Brave Little Tailor
Brave Little Tailor is a 1938 American animated short film produced by Walt [Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions] and released by RKO Radio Pictures, being shown in theaters with Fugitives for a Night. It is an adaptation of the fairy tale The Valiant Little Tailor with Mickey Mouse in the title role. It was directed by Bill Roberts and Burt Gillett and features original music by Albert Hay Malotte. The voice cast includes Walt Disney as Mickey, and Eddie Holden as the Giant. It was the 103rd short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the fifth for that year.
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for [Best Animated Short Film] at the 11th Academy Awards in 1939 but lost to Ferdinand the Bull, another short by Disney. In 1994, it was listed as the 26th greatest cartoon of all time by members of the animation field in a list compiled for the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons.
Plot
A king is seeking a brave warrior to kill a giant who has been terrorizing his small kingdom. There is much discussion in the village, but no one is willing to take on the task. While this is happening, a young peasant tailor kills seven flies at once while at his work. He unknowingly interrupts a conversation among several other peasants about the problems with the giant to brag loudly that he has "killed seven with one blow!"Gossip that Mickey has killed seven giants with one blow quickly spreads around the kingdom. The king summons him and appoints him "Royal High Killer of the Giant", offering him vast riches and the hand of his only daughter, Princess Minnie, in marriage if he can kill, or at least subdue, the giant. Smitten with Minnie, Mickey accepts and sets off, but he doesn't know how to catch a giant.
The giant appears and Mickey, terrified, runs and jumps into the nearest place he can hide - a cart of pumpkins. The giant notices the pumpkins and settles down for a snack. He takes a handful and tosses them into his mouth, including Mickey. Before he can tumble down the giant's throat, Mickey latches onto his uvula, which gives the giant a case of the hiccups. To remedy this, the giant pulls a water well from the ground and drinks from it. Mickey is saved from drowning in the giant's stomach by getting caught by the well's bucket.
The reprieve is short-lived, however, as the giant almost immediately grabs the haystack in which Mickey seeks refuge and rolls it into a cigar before lighting it. The smoke makes Mickey sneeze, which finally brings him to the attention of the giant. The giant, after getting poked in the nose with a pair of scissors, attempts to squash Mickey, who crawls up his huge sleeve, cutting a hole in it. The giant pushes his hand through to catch him, but Mickey sews up the hole, trapping the giant's hand. Mickey swings around the monster with thread, tying him up. He trips up the giant who falls to the ground with a huge crash, knocking him out.
Following the giant's defeat, an amusement park is built on the site of the battle. The carnival rides are powered, via a series of belts and gears connected to a windmill, by wind from the snoring giant, who is chained to the ground. The film ends with the king and a newly married Mickey and Minnie enjoying a ride on the carousel.
Adaptations
From August 28 to November 27, 1938, the Mickey Mouse comic strip published 14 Sunday newspaper comics retelling the story under the title The Brave Little Tailor. This version was bookended by segments showing the "real" Mickey Mouse as an actor who is cast by Walt Disney to appear in the film. The comic has Mac MacCorker as the fictional director of the short. Goofy also appears in these scenes and, after the wrap he is wearing the same clothes he wore in the short film The Whalers, which was released the month before Tailor. The story was written by Merrill De Maris and drawn by Manuel Gonzales and Floyd Gottfredson, with inking by Ted Thwaites.In 1985, Bantam Books published a children's book called Mickey Meets the Giant which featured Mickey encountering the same giant as the one in this short. This version was somewhat more faithful to the original fairy tale, maintaining that the tailor fools the giant by apparently beating him in feats of strength.