Brave Little Tailor


Brave Little Tailor is a 1938 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. 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 features original music by Albert Hay Malotte. The voice cast includes Walt Disney as Mickey, Marcellite Garner as Minnie, 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 Disney's own Ferdinand the Bull. In 1994 it was chosen as the 26th greatest cartoon of all time by members of the animation field. The list was compiled in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons.

Plot

Set during the Middle Ages in Europe, a king is seeking a brave warrior to kill a giant which has been terrorizing the small kingdom. There is much discussion in the village, but no one is willing to take on the task. Nearby in the same village, a young peasant tailor kills seven flies at once while at his work, and accidentally interjects several other peasants' discussion of the problems with the giant to brag loudly about his accomplishment:
Gossip that Mickey has killed seven giants with one blow quickly spreads around the kingdom. The king summons him, and asks if he really "killed seven at one blow". He goes into an elaborate retelling of how he killed the seven, which impresses the king enough to appoint him "Royal High Killer of the Giant". Upon learning the misunderstanding, all of his confidence disappears and he attempts to stammer his way out of the assignment. The king offers him both vast riches and the hand of his only daughter, Princess Minnie, in marriage if he can kill the giant. Smitten with Minnie, he proclaims that he'll "cut down to my size", and sets off for the giant's lair.
After only a few minutes, however, he is ready to turn back and give up, but the townspeople and Minnie are counting on him. "Gosh," Mickey sighs to himself, wondering what to do. "I dunno how to catch a giant."
Just then, the evil giant appears, forcing Mickey to scramble for a place to hide while the giant crushes a mountain, a forest, and a house. He sits down on a barn and eats a cart of pumpkins and gets a case of the hiccups from eating too much, drinks some water, and rolls a cigarette from a haystack Mickey was hiding in, and leans on a silo to relax as Mickey briefly ends up in his mouth but escapes. Mickey is caught in the giant's cigarette, and gives his hiding place away by accidentally sneezing. The giant attempts to squash him, but Mickey quickly produces a needle and thread and binds the giant's limbs. With the needle and thread, Mickey swings about the giant, sewing him up and causing him to fall and knock himself out. The giant subdued, Mickey returns home and is hailed as a hero. An amusement park is built on the site of the battle. 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 working for Walt Disney who casts him for the film. The comic has Mac MacCorker as the fictional director of the film. 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. 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.

Trivia

The film was released on the Mickey Mouse in Living Color DVD collection in the Walt Disney Treasures.
It was included on the 2018 Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo compilation.