On Ice, a "Mickey Mouse" from 1935, begins with the kind of spectacle that only a top-flight animation studio like Disney could concoct - a big frozen lake with carefree characters skating, gliding, and sliding in the foreground, middle ground, and background. Many of Disney's most appealing critters are among them.

As the cartoon proceeds we see Mickey teaching Minnie Mouse to skate, Horace Horsecollar twirling a partner, Goofy fishing through a hole in the ice - with chewing tobacco as bait, something you'd never find today - and Donald Duck causing trouble by putting skates on Pluto's paws while he's asleep and tricking him onto the ice, where the poor pooch can only slip and fall. Donald gets what's coming to him when he raises his skating speed by attaching himself to a kite, then gets blown straight to a waterfall and almost goes over the edge; rescued in the knick of time by Mickey's skillful skating, he gets dunked in the lake and pops back up through the fishing hole between Pluto and Goofy, both of whom are delighted at his comeuppance. So is the audience.

By David Sterritt