SUMMARY: In a town terrorised by a giant, Mickey Mouse is a tailor whose boast that he killed seven flies with one blow is misinterpreted and leads to him taking on the giant single-handedly.
WHY IT’S HERE: ‘Brave Little Tailor’ is one of the all-time classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. Based on the Grimm Fairy Tale, it see Mickey pitted against a giant who is terrorising a town. The set up, in which Mickey’s achievement of killing seven flies with one blow is completely misinterpreted by the desperate townsfolk, is superb and the battle with the giant is inspired. This is Disney at its best, concisely packing lots of plot into seven minutes without sacrificing any of the studios trademark touches. Casting Mickey as the lead in this tale was a masterstroke. Mickey seemed to be a character that writers struggled to find material for, particularly in all-out comedy shorts. But as the hero of David and Goliath stories like this one, in which the adventure is as important as the laughs, he was the perfect lead.
