I was raised watching the old Disney cartoons, including the really old Silly Symphonies. I can’t remember if they were just on TV or tape, but I recently decided to watch a number of them to reminice and remember. Tonight G and I were watching some of the earliest Disney cartoons, including the infamous Steamboat Willie.
It is funny how often something happens in the old cartoons you probably would not see in today’s cartoons. Characters chewing tobacco, or Minnie’s under garments getting caught in a hook and then used to suspend her in the air for example. The obsession that both Mick and Pete (Micky’s frequent adversary) seem to have with getting Minnie to kiss them, sometimes trying to force her to kiss them, is something you just would not see in a cartoon today. Mickey was a hot dog vendor in one of the cartoons and the hot dogs could dance and do tricks (like dogs) and then upon command would rub their “butts” in mustard and jump into sandwich bread. Then when the one hot dog was disobedient, Mickey pulled back the casing and spanked it on the “butt”. G was appalled. She was appalled several times. I find it all fascinating how things that were not appropriate then are more accepted today, and other things are not appropriate today but were totally okay then. It may seem like we’re more and more accepting across the board, but really things like sexual harassment and political correctness act to take us in the other direction at the same time. It is not so simple.
What did tickle our fancy with each cartoon was hearing “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo” song at the opening credits. I like the sped up version (above) but you can hear the original too (below). And what a coincidence that we are considering getting some chickens. (More fowl things to come on that later!)
Here are the words if you want to sing along …but not me …at least not in public…
I’m the guy they call little Mickey Mouse
Got a sweetie down in the chicken house
Neither fat nor skinny
She’s the horse’s whinny
She’s my little Minnie Mouse!
When it’s feedin’ time for the animals
And they howl and growl like the cannibals
I just turn my heel to the henhouse steal
And you’ll hear me sing this song
Oh, the old tomcat with the meow, meow, meow!
Ol’ hound dog with the bow-wow-wow!
The crow’s caw-caw!
And the mule’s hee-haw!
Gosh what a racket like an ol’ buzz saw!
I have listened to the cuckoo cuke his coo-coo!
And I’ve heard the rooster cock his doodle doo-oo
With the cows and the chickens
They all sound like the dickens when I hear my little Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo!
PS: It is Minnie’s “Yoo Hoo”, “Hoo Hoo”, though that would be funny too. Inappropriate but funny.
Song Recommendations
If you like this song, I also suggest:
- Tom Adams – “John Hardy”
- James Cromwell – “If I Had Words”
- Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan – “Jarabe Tapatío”
I also suggest the music genre:
Click here for more info on Carl Stalling and Walt Disney – Mickey’s Follies – “Minnie’s Yoo Hoo”.
The DVD may be purchased here: Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Black and White
Listen on Blip.fm!