Brave Little Tailor

Walt Disney Productions produced a myriad of short subjects over the years. Disney of course first gained world fame with expensive, technically advanced animated films. The nine-minute Brave Little Tailor (1938) is prime work by some of Disney's top animation talent: Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas and Bill Tytla. Director Bill Roberts went un-credited, as did the writers Jack Kinney and Frank Tashlin. Elaborating on a story by the Brothers Grimm, a boastful Mickey Mouse claims he can kill seven flies, and is assigned the job of fighting a real giant. Disney-philes note that Mickey exclaims "Jiminy Cricket!", which would become a character name in the feature Pinocchio (1940). The short subject was brought back many times on television, and its title was echoed in Disney's later feature The Brave Little Toaster (1987). An auction of memorabilia in the 1980s sold a single animation cel with background art from Tailor for a record twenty thousand dollars.