Brave Little Tailor is a 1938 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures, being shown in theaters with Fugitives for a Night. It is an adaptation of the fairy tale The Valiant Little Tailor with Mickey Mouse in the title role. It was directed by Bill Roberts and Burt Gillett and features original music by Albert Hay Malotte. The voice cast includes Walt Disney as Mickey, and Eddie Holden as the Giant. It was the 103rd short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the fifth for that year.
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 11th Academy Awards in 1939 but lost to Ferdinand the Bull, another short by Disney. In 1994, it was listed as the 26th greatest cartoon of all time by members of the animation field in a list compiled for the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons.
A king seeks a warrior to fight a giant terrorizing his kingdom, but no one volunteers. A peasant tailor, Mickey Mouse, kills seven flies at once and boasts that he has killed âÂÂseven with one blow,â leading others to believe he has slain giants. The king summons Mickey and appoints him to defeat the giant, promising riches and the hand of Princess Minnie if he succeeds. Though initially fearful, Mickey accepts the task.
When the giant appears, Mickey hides in a cart of pumpkins and is accidentally swallowed. He causes the giant to hiccup and escapes when the giant drinks from a well. After briefly hiding again, Mickey is discovered and uses his sewing skills to outwit and bind the giant, eventually causing him to fall and lose consciousness.
An amusement park is later built on the site of the battle. The carnival rides are powered by wind from the snoring, captive giant. The king and a newly married Mickey and Minnie are shown riding a carousel.
From August 28 to November 27, 1938, the Mickey Mouse comic strip published 14 Sunday newspaper comics retelling the story under the title The Brave Little Tailor. This version was bookended by segments showing the "real" Mickey Mouse as an actor who is cast by Walt Disney to appear in the film. The comic has Mac MacCorker as the fictional director of the short. Goofy also appears in these scenes and, after the wrap he is wearing the same clothes he wore in the short film The Whalers, which was released the month before Tailor. The story was written by Merrill De Maris and drawn by Manuel Gonzales and Floyd Gottfredson, with inking by Ted Thwaites.
In 1985, Bantam Books published a children's book called Mickey Meets the Giant which featured Mickey encountering the same giant as the one in this short. This version was somewhat more faithful to the original fairy tale, maintaining that the tailor fools the giant by apparently beating him in feats of strength.
The short was released on December 4, 2001 as part of '. It was also featured, along with A Knight for a Day, on DVD releases of The Sword in the Stone and was included in the 2018 Celebrating Mickey Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo compilation and in the 2023 Mickey & Minnie: 10 Classic Shorts - Volume 1 Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo compilation. The short is available to stream on Disney+, but it remains unrestored.