Classic Shorts Showcase: The Prince and The Pauper

As promised, here is the next  Mickey short that I'll be taking a look at on Classic Shorts Showcase.  First up, the trailer.

The Plot

This short on the now famous tale penned by English author and humorist, Mark Twain.  Granted some liberties are taken with the story to accomdate to the characters but the main concept of the story is still intact and it works well here. 

Narration 

Narrator - Roy Dotrice

Now the narration for this short is a bit unique in that it feels more like a narration for a Disney film and not a short as the narration is only used to open and close the short. Though the narrator did do a good job to set up and close out the short.  Other than that there really isn't much to say about the narration save for the fact that it reminded of older Disney films. 

Characters

Now one of the funny things about this short is that a lot of the voice actors pulled double duty.  Sure Wayne Allwine played both Prince Mickey and Pauper Mickey but many others pulled double duty such as Bill Farmer who voiced both Goofy, Pluto and Horace Horsecollar.   Per standard from I'll be breaking this down into main, supporting and villains.

Main Characters

Pauper Mickey voiced by Wayne Allwine

Pauper Mickey as I'll call him to differentiate him from Prince Mickey was the typical Mickey who always wanted to look on the bright side and even though he is poor, he knows that one day things will be better.  Pauper Mickey gets this chance when Pluto runs into the castle and there he clashes into Prince Mickey and they decide to switch lives. Pauper Mickey as I said is a happy go luck kind of guy and he is just the usual Mickey Mouse character. 

Prince Mickey also voiced by Wayne Allwine 

Now Prince Mickey finds his life as a prince to be a bit of a bore and wonders what life outside the castle would be like.  When he meets Pauper Mickey, he gets the chance to explore life and at first he has had a first time adjusting to life because he is used to people doing things for him.  Though he gets past that fast and outside the castle he sees what the captain has been doing with stealing in the king's name.  Prince Mickey is a noble gentlemen who while bored by his life but he is willing to stand up for beliefs such as when he stops the guards from stealing food.  Prince Mickey  is really just a royal version of Mickey.  Though he is an enjoyable character. That's the thing with most of these characters while they are part of this story, they are just being themselves.

Supporting Characters

Goofy voiced by Bill Farmer

Here again , Goofy is his usual self but he comes to save the day as seen in this picture.  Just like Pauper Mickey, he is poor and down on his luck but he also knows that there will be a better day ahead.  Rightly so, he is a bit confused when Prince Mickey comes out of the castle dressed up as Pauper Mickey.  Though Goofy is a good character and  he works well as a side character and I actually think he is better developed in this short than some other things that I have seen him in. Not the best character development for him, no that would have to be A Goofy Movie but still not bad.  It's funny last week I said that Donald overshadowed Goofy with the humor, I actually think the opposite is true here because they kind of notch up the goofiness of Goofy. 

Donald voiced by Tony Anselmo

Here again, Donald was his usual self.  Hot tempered and easily ticked off. Though it is shown that Prince Mickey likes messing with him.  I find that to be understandable because as I said Prince Mickey is bored with his life. Though this does get Donald in trouble with Horace.  I will say that this short did one thing that looking back now I thought was pretty smart in that the short actually split the supporting characters with the two different Mickey's meaning that in this universe Goofy and Donald had never meant each other. Though I'm not exactly sure that I would want Goofy to be the person saving me. Though I'll take what I can get. 

Horace Horsecollar also voiced by Bill Farmer

Now I can't say how different Horace was from his original character because this was actually the first short that I saw Horace ever in.  Also from what I know of the character, Horace is meant to be an everyman type character that could take on any role. In this short, Horace takes on the role of mentor for Prince Mickey.  He seems to take his job rather seriously. Out of all of the characters I actually found Horace to be the least likable and the voice they gave him for this role while it was different from Goofy as Bill Farmer was also the voice of Goofy was just so stereo typically bland. I don't know if they were going to Ben Stein from Ferris Buller's Day  Off kind of voice but that is what it seemed like and I actually found his voice to be a bit grating at times.  Now I'm not saying the voice didn't work for the role they put Horace in but they could have come up with something else and it wouldn't have been so annoying.

Pluto also voiced by Bill Farmer

Now just as with most of the other characters, Pluto wasn't changed all that much.   He was still the lovable and loyal companion.  Though Pluto does play quite an important role as he is the one that leads Pauper Mickey into the castle when he runs into it and he is also the one that helps the others figure out which Mickey is which.  Now he is also kidnapped by Captain Pete to  make sure that while Pauper Mickey pretends to be the prince, he'll do anything that he says.  So yeah, Pluto indirectly sets the story in motion and introduces our two lead characters to each other. That counts for something but I actually think Pluto had the least amount of screen time. Which isn't a bad thing because once the story got going, he wasn't needed all that much. I think he was just used for familiarity purposes. 

Music 

Now you'll have to excuse this video as sadly this is the only one I could find that had the song in it that was in English.  You'll have to fast forward a bit to get to the song but it's near the beginning of the video. So after that, you can stop it.

Live Like a King

This song was always one of my favorite things about this short as a kid because I always this song to be a lot of fun.  Pauper Mickey and Goofy just want a better life because they are tired of being poor and not having any money. Sure, the song is rather short but it does a nice job of setting up the characters of Pauper  Mickey and Goofy.  Again with this song, we get to see the optimistic side of Pauper Mickey and how he feels things will be better. He doesn't know when but he has a feeling and until the meantime he can keep on dreaming about those days.

Villains




The Weasels

The Weasels from Wind In The Willows actually return in this short as they are the guardsmen of the castle. But in reality they are actually the henchmen to Captain Pete.  Now I would say that their role is a bit minor when compared to that of their's in Wind In The Willows.  They do a fine job as the henchmen but in a way, I actually found Pete intimidating enough on his own to where  I thought he overshadowed them and unlike other henchmen that Pete has worked with such as The Beagle Boys, they just didn't gel very well with Pete.  Though it was nice seeing the Weasels in one more short and those of you curious, two of the Weasels appear in Mickey's Christmas Carol as grave diggers.

Captain Pete voiced by Arthur Burghardt 

If anyone were to ask me who my  favorite Disney villain is,  Pete would be my answer. And no, it's not just because Mickey is my favorite Disney character but because I have always enjoyed his character. Honestly, I think Pete is one Disney villain that you both look at is a serious and comedic light.  This shines through quite well in this short too and for the most part,  he is the evil cunning and deceitful Pete that I love as a Disney villain. As stated he steals in the king's name because he can.  In many ways, Pete in this short reminds of a mix of the Sheriff and Prince John from Robin Hood. In that he is causing all of this turmoil and distress but at the same time, he does have moments where you can laugh at him such as during the final fight and his pants fall down to reveal his boxers. Sure that may be an old gag but it still gets a chuckle out of me and I think that it was used well in this short and at the same time I actually found him to be threatening such as when he told Pauper Mickey that if he doesn't do what he says, he'll harm Pluto. Really, it  was nice to see Pete in a threatening role compared to what he is on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and honestly the next role where I found him truly threatening after this was in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers. 

My Final Thoughts

In the end, The Prince and The Pauper is a good short and it still holds up well today. The only two flaws that I could find with this short was that of the voice they gave Horace and I feel that the Weasels just weren't the right choice of henchmen to give to Pete.  Out of the two Mickey shorts, I have looked at, I have more memories of this one as I actually watched this short more than Mickey and The Beanstalk. They are both good in their own right and it's not fair to compare either as both are immensely enjoyable.  As always if you haven't seen this short or you haven't seen it in a while, I'd say give it a watch.  It is a fairly decent short that is a lot of fun and the characters are themselves and they make it work here.  Join me next time when I look at...

Ben and Me.