SOME HAVE MADE the comparison between Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp" character and Walt Disney's rodent creation 'Mickey Mouse. Where there would doubtless be at least some influences, no where is it more obvious than in this cartoon short, MICKEY'S GOOD DEED.
THE SETTING WAS the city, it is Christmas and a down on his lucky is trying desperately trying to eek out a meager existence by performing " Come All Ye Faithful" on his bull fiddle. Accompanied by Pluto, for moral support, things aren't going so well as the Depression Era crowds seem to lack the Spirit of the Season. After some time, his tin cup has been filled with old nuts & bolts; rather than the coin of the realm.
CHANCING UPON THE house of a rich anthropomorphic pig-man character, Mickey agrees to sell the man Pluto; enabling him to render aid to a destitute cat mother and her large and equally brood. The Mouse takes the ca$h from the man's butler and treats the family to a Merry Christmas, all quite anonymously. He leaves and sobs for the loss of Pluto in his life.
MEANEWHILE, BACK AT the Mansion, the wealthy Pig Daddy (done up in the best tradition of a Frank Capra rich man)rapidly tires of the bratty Pig Boy's rough and bratty behavior toward Pluto. After first casting the dog out into a snow pile, the father proceeds to give the bratty child a much needed spanking.
BEING DISPATCHED FROM the house in such rapidity, Pluto fails to notice that he has the Christmas turkey attached to his tail. When he meets up with the quite depressed Mickey, who is roasting a sole hot dog over a campfire, the two are joyfully reunited.
THIS PARTICULAR CARTOON Short manages to provide us with good portions of both the pathos and the belly laughs; both in proportional amounts. To this we have the added delight of a sort of Christmas Greeting from Walt and the whole crew.
NOTE: The shawl clad Mother Cat is the same feminine feline who abandons a basketful of kittens on Mickey's doorstep in MICKEY'S ORPHAN'S (1931) the previous year.
