| Building a Building | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | David Hand |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Pinto Colvig Walt Disney Marcellite Garner |
| Animation by | Johnny Cannon Les Clark Frenchy Detremaudan Clyde Geronimi Dick Lundy Tom Palmer Ben Sharpsteen[1] |
| Color process | Black-and-white Redrawn colorized (TV) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Building a Building is a 1933 American animatedshort film produced byWalt Disney Production and released byUnited Artists. A remake of the 1928Oswald the Lucky Rabbit filmSky Scrappers, the cartoon depictsMickey Mouse working at a construction site under the supervision ofPeg-Leg Pete whileMinnie Mouse is selling box lunches to the workers. It was directed byDavid Hand, his first directorial assignment at Disney,[3] and features the voices ofWalt Disney as Mickey,Marcellite Garner as Minnie, andPinto Colvig as Pete.[1] It was the 51st Mickey Mouse short film, and the first of that year.[4]
The film was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the6th Academy Awards, but lost to Disney's ownThree Little Pigs.[5] This was the second Mickey Mouse cartoon nominated for an Oscar.[6]
At a construction site, Mickey is operating a steam shovel. Minnie appears on a cart pulled byPluto; she is selling box lunches to the workers.
After he uses the steam shovel to retrieve Minnie's hat (which had blown off and landed by him), Mickey inadvertently throws dirt from the steam shovel onto foremanPeg-Leg Pete (whose peg leg is on the left leg rather than the right), to the latter's frustration. Mickey hurriedly brings up a load of bricks in a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, Pete sees Minnie and flirts with her, though she is not interested. Distracted by Minnie, Mickey accidentally drops the bricks on Pete.
After Mickey eventually falls through the blueprint, Pete begins to strangle Mickey, but the workers have their lunch break soon after. Mickey settles down to eat a fish sandwich, but it is stolen by Pete. Minnie offers Mickey a free box lunch, but Pete uses a crane to abduct her.
Mickey chases after Pete, and finally fights him high up on the building. Minnie grabs a pan of red-hot rivets and drops them down Pete's pants. This gives the mice enough time to flee as Pete pours water down his pants.
In the process of chasing Mickey and Minnie, Pete has an anvil fall on his head and fires rivets at them with a handheld pneumatic hammer. This turns on him when the hammer falls into his pants and gets attached to his peg leg. The mice escape down a chute riding a wheelbarrow, while Pete falls into a cement mixer, accidentally dismantles a large portion of the building. Enraged by the damage, Pete angrily fires Mickey, but the latter doesn't care as he immediately goes into business with Minnie selling box lunches.
Piotr Borowiec said that this cartoon has better animation, stronger story lines, and better gags than the previous ones.[7] Studio art instructorDon Graham taught a class in which students studied live-action films and compared them toDisney cartoons. In the class, the students comparedElmer Elephant and this cartoon. The students said thatBuilding a Building was better.Michael Barrier disagreed about their decision, but he said that the students did have a point.[8]
The short was released on December 2, 2002, onWalt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White.[9] It was released toDisney+ on July 7, 2023.[10]
While the short was released in 1933, its copyright was registered in 1932. The short's copyright was later renewed in 1959, and it will enter the public domain under its 1932 registration on January 1, 2028.[a]
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