Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in 'The Turkey Catchers'

A look through our archives brought me to this Thanksgiving favorite!

It's another holiday, and another Disney animated short film. I went hunting for something to help celebrate Thanksgiving and discovered that in 1938 Walt Disney went through a lengthy pre-production on a cute piece entitled 'Pilgrim Mickey' that never got off of the ground and was canceled by the spring of 1939.

Concept Art from Pilgrim Mickey

The film was to open with a shot of a settler's cabin; Mickey appears to be wrestling with an Indian Chief in a warbonnet, but he's actually just using a feather duster to illustrate the tale he's telling his nephews. When he goes hunting, he mistakes an Indian's headdress for a turkey's tail and gets captured. Significantly, his nephews rescue him. - Charles Solomon, The Disney That Never Was

Such a pity that it was canceled, I like the synopsis and would have loved to see Walt's touch on the holiday. Never deterred, in my quest to provide you with interesting nuggets of Disney fun, I continued my hunt to discover that some 60 years later Mickey and friends were finally celebrate Thanksgiving! A relatively new addition to the cannon of Mickey shorts, 'The Turkey Catchers' debuted in 1999 on the TV show 'Mickey's Mouse Works' and then appeared later on 'House of Mouse' in 2002. This fun little short has a typical chase theme, and shows Mickey, Donald and Goofy as they are hired by an uppity pilgrim to go hunting for the holiday bird.

All of us at Walt Disney World For Grown-ups, wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We hope that your day is full of blessings, loved ones, and that you didn't have to go through this much trouble to enjoy your own holiday bird. What did you think of this Mickey Short? Classic or Campy? Leave a comment and let us know.