Mickey's Cab Keeps It Clean

Traffic Troubles (1931) contains some familiar gags: trying to fit a hippo into a small vehicle, a car going above another car hogging the road, a car biting another car, an angry car exploding black smoke at someone from the exhaust pipe. Walt Disney and his breakaway animators, Ub Iwerks and Hugh Harman/Rudy Ising used them all.

There’s also a license plate gag in Traffic Troubles. Mickey’s car blows a tire. As the car sinks to the right, the license plate turns upside down.



There are some good routines in this one. Mickey’s interrogated by a cop that won’t let him talk. Bumps in the road change the price on the taxi meter. And there’s a bizarre scene where Minnie plays a concertina while Mickey jumps on a pig attached to a hose. The jumping forces air from the pig through the hose and into the flat tire. There’s a great smash-up at the end so Disney’s animator can show off how many feathers he can animate in one scene.