The Whalers
The Whalers
NR | 19 August 1938 (USA)
The Whalers Trailers

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are crewing a whaling ship. Their mishaps include Donald fighting off some hungry birds, Mickey and a bucket of water that keeps doing a boomerang impression, and Goofy firing the cannon and getting stuck high in the air, and ultimately inside a whale. And when he lands the whale well, let's just say they're gonna need a bigger boat.

Reviews
BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
John T. Ryan MADE AT WHAT was possibly the zenith of the Disney "Team-Up" cartoon shorts. The sub-genre is exemplified with such titles as THE CLOCK CLEANERS, ALPINE CLIMBERS, LONESOME GHOSTS and HAWAIIAN HOLIDAY. Although these short subjects featured ample on-screen time by all of the trio (and sometimes Minnie, herself), they were officially MICKEY MOUSE Cartoons and belonged to that series.AS WAS THE case with others like it, THE WHALERS zeroed in on a particular occupation, activity or other area of human endeavor and went from there. Usually the early sequences of the cartoon would feature Mickey, Donald or Goofy isolated in solo activity against any one of a topically specific adversary. After each character does his time in she spotlight, the action switches to their joint efforts and how they ultimately wrap it all up.KNOWING THAT THE sensitivities of our people were far different in the pre-war year of 1938 than today in the 21st Century. Therefore, the subject of Whaling as a livelihood or even an Industry would generate little or no opposition as to its being a fit topic for "family viewing." The notions of Animal Rights, potentially Endangered Species and ecological co-dependence were a long way off.IN THE PARTICULAR case of this short the trio is challenged by their equipment, some frisky sea-birds, the weather and ultimately a semi-anthropomorphic Sperm Whale. And this is indeed the only whale to make an on-screen appearance.OTHER THAN THESE truly minor criticisms, we must say that THE WHALERS is enjoyable and quite lively. The color work is rich and a fine example of how the animation art had advanced in the past decade. Likewise, the musical scored had made similar strides in keeping up with the visual aspects.ALTHOUGH WE MUST put this to the rear of the class of the team-ups, it isn't so far back as to render it unfit. After all, Schultz, whenever there is any sort of classification or grouping, there will be some who are fetter than the others and some who aren't quite as funny, action-filed or "classy" even! ONE INTERESTING FACT that we must make note of concerns the cast of Voice Actors. While Clarence Nash did his best Donald Duck and Pinto Colvig did likewise for Goofy, Mickey's lot in this film was to remain silent throughout. It must have been that the Mouse had a special guy to create his dialog, a highly exclusive man indeed. And his name was........drum roll.............WALT Disney!WE CAN ONLY surmised that Uncle Walt was unavailable, due to some important business to take care of (Schultz says maybe Mr. Disney was playing hookie that day!)
Michael_Elliott The Whalers (1938)*** (out of 4) Charming animated short from Disney has Mickey, Donald and Goofy out on the open sea where the goal is to capture a whale. They end up finding one but things don't go as planned especially when Goofy winds up inside the whale. THE WHALERS is a pretty good short from Disney and while it's certainly no classic it at least has enough good moments to where fans should enjoy it. Needless to say, the highlight is when Goofy winds up inside the whale where he must try and be creative to get out. In reality this is mainly a Goofy and Donald short because Mickey only has two small scenes and he doesn't say a word throughout.
OllieSuave-007 This is a cartoon that features, in a rare move, all three of Disney's biggest stars: Mickey, Donald and Goofy. They work on a ship and each run into scores of mishaps. Mickey couldn't get his bucket of water to dump into the ocean; Donald's can't have a moment's peace during his lunch break; and Goofy is having trouble firing a cannon. Things get worse when they run into a whale that resembles Monstro from Pinocchio.It's a story full of slapstick comedy and misadventures. Good for laughs but I think it leaves you wishing that the three guys would get a break from all the misfortune once in a while. Even though this is labeled a Mickey Mouse cartoon, he doesn't have any dialog in the short and Donald and Goofy take more center stage in the plot. In addition, the animation is great and the voice talents of Clarence Nash and Pinto Colvig brought charm and uniqueness to the characters.Grade B
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "The Whalers" is an 8-minute color cartoon from over 75 years ago. This one was released a year before the beginning of World War II. The directors are David Hand and Dick Huemer and this duo worked on some of Disney's most known films from back in the day such as "Dumbo", "Alice in Wonderland", "Fantasia", "Bambi" and "Snow White". So I was a bit disappointed by this short film here, especially also as Colvig, Nash and Disney reunited for the voice acting. But the story simply wasn't too interesting and the jokes and slapstick weren't that great here either. The only thing slightly memorable was the Jonah reference about Goofy here. The rest is fairly forgettable and there are many other superior Disney short films from that era, also some of them including the same trio just like this one. Check out another is my suggestion. Oh and a final word about whaling. This is obviously a very cruel and unacceptable activity, but people did not perceive it this way in the 1930s I guess. Well, it's fine anyway as our three heroes here are far too incompetent to ever succeed in that profession.