This is an average cartoon where Mickey and a band of firefighters try to extinguish a burning apartment building, while trying to help its residents escape. Mickey tries to save Minnie, after spectacularly failing to extinguish part of the flames.The characters getting ready to exit the firehouse and onto the fire scene was pretty entertaining. But, Mickey's inability to extinguish the flames was a letdown. Grade C+

This is an early Disney Mickey Mouse short. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a rather funny short with Mickey, Horace and quite a few others as fire fighters. The insurance rates there must be through the roof, because they're pretty lousy at fighting fires.You get the standard gags about sliding down poles at the station, with some cute bits with a ladder thrown in. They race to the fire but only Mickey makes it there and he's having a rough time.Mickey discovers that Minnie is in the building and immediately focuses on saving here and forgets that the building is on fire! We then get the typical jokes found in animated shorts of the 1920s-30s about rescuing people from burning buildings and Minnie is ultimately saved. The animation is good and the gags are funny.This short is available on the Mickey Mouse In Black and White Disney Treasures DVD set and is well worth tracking down. Recommended.

My favorite Mickey cartoons are the ones which are more story and character focused rather than the ones which seem to be mildly entertaining musical numbers with a little bit of plot sandwiched in-between. I also love it when Mickey plays the hero and has to use his cunning and bravery to get out of situations. He's much more interesting when this side is allowed to be shown in addition to his everyman personality. All of this can be found in "The Fire Fighters".The story is simple: Mickey and his motley crew of firefighters have to stop a fire in an apartment building, as well as rescue Minnie who's stuck on the top floor. There's plenty of great gags packed in there. The pacing is tight; this cartoon never once drags like the more musical-themed ones do. And the ending is very cute, showing why Mickey and Minnie are such an adorable couple (which makes me wonder why they have yet to tie the knot). Anyways, great cartoon. Watch it.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.Chief Mickey & Horace Horsecollar are two of THE FIRE FIGHTERS who respond to save Miss Minnie from a blazing conflagration.A fun, rather frantic, little black & white film. Music mavens will recognize "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight" as the engine speeds to the fire. Walt Disney supplies Mickey's voice; look fast to spot Clarabelle Cow among the bystanders. The Disney artists deliver the requisite number of udder & bloomer gags.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.