Get a Horse!

Get a Horse! (2013) is an animated Disney short you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Lauren MacMullan. Running eight minutes, it screened theatrically before Frozen and picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.

Mickey, Minnie, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow are rolling along on a musical hay wagon when Peg-Leg Pete tries to run them off the road. Standard premise — until the characters start punching through the boundary between the black-and-white hand-drawn world of 1930s Disney and the full-color 3D space of the cinema screen itself, using the frame as a revolving door between two animation eras.

What makes it work is that the gimmick is the story. Mickey's voice comes from archival Walt Disney recordings, which adds a layer of historical weight to something that also has a horse sitting on a villain's face. Eight tight minutes of slapstick that doubles as a love letter to Disney's own history. Stream Get a Horse! (2013) online on iFILM.