''Boat Builders'' is an animated short film produced by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

, distributed by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

and released on February 25, 1938. The film was directed by Ben Sharpsteen and animated by Frenchy de Trémaudan, Louie Schmitt, Chuck Couch, Eddie Strickland,

Clyde Geronimi Clito "Clyde" Geronimi (June 12, 1901 – April 24, 1989), known as Gerry, was an American animation director. He is best known for his work at Walt Disney Productions. Biography Geronimi was born in Chiavenna, Kingdom of Italy, Italy, immigrati ...

, Paul Satterfield, Archie Robin, Don Patterson.Boat Builders
. ''www.bcdb.com'', April 12, 2012 It was the 99th short in the ''

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

'' film series to be released, and the first for that year.

Plot

and his friends

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

and

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fe ...

look at a blueprint for a boat made by the Ready-Cut Folding Boat Company (the instructions simply say "All you do is put it together" and "Even a child can do it"). After looking at the blueprints, the trio decide to name the boat the ''Queen Minnie''. First, the three open a box containing the boat's

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

. Afterwards, Mickey encourages the trio to pull a rope to unfold the keel, but when they attempt to get out of the way, the keel catches them (where they repeat the phrases on the blueprint). Mickey places a rectangular box which houses the boat's mast on a slot shaped like the box. He opens it and stands on the mast to pull it up (despite the blueprint warning against standing on the mast while setting it up). The mast stretches up to the sky, with Mickey on it. As Mickey and Donald set up the boat's deckhouse, Goofy hammers in boards at the bow. As he tries to place another one, the board he hammered in springs out to hit him in the back of his head. Making an angry glare, Goofy hammers the board back in, only for another board to spring out and hit him. Goofy hammers the board back to its regular position, but while he tries to get more nails, the board hits him off the dock, where he lands rear end first onto a barrel of nails. As Goofy gets his hat, he reads the word on the barrel and, realizing it contains nails, yelps and jumps up high, where he grabs onto the boat's stem. Donald sits on a board suspended from the boat's

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

as he paints the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

using red paint. Mickey attaches the

ship's wheel A ship's wheel or boat's wheel is a device used aboard a ship, boat, submarine, or airship, with which a helmsman steering, steers the vessel and controls its course (navigation), course. Together with the rest of the steering mechanism, it forms ...

to the helm and turns it, which turns the rudder. Confused upon seeing this, Donald grabs the rudder to try to keep it still while he paints it, which also gives Mickey trouble attempting to turn the ship's wheel. The seat gets wrapped around the rudder, and it hits Donald like a paddle ball toy. The ship's wheel spins out of control, and so does the rudder, causing Donald's seat to get tangled around the rudder. Donald's paintbrush then strikes him in the beak, giving him the appearance of having a mustache. Goofy places a box containing the boat's

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...

and opens it. When he sees its appearance (a mermaid), he thinks the figurehead is a real woman. He then makes gestures to the figurehead, but when it falls, Goofy believes that it fainted and props it up on a chair. He kisses the figurehead and gets sent into a lovestruck state, where he dances to a crate and lies down on it. After Mickey takes the figurehead to bring it to the bow, Goofy notices that it is absent. As Mickey brings the figurehead to the bow, its tailfin gets caught on the boat's whistle cord, which sounds the

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

. Goofy mistakes the whistling for the "lady" calling out to him. As he goes to hug the "lady", he hugs the funnel, causing it to rattle violently and send Goofy into a panicked frenzy where he lands on the boat's

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

. As his clothes hang on the anchor, Goofy gives his thoughts on the "lady". During a ceremony to celebrate the maiden voyage of the ''Queen Minnie'', Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are dressed up as sailors while Anchors Aweigh is played by a

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

. Mickey orders

Minnie Mouse Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. The longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a red or pink bow, blue (or pink or red) polka-dotted dress, w ...

to christen the boat using a champagne bottle, and she does so. However, Minnie appears to have hit the boat a little too hard to get her to set sail, causing the ''Queen Minnie'' to fall apart. The three float on parts of the boat while Mickey repeats the line "All you do is put it together", though Donald then tells him "Ah, phooey!"

Voice cast

* Mickey Mouse:

* Donald Duck: Clarence Nash * Goofy: Pinto Colvig * Minnie Mouse: Leone Ledoux

Releases

* 1938 - original theatrical release * 1957 - ''

The Mickey Mouse Club ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and briefly returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first te ...

'', episode #3.24 (TV) * c. 1972 - '' The Mouse Factory'', episode #1.7: "Water Sports" (TV) * c. 1983 - '' Good Morning, Mickey!'', episode #1 (TV) * 1989 - '' The Magical World of Disney'', episode #33.15: "Mickey's Happy Valentine Special" (TV) * c. 1992 - '' Mickey's Mouse Tracks'', episode #16 (TV) * c. 1992 - '' Donald's Quack Attack'', episode #34 (TV) * 1998 - '' The Ink and Paint Club'', episode #39: "Minnie Mouse" (TV) * 2007 - reissued with 2D version of ''

Meet the Robinsons ''Meet the Robinsons'' is a 2007 American animated science-fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the 1990 children's book ''A Day with Wilbur Robinson'' by William Jo ...

'' (theatrical) * 2011 - ''

Have a Laugh! ''Have a Laugh!'' is an American animated comedy series produced by the Walt Disney Company for the Disney Channel. The series is a set of interstitials, presenting edited versions of classic ''Mickey Mouse'' cartoons that lasted from 2009 to 201 ...

'', episode #25 (TV)

Home media

The short was released on December 4, 2001, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color''. Additional releases include: * 1981 - " Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Cartoon Collections Volume Three" (VHS) * 1989 - "Cartoon Classics: Mickey and the Gang" (VHS) * 2018 - ''Celebrating Mickey'' (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital)

References

External links