The Grocery Boy (1932)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is an early Mickey Mouse short produced by the Disney studio. There will be spoilers ahead:Mickey is the titular character and the short opens with him filling a bag with potatoes on a scale for Minnie's delivery order. He spills them on the floor when the bag rips. Just then the phone rings-it's Minnie, demanding delivery of her order.The first of a number of beautifully animated sequences has Mickey racing to deliver Minnie's order. Minnie, clearly infatuated with Mickey, nonetheless pretends to be cold and disinterested. It is only when Mickey is injured in a mishap that Minnie drops the act and rushes to comfort Mickey.The turkey in the oven begins to smoke and is left on the oven lid to cool, thus setting the stage for a disaster. Mickey "helps" Minnie prepare the meal, proving that he's even worse as a cook than he is at delivering groceries. There's more flirtation than food preparation going on in the kitchen, though they do make a rather nice layer cake together.Disaster, by the name of Pluto, lurks, as Pluto notices the turkey and starts sniffing and licking his chops. Minnie notices his keen interest, screams, and Pluto grabs the turkey and runs. The best animation of the short follows, as Pluto is chased by both unhappy mice. The ending is telegraphed a mile away, but it's still a most enjoyable short.This short is available on the Disney Treasures Mickey Mouse In Black and White Volume Two DVD set and it and the set are well worth getting. Recommended.

The Grocery Boy is not one Disney or Mickey's very best, the story is routine and rather thin structurally. But it is a more than worthwhile short. It is beautifully animated, at the start some of the editing could have been a little bit crisper, but the character designs are appealing and the black and white is beautifully shaded. The music has always been a huge part of why the Disney shorts have always worked so well, and I loved its jaunty charm and energy. The gags are always pleasantly amusing if not as hilarious as other Disney shorts from a similar time frame, though the cooking scenes are a breath of fresh air, and the chemistry between Mickey and Minnie is really sweet. Minnie has a lot of likability, if more coy than usual, and it is easy to see what Mickey sees in her to like her so much. Again, like in Mickey Cuts Up Mickey really makes the short, his playfulness is very endearing. The short ends on a fun if somewhat predictable note. So all in all, sweet and fun with Mickey's personality traits seeing him at his best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.Mickey, THE GROCERY BOY, makes a delivery to Minnie - which is interrupted by Pluto's unfortunate interest in the baked turkey in Minnie's oven...This is an enjoyable little black & white film, with fine animation and a strong sense of fun. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's squeaky voice.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.