The Chain Gang is a 1930 Mickey Mouse animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions for Columbia Pictures, as part of the Mickey Mouse film series. It was the twenty-first Mickey Mouse short to be produced, the sixth of that year. It is one of a group of shorts produced by Disney immediately after Ub Iwerks left the studio.

The cartoon was primarily drawn by Norm Ferguson, and featured a pair of bloodhounds, who helped to track down Mickey after his prison escape. Although these dogs were not named, the style in which they were drawn makes them clear forerunners of Pluto, who first officially appeared a few months later in The Picnic. The animation for one of the bloodhound scenes in The Chain Gang was recycled as Pluto in four later cartoons. The other prisoners join in with the song, singing and using their implements as instruments.

One of the inmates dances to the tune of Felix Mendelssohn's "Spring Song", but when he spits on the guard, Pete wakes up and whistles for help.

Voice cast

  • Bloodhounds: Lee Millar

Reception

Variety: "One of the most amusing cartoons released. Has to do with animal prison. 'Volga Boatman' and 'Prison Song' theming. Usual method of using each other's tails or hoofs for instruments. A jailbreak is used effectively".

Home media

The short was released on December 2, 2002, on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White and on December 7, 2004, on Walt Disney Treasures: The Complete Pluto: 1930–1947.

References

  • The Chain Gang at Disney Shorts