| The Nifty Nineties | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Riley Thomson |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Walt Disney Marcellite Garner[1] Ward Kimball Fred Moore Florence Gill Gertrude Lawrence |
| Music by | Charles Wolcott |
| Animation by | Ward Kimball Walt Kelly Fred Moore Claude Smith David Swift Les Clark Art Fitzpatrick (effects) |
| Layouts by | Charles Conner |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures (original) Buena Vista Distribution (reissue) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 9 minutes[3] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Nifty Nineties is ananimatedshort film produced inTechnicolor byWalt Disney Productions and released to theaters on June 20, 1941, byRKO Radio Pictures. The animated short was directed by Riley Thomson and animated by Ward Kimball, Walt Kelly, Fred Moore, Claude Smith, David Swift, and Les Clark with effects animation by Art Fitzpatrick.[4] It was the 113th short in theMickey Mouse film series to be released, and the fourth in that year.[5] The film starsMickey andMinnie Mouse andromanticizes the decade of the 1890s.
The film features original and adapted music byCharles Wolcott. The voice cast includesWalt Disney as Mickey andMarcellite Garner as Minnie. AnimatorsWard Kimball andFred Moore have cameos where they each voice acaricatured version of themselves.
Set in the springtime, sometime in the1890s, Mickey and Minnie Mouse happen to meet each other in a public park one day. Minnie attracts Mickey by intentionally dropping herhandkerchief so that Mickey will return it to her.[6]
They attend avaudeville show where they first see a slideshow presentation called "Father, Dear, Father", which features the song "Come Home, Father" byHenry Clay Work. In the show, a daughter attempts to get her father to leave a local tavern because he had not come right home from work as promised and got drunk at the tavern. In the fourth picture in the slideshow, we see the clock tower, which reads 1:00 am. With the mother home watching since tea and her son very sick in her arms, there can only be hope that the father comes home, but the father is too drunk to listen to the daughter, eventually forcing her to bring her father home herself. The slideshow causes Minnie to cry, but Mickey tries to comfort her, saying, "Don't take it so hard. It's only a show". The final slide shows a postcard with the words P.S. "He came home!", indicating that the father and daughter had made it back home.
The next act is "Fred & Ward, Two Clever Boys From Illinois" which features two song and dance men. Fred and Ward are caricatures of Disney animatorsFred Moore andWard Kimball, who also voiced the characters.
After the show is over, Mickey and Minnie cruise the roads of the countryside in aBrass Era car.Goofy rides by on apenny-farthing bicycle (which topples over), andDonald Duck,Daisy Duck,Huey, Dewey and Louie ride on abicycle built for five. At last, in a scene reminiscent ofPlane Crazy, the car crashes with a cow. Mickey and Minnie emerge from the wreckage unhurt, but when they try to kiss each other, the cow pops her head up between them.
Except one song, "The Gay Nineties" (the opening song), this short featured mostly authentic songs which would have been familiar around this era, most of which were performed by the vocal quartet The Sportsmen, which featuredThurl Ravenscroft in one of his earliest projects for Disney.
The songs include:
Part of the dance sequence with Fred and Ward was reused in a scene inJiminy Cricket'sYou and Your Senses of Taste and Smell.
The short was released on May 18, 2004, onWalt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two: 1939-Today.[7] and on the DVD ofWalt Disney's Pollyanna.
