Mickey Cuts Up

Mickey Cuts Up sets a simple scene: Mickey and Minnie are neighbors tending adjacent lawns when a bird's song pulls Minnie away and leaves Mickey trying to win her attention. He squeezes into a birdhouse and pretends to be a feathered neighbor, but a curious cat ruins the ruse. To escape, Mickey ends up wearing the birdhouse and dances, attracting even more birds and complicating the situation. Pluto chases after the intruder, yet he remains attached to a lawnmower, turning pursuit into a trail of comic accidents. The short strings together sight gags, musical interludes, and slapstick mishaps without changing its breezy, humorous mood. It relies on elastic animation and quick musical cues to keep the pace lively throughout playfully.

Released in 1931, Mickey Cuts Up was directed by Burt Gillett for Walt Disney Productions as part of the Mickey Mouse series. Voices include Walt Disney as Mickey, Marcellite Garner as Minnie, and Pinto Colvig as Pluto, all uncredited here.

As a short cartoon from the early 1930s, Mickey Cuts Up circulated in theatrical shorts programs rather than earning standalone box office figures. Detailed grosses are not recorded, and revenue is not typically cited for individual shorts of that era.

Though not as famous as later Disney features, this short helped cement recurring visual jokes and the partnership between Mickey and Pluto. Its playful combination of music, physical comedy, and inventive animation reflects the studio's developing techniques and influenced how cartoon shorts used sound and movement to generate laughs regularly.

Modern viewers and critics give Mickey Cuts Up mixed ratings, noting that the short is charming for its era but thin on plot. Reviews and user votes acknowledge lively animation, musical timing, and broad slapstick, while pointing out its simplicity compared with later character-driven Disney shorts, by animation history fans.