Disney's cows, the mouse, and the modernist moment

Abstract

Walt Disney's early cartoons, particularly his early Mickey Mouse efforts, have often been criticized for their earthiness and especially for what is commonly referred to as their barnyard humour. That element is seen as a sign of these cartoons’ rather primitive level of appeal, far removed from the modernist impulse typically located in the popular Felix the Cat, KoKo the Clown, and Krazy Kat cartoons of this era. Moreover, that primitive element has justified students in focusing largely on the Disney films’ technological distinction, their successful introduction of sound into the animated cartoon. Yet that barnyard element, and especially the recurrent emphasis on cows and their udders, outhouses and bared rear ends, can also help us to see Disney's - and the Mouse's - own relationship to that modernist impulse. For in these early cartoons, particularly those done between 1928 and 1932, we can see a version of what French sociologist Bruno Latour has described as the ‘struggle’ to become modern, a struggle in which, he claims, we have often failed because of our tendency to bracket off the natural world, to see it as totally distinct from culture. These films, however, repeatedly present us with gags that are built around the very unavoidability of the natural and the inevitable links between nature and culture. While that barnyard humour is generally quite funny, then, it can also provide us with an often overlooked measure of Disney's place in early animation and a further key to his mouse's appeal.