Ye Olden Days 1933

Set in medieval Europe, a wandering minstrel named Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney, travels with his donkey Count Cutelli, strumming a lute and singing his own tune. He arrives at a castle and witnesses the king of Kalapazoo declare that his daughter, Princess Minnie Marcellite Garner, shall marry the prince of Poopapadoo—Dippy Dawg Pinto Colvig. Yet Minnie does not love the prince at all, and she slaps him three times in clear rejection. The king, furious at his daughter’s defiance, orders his knights to exclaim the cruel command: “Lock her in the attic!”

Lock her in the attic!

Minnie and her loyal servant Clarabelle Cow are both taken away, confined to a scarcely hopeful attic chamber. Concerned for his beloved, Mickey climbs a tree near the attic tower and watches as Minnie and Clarabelle sob, wondering if there’s any chance of escape. Minnie’s tears mingle with her quiet faith that someone will come to rescue her, and she moments of hope when Mickey softly begins to sing a ballad of courage just for her. Minnie, catching his tune through the stone walls, tosses a flower toward the source of the music, a subtle sign that she believes in a savior.

With a determined resolve, Mickey finds a route to reach the imprisoned princess. He reaches a window by riding a catapulted bird’s nest, but discovers there isn’t a rope to descend. While the king indulges in the wedding feast elsewhere, Mickey seizes an improvised chance: he uses a clothes rope fashioned from Clarabelle’s garments, even as Clarabelle herself sits in a barrel, momentarily exposed to danger. The two lovers swing down partway, but a sharp-eyed king spots them and orders their immediate arrest. The court responds with a grim decree: Mickey is to be executed by guillotine.

Minnie, full of love and resolve, pleads for Mickey’s life, declaring her true feelings for him. Seeing her sincerity—and perhaps sensing entertainment for the crowd—the king offers a test: a duel between Mickey and the prince to win Minnie’s hand. The stage is set: Mickey dons a makeshift armor of a stove and helmet, saddled atop his faithful donkey, while the prince wears proper armor and rides a real horse.

The clash unfolds with chaotic humor and slapstick prowess. Both combatants are catapulted from their mounts and crash into walls. The prince charges with a spear, but Mickey dodges and even uses a small guillotine to foil the attack. Seizing the momentum, Mickey wields the spear to poke at the prince, while their mounts spar with each other in a comic melee. The donkey retaliates by biting the horse’s hind, sending the horse colliding into a wall and toppled by a fallen portrait of the king, which knocks the regal figure unconscious. With the duel decided, Mickey is declared the victor as the prince escapes through a window.

In a swift turn of affection, Minnie leans toward the triumphant minstrel, and a kiss is exchanged between the couple as the crowd’s cheers swell. The two lovers ride away on the donkey, escorted by the jubilant onlookers who carry them toward the exit. The tale wraps in a tender, romantic glow as Mickey and Minnie share a private kiss behind a decorative fan, sealing their escape and the beginning of their unlikely, enduring bond.