THE COUNTRY COUSIN (1936)
Article 5221 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 8-3-2016
Directed by Wilfred Jackson
No voice cast
Country: USA
What it is: Disney Silly Symphony

A country mouse is invited to the city by his posh cousin to discover a world of plenty as well as a world of stress and fear.

One of the things I really like about many of the Disney cartoons is the degree to which the animated creations are given personality and character. Both the city mouse and the country mouse here are given their own distinct set of mannerisms, and much of the humor of the cartoon is character driven. This is actually quite a feat when you consider that there is no dialogue to the cartoon; the characters are developed through body language, with a bit of help from the musical score. Initially, it looked like it was going to be an early variation of the “Tom and Jerry” plot, but it’s quite a ways into the cartoon before the feline appears and it only remains in the action for about a minute. My favorite segment of the cartoon is near the end, where the country mouse ends up out on the street at the mercy of the city, and ends up being terrorized by free-floating blaring horns among other things. Sure, the country mouse/city mouse concept is pretty old, but Disney does a solid and satisfying job with it. I liked this one.