Lonesome Ghosts

Lonesome Ghosts is a 1937 Disney animated cartoon, released through RKO Radio Pictures on December 24, 1937. It was directed by Burt Gillett and animated by Izzy Klein, Ed Love, Milt Kahl, Marvin Woodward, Bob Wickersham, Clyde Geronimi, Dick Huemer, Dick Williams, Art Babbitt and Rex Cox. The short features Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as members of The Ajax Ghost Exterminators.

Plot
The Ajax Ghost Exterminators are hired by telephone to drive out four ghosts from a haunted house that has long been abandoned. Unbeknownst to them, they were hired by the ghosts themselves, who are bored because nobody has visited the house they had long been haunting (they had scared all the locals away, as one ghost puts it: "Guess we're too good!"). They wish to play tricks on the living, and do so through a series of inventive, annoying pranks. The exterminators arrive, enter and announce themselves, but there is nobody to receive them. Mickey decides they should get to work anyway, and the three split up to hunt the ghosts individually. The exterminators are toyed with at every turn; Mickey is driven upstairs and tries to open a door, which opens in a splash of water. Donald, meanwhile, is whacked with a wooden board and is scared away by the sounds of banging chains and dishes. Goofy, in a bedroom, becomes tangled in a dresser and stabs his own rear with a pin, mistaking his blue pants for a ghost and is shoved down into the basement. In the end, the three exterminators accidentally become covered in molasses and flour, making them look like ghosts and consequently scaring the actual ghosts out of the house in a panic. The ghost hunters stand victorious, having driven the spirits out of the house, although not exactly certain how. Donald smugly assumes the ghosts fled in capitulation to their superior tactics.

Goofy says, while warily looking around him: "I'm brave! But I'm careful." Donald's observes, "So you can't take it, you big sissies!", and Goofy quips, "I ain't scared of no ghosts!" (weakly boasting while hiding from a ghost-engineered scare).

Releases

 * 1937 – theatrical release
 * 1954 – "Disneyland", episode #1.1: "The Disneyland Story" (TV)
 * 1963 – theatrical re-release with "The Sword in The Stone"
 * 1968 – "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color", episode #15.11: "The Mickey Mouse Anniversary Show" (TV)
 * c. 1972 – The Mouse Factory, episode #5: "Spooks and Magic" (TV)
 * 1982 – Bonus on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (VHS)
 * c. 1983 – "Good Morning", episode #79 (TV)
 * 1983 – "A Disney Halloween" (TV)
 * 1989 – "Cartoon Classics: Halloween Haunts" (VHS)
 * c. 1997 – "The Ink and Paint Club", episode #22: "Classic Mickey" (TV)
 * c. 1998 – The Ink and Paint Club, episode #55: "Oooh! Scary!" (TV)
 * 2000 – Bonus on "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" (DVD)
 * 2001 – "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" (DVD)
 * 2002 – "Mickey's House of Villains" (DVD)
 * 2009 – "Have a Laugh!", episode #1 (TV)
 * 2010 – "Have a Laugh! Volume One" (DVD)

In other media

 * An edited (and silent) version of the cartoon was released as a cartridge for the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer, a small crank-operated toy.
 * In 1957, the scream sound effect heard in the beginning of this short was used in the fourth episode of Zorro, "The Ghost of the Mission", which aired on Halloween.
 * The Lonesome Ghosts appear as helpers in the video game Disney's Magical Quest 2 Starring Mickey & Minnie.
 * Lonesome Ghosts was the basis for, and title of the fourth level in the video game Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse, and its PlayStation version, Mickey's Wild Adventure.
 * A scene from Lonesome Ghosts with new music appears in Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse.
 * A shortened version aired on the Disney Channel in October 2009, as part of a show called Disney Have-a-Laugh, which featured remastered and redubbed versions of old cartoons.
 * There is a travel map in the video game Epic Mickey based on this cartoon. The Lonesome Ghosts appear as Wasteland denizens, and are named Gilbert, Ian, Gabriel and Screechin' Sam.
 * The Lonesome Ghosts and The Ajax Ghost Exterminators were incorporated into a painting by artist Randy Souders. Entitled "A Haunting We Will Go", it was created for the 1997 Disneyana Convention at Walt Disney World.
 * In the "House Ghosts" episode of Disney's House Of Mouse, The Lonesome Ghosts make a cameo, scaring Pete and pulling his underwear.