April 6, 1931 – The Mickey Mouse Short Film, The Castaway, is Released to Theaters
“Bananas! Am I hungry! Oh boy!”
On April 6, 1931, the new Mickey Mouse short film, The Castaway, was released to theaters. It was directed by Wilfred Jackson, with Walt Disney as Mickey. It’s one of the few shorts that uses the Mickey Mouse Club theme song, “Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo,” as the title and end music.
Mickey is stunned as his "sail" begins to perform a dance
The short opens with poor Mickey adrift at sea, the waves crashing wildly around him. Seagulls fly through the legs of his “sail” (a pair of bloomers), until one gets stuck and brings the sail to the boat, and Mickey watches the odd sight of dancing bloomers as the seagull tries to escape. As it flies away, Mickey spots land and tricks a swordfish into pushing his boat to shore.
Immediately after landing, Mickey spots food: he crashlanded into a banana tree. He shakes the tree, and then uses a stick to help him bring down the bananas, but the stick acts like a boomerang and sends Mickey flying into the tree, which, fortunately, brings the bananas to the ground. As Mickey tries to eat them, however, he accidentally knocks a spider from its web, and nearly into Mickey’s mouth. The mouse screams at the arachnid, and seemingly forgets about the bananas as he runs to the shoreline.
The cub continues to annoy Mickey as Mickey tries to keep playing the piano
Seeing a crate, Mickey tries to retrieve it before the tide comes in, but the tide ends up washing Mickey and the crate further inland. The crate breaks open on a rock, revealing a very soggy piano. Mickey empties the piano of the excess water, sits down, and begins to play, accompanied by three nearby seals. A tiger cub also hears the music and comes out to help Mickey play, but Mickey knocks the cub aside. The cub then tries to use Mickey’s tail as an instrument, but Mickey won’t have it and places the cub in a nearby tree.
The music also gets the attention of a gorilla nearby, and Mickey lets the gorilla play the piano with its feet. Unfortunately, the gorilla gets a little too rough with the piano, and Mickey tries to stop the animal from completely destroying it, with no success. As Mickey grabs a rock to throw at the gorilla, it turns around, and Mickey pretends to perform a few tricks with it before showing it a nervous smile.
Mickey leaps into the air, as the lion leaps into the open mouth of the alligator
Mickey drops the rock onto the back of a sleeping lion, who begins to chase the frightened mouse. After jumping into a river and laughing at the roaring lion on the riverbank, Mickey thinks he’s home free, not spotting the alligator ready to eat him right behind his back. Stuck between the two dangers, Mickey leaps into the air as the lion leaps to attack. The lion ends up getting swallowed by the alligator, and Mickey cheers. The rock he’s standing on moves, however, and he finds himself riding downstream on the back of a tortoise. Mickey gives a friendly salute to the audience, and waves as he drifts away.
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