A Giant Story to Tell

Moving away from the castle, we start into the Kingdom of Fantasyland itself, where we come upon the second half of Sir Mickey's. This is the village tailor's shop, taking its inspiration from the Mickey Mouse short cartoons "The Brave Little Tailor" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk."

From the outside, we see that the beanstalk which grew that night when Mickey dropped the magic beans on the ground is alive and well, pushing up through the cottage and reaching skyward. The monster vine has even ripped the Sir Mickey's sign off the front of the building and is starting to carry it along.

Inside are many more references to the two stories (completely different from one another, save for the fact that both include a giant). Above the door is a painting of Happy Valley, where Mickey and the gang live in "Mickey and the Beanstalk." As the story goes, once the giant was vanquished all the residents of Happy Valley were "valley" happy. The keys found in the shop also reference this story and Mickey, Donald and Goofy's attempt to rescue the singing harp.

From "The Brave Little Tailor" come the props that help set the scene of the village tailor's shop: scissors, needle, thread, ribbon. Even the hands of the clock are blades from a pair of scissors.

The front window gives us a peek into Mickey's tailoring workshop. Of course, if we need something mended, we're out of luck. It seems Mickey is out giant hunting. He no doubt got roped into the job. Probably shouldn't have bragged so much about killing seven with one blow (especially since he meant flies and not giants).

Ducking back inside, we might just be lucky enough to catch Mickey before he heads up the beanstalk. If he's paying attention, though, he'll realize he doesn't have to go far. The giant has come down to pay him a visit.

Lifting up the roof and peeking into the cottage is Willie the giant himself. Willie made his first appearance in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of Fun & Fancy Free (1947). Later, he took on a much friendlier role as the Ghost of Christmas Present in the animated featurette "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), where he walked through the village lifting up rooftops just as he's seen doing here.