Mickey Mouse may have been the figurehead of the Disney cartoon empire, but let's be honest: He wasn't very funny. His personality is benign, and his adventures tend to be bland. Donald and Goofy weren't exactly cutting-edge -- it was the Warner Bros. gang who could make grown-ups laugh -- but they at least had some zip to them. Mickey was just a wuss.

So the idea of "Funny Factory with Mickey Volume 1," a collection of eight Mickey-based short cartoons from the 1930s and '40s, is already a questionable one. And then there's this: All eight of these cartoons are already available on other, larger, more luxurious collections (the "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" and "The Complete Pluto" sets, specifically).

This disc, then, is for fans of Mickey who want a no-frills, no-extras package of just a few cartoons, rather than something more expensive. Fine, then. So why do so many of the cartoons have so little Mickey in them?

In "Moose Hunters," for example, Mickey is onscreen for a total of 90 seconds. The other seven minutes focus on Donald and Goofy in their attempts to stalk a moose. "Tugboat Mickey" is similarly off-balance. And "R'coon Dog" is almost ALL Pluto, with barely a sighting of Mickey. (That one is found elsewhere on the Pluto DVD set, not the Mickey one, which should tell you something.)

So the disc is for fans of Mickey who ... don't actually like him that much? Can only take him in small doses? I'm not sure what the thinking was here, other than, "Let's slap a few cartoons on a DVD and see if people will buy it!"

Here are the shorts:

"Mickey and the Seal" (1948) Mickey takes a bubble bath, only to discover -- after 13,082,771 clues he missed -- that a seal has followed him home from the zoo! Based on the Jane Austen novel.

"Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip" (1940) Mickey and Pluto try to take a train ride, but the mean ol' conductor says dogs aren't allowed! So they flout the law and sneak him onboard anyway. This would not stand in the security-conscious world of today.

"Moose Hunters" (1936) Goofy and Donald dress up like a pretty lady moose to attract a male so they can kill it. A good time is had by all.

"Mickey's Parrot" (1938) A stray parrot lodges in Mickey's basement, causing him and Pluto to think there's an escaped convict down there.

"The Pointer" (1939) Mickey tries to train Pluto to be a hunting dog, then berates and scolds him when he doesn't do well.

"Magician Mickey" (1936) Mickey is a stage magician, while Donald is a heckler in the audience. Mickey appears to have powers from Satan in this one.

"Tugboat Mickey" (1940) Mickey, Donald and Goofy (mostly Donald and Goofy) get into shenanigans trying to respond to a distress call at sea.

"R'coon Dog" (1950) Mickey and Pluto go raccoon hunting. Once again, Mickey is MIA for 90 percent of the picture, leaving the hijinks to Pluto. But the hijinks involve hallucinating, so that's something.

THE DVD

There are optional English subtitles, though most of the cartoons are pretty sparse on dialogue anyway.

For audio, you get either the original English or French -- and I have to say, listening to these cartoons in French is pretty entertaining. The actors do a pretty fair job imitating Mickey, Goofy and Donald, and it turns out I can't understand Donald in French any better than I can in English.

VIDEO: The picture is noticeably dirty and scratched on "Mickey's Parrot" and "Magician Mickey," though it's not exactly pretty on any of them. You can tell some work has been done, but not nearly the painstaking efforts the folks at Warner Bros. did for their Looney Tunes Golden Collections. I'm just sayin'.

AUDIO: The old mono tracks are a little scratchy, but still serviceable.

EXTRAS: None.

IN SUMMARY

Who this is really for is little kids. The old Disney cartoons, while not especially funny, are cute and lively, and not rerun constantly like the Warner Bros. ones are. So the tots of today may not be as familiar with these, and they will surely find them delightful up to about the age of 8. Everyone else can skip them. Real fans will get the same material on better collections, and casual fans won't find any of these particular cartoons noteworthy.