February 5th, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
Like so much over the past year, the Super Bowl this weekend will be a much different experience, but it will still bring with it some traditions that don’t change: a large television audience, much-discussed commercials and mounds of buffalo wings, pizzas and nachos.
To help set the mood for all that’s coming to this Sunday evening’s epically-long televised event, consider spending some time with classic cartoons that, through the years, have celebrated football.
Touchdown Mickey, Disney (1932)
Mickey Mouse, in his younger, black and white days with his vintage look and button eyes, must lead his football team, named “Mickey’s Manglers,” and square off against the rough and tumble Alley Cats in this cartoon short.
Mickey appeared in this only four years after his debut and this short features the quaint and comfortable animation from the Disney Studio’s early days.
Sight gags, such as a player rolling down the field and flattening other players like pancakes, are somewhat predictable and filled with the repetitious animation of this era.
The short also features Minnie and Pluto, as well as a very early version of Goofy. Like many of Disney’s earliest work, there is an innocence to Touchdown Mickey, not just in how far its star has come, but especially when considering that just five years later, the Studio would bring us the first full-length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The Football Toucher Downer, Fleischer (1937)
This could almost be considered “Popeye Babies,” as we get to see kid versions of Popeye, Olive, Wimpy and Bluto in this short.
The Fleischer Bowl
Of course, little Popeye’s Team is being slaughtered by little Bluto’s to the point that Popeye is flattened and forced to pull out his spinach, after which he literally turns into a “one-man team,” single handedly beating Bluto’s bunch.
We then come back to Popeye finishing his story time with Swea Pea and the baby is so inspired that not only does he eat his spinach, he knocks out Popeye and sings “I’m strong to the ‘finach’, ‘cause I eat my spinach, like Popeye the sailor man,” which concludes the short.
Filled with the full animation and creative sight gags that were hallmarks of the Fleischer Studio, The Football Toucher Downer also remains true to the character of Popeye and the other characters, even in their “younger years.” At one point, he casually hands the ball to Bluto and lets his teammates tackle him. While Wimpy, who is scorekeeper and uses an inventive contraption that allows him to erase and add to the scoreboard.
In all, the short is an entertaining six minutes in which the cartoon and football worlds collide…literally!
Screwball Football, Warner Bros. (1939)
From the brilliant Tex Avery comes this Merrie Melodies cartoon about the “Chili Bowl Football Classic” and it bears the legendary director’s fingerprints all over it.
It’s a “stand alone” cartoon, populated by anthropomorphic animals, playing in this big game, that’s filled with Avery’s trademark literal humor: When the game announcers state that there is a “colorful crowd,” we see a crowd who are all dressed in the same color and when we are told that the stadium is “filled to overflowing,” soon the crowd is spilling out of the stadium like a giant, full cup.
Down on the field, one player uses another like a golf club to “kick” a football and when it’s announced that another player is about to “get it in the end zone,” that’s exactly what happens.
And the conclusion truly branches into a new realm of cartoon violence. Throughout the short, there is a running gag of a spectator in the stands looking to steal an ice cream from a toddler sitting nearby.
When the announcer declares “and there’s the gun ending the game,” we cut back to the crowd to see that the toddler has shot the man who had been attempting to steal his ice cream!
Well… many have said that football IS a violent sport!
How to Play Football, Disney (1944)
Satire is sharp and on full display here in this classic “Goofy How To” short subject. Of all the shorts that the character was a part of during this time period, this is one is filled with not only great animation, but also a pointed, humorous look at the game.
In How to Play Football, the teams “Anthropology A&M” go head-to-head with “Taxidermy Tech. As they did in many of these shorts, all of the players seem to look exactly like Goofy, as every stereotype from the “spoiled star player” to the “rabid coach” find themselves lampooned.
Disney shorts director Jack Kinney is at the helm for How to Play Football and brings his knack for choreographing perfect visual sights gags and creatively paced cartoon violence. The short craftily comments on the real-life violence of the game itself, while somehow never letting you forget you’re watching a Goofy cartoon.
Football Now and Then, Disney (1953)
Jack Kinney, also directed this seldom seen entry in the Disney cartoon shorts canon. A “stand alone” short without any of the Studio’s famous stars in it, centers on a grandfather and his grandson who watch a football game between players from “yesteryear” (called “Bygone U.”) and today (“Present State”).
This short also serves as a satirical commentary on the game, as How to Play Football did, but this short sets its sights on sports television. Scenes like one in which the camera literally swoops in for the huddle and another involving a strange commercial for dishwashers that continually interrupts the game, are most definitely a commentary on TV’s role in sporting events.
With timing and humor that doesn’t align with what one would expect from a Disney short subject, Football Now and Then is a that rare, fast-paced (almost Looney Tunes-level) cartoon with a very off-kilter perspective.
So, as you create an indentation in your couch waiting for the Big Game, or the commercials or the half-time show (or if you could care less and would like to avoid it) any or all of these short subjects could prove to be a…Super…way to spend Sunday.
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