The Cactus Kid
About The Cactus Kid
Mickey rides Horace Horsecollar up to a Mexican cantina where Minnie is the waitress. He plays the spoons and dances. He tweaks her nose. She answers in Spanish and throws lamps and bottles. A silly dance and the piano win her back. Peg-Leg Pete comes in, takes her arm, drinks the beer, and asks for a kiss. Mickey and Pete draw. The lights go out. Pete rides off with Minnie on a donkey. Mickey is dragged behind Horace through the cactus. He jumps onto the donkey, punches Pete, and Pete falls off a cliff under a boulder. Mickey, Minnie, and Horace wave at what is left of him.
Cast & crew
More about The Cactus Kid
Walt Disney directed and produced it, and speaks Mickey and Pete. Marcellite Garner speaks Minnie. Norm Ferguson animated it. Columbia Pictures released it on 10 May 1930. It runs 7 minutes 25 seconds. It is the eighteenth Mickey short, the third of 1930. It is the first short with Garner as Minnie, the first Mickey cartoon in which Pete has a peg leg, and the last Mickey short Disney directed for the next five years. The copyright was renewed on 16 December 1957. It entered the public domain on 1 January 2026.
Themes
Making
Disney directed this one himself, then left the Mickey shorts to other directors. Garner's first Minnie is the waitress who throws the bottles.
Music
Carl Stalling wrote the score. The cantina numbers include La Paloma and the can-can. Walt Disney speaks Mickey and Pete. Marcellite Garner speaks Minnie.
Preservation
A print survives. The short entered the public domain on 1 January 2026.
Notes
- Pete is billed in the action as Peg-Leg Pedro.
- Horace is the horse. Pete's mount is a donkey.
- Tunes used include La Paloma, España, La Sorella, and the can-can.
- A later home-video edition is Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume 2.
Scenes
- Minnie pelts Mickey with lamps and bottles.
- The lights go out and Pete and Mickey shoot.
- Pete goes off the cliff and a boulder lands on him.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Cactus Kid (1930).webm)
