Leaping Mouse Ears

How often did Walt Disney have an “ear take” in one of his cartoons?

It isn’t something that would be funny very often, but it’s pulled off to nice effect in the early Mickey Mouse short Plane Crazy (1928).

First, the frightened Minnie Mouse pulls back on Mickey’s ears.



She pulls back on Mickey, the steering wheel of the plane is pulled off.

Mickey seems something up ahead, off screen. While his body is held on a separate cel, His ears leap up, exchange places in mid-air and fall back onto his head.



If only the mouse ears they sold at Disneyland catapulted like this.

The next scene is pretty good, too, as we see things from Mickey’s perspective, driving toward cars and posts on a road before the plane lifts into mid-air. I’d rather watch this than the Corporate Symbol splashing around with a seal in a bathtub.

Animator Ub Iwerks gets a screen credit. The music, as you likely know, is by Carl Stalling.