyright the short since it was unauthorized.
- Recruiters Always Lie: Mickey takes the invitation to join the army from a billboard promising that he will "see the world". He barely steps foot in another country before being fatally shot.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Herbert Chappell's "The Gonk" (better known nowadays for its use in Dawn of the Dead) plays once more after Mickey's death scene.
- The Speechless: Mickey never says a single word throughout the short.
- The Vietnam War: Of course.
- War Is Hell: The moral of the short is that war is horrible.
- Wartime Cartoon: Deconstructed, as it uses the conventions of the trope to criticize not just the World War II cartoons it takes inspiration from, but also war in general.
