*WARNING: This review of the new Disney short ‘Get a Horse’ contains spoilers! If you don’t want to get spoiled, don’t read this review and wait until you’ve seen the short in theatres before Frozen*
Monday we uploaded our mini review of Frozen, I got the chance to see it at an exclusive early press screening November 4th. Before Frozen I also saw the new Disney short Get a Horse that will be shown in theatres in front of Frozen and the short really surprised me.
So Get a Horse is a very special short. It is not only the first hand drawn Mickey Mouse short that will be in theatres since a very long time but it also features Walt Disney himself as Mickey Mouse. Original voice recordings of Walt Disney were found in the Disney archives that are used in a short. The next thing that makes this short very special is that it’s not only hand drawn, but it also contains CGI.
When the short started it looked just like old Mickey Mouse cartoons, such as Steamboat Willie. Because the short is black and white and because it has the same animation style and character designs they used back then. After a few minutes I discovered this short was very different from the old cartoons. It started with a few 3D effects but later I discovered the short was a mix of CGI and 2D animation. Mickey and his friends leave the 2D world and come inside the cinema (CGI world), it looked pretty cool and I liked this switch in the story. When Mickey and all the other characters come inside the cinema they use a lot of cool 3D effect such as characters that are coming out of the screen etc.
Even though this short didn’t have an amazing story like Paperman, I still liked it. This short wasn’t made to touch people, but it was made to entertain people and to make em’ laugh and I did! It was very surprising and I hope Disney keeps surprising people, they did it with Paperman and again with Get a Horse. Will they use these techniques in future films? Is the only question I have.
This short also featured great music, again not as beautiful as the Paperman short but it was a lot like the old cartoons and it matched this short perfectly. The music is composed by Mark Watters, he also worked on Disney sequels and Disney TV shows. This score is not really a score you’ll listen in your car or when you’re cooking because some the score contains a lot of sound effects, for that reason it won’t be as magical to listen to if you’re not watching the short.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw965Xye8Rk]
Disney did a terrific job on animating this short and keeping secret this was a mix of 2D and CG animation, because when Mickey came out the screen I loved this short even more. The 2D animation is like i said before amazing, it looks like it’s a short from the 1920s, just a little cleaner. I’m really happy the CG characters aren’t the designs of Mickey and the other characters as you will see them nowadays in the Disney Parks, on TV or on merchandise. If they did that I would’ve been very confusion so im happy they didn’t. Though the 3D characters that were used, were pretty distracting as well. Not because they are ugly, but because animation can have so much details nowadays and it looked too simple, but im already glad they used the same designs as the 2D world.
Conclusion:
Disney’s Get a Horse is a great short. It features everything a Mickey Mouse short should contain; beloved characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pete and Horace, great music, a fun storyline and amazing animation. The animation twist was fun and unexpected. I would’ve loved it if this short was just a regular Mickey short because it would’ve been a great way to introduce the classic Mickey shorts to the younger audience, but I’m already glad the entire thing wasn’t CG. If you’re not exited for Frozen (something I can’t imagine) and you’re not planning on seeing it (Another thing I can’t imagine) at least go and see it in theatres to see this short, and if you have the chance to choose. Go and see it in 3D!
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Disney’s Get a Horse will be released in theatres November 27th in front of Frozen.
Also read our mini-review of Disney’s Frozen here.
