Year: 1937
Runtime: 9 mins
Language: English
Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Mickey, Donald and Goofy set out to tidy the massive clock tower, only to find themselves battling whirling gears, coiled springs, booming bells and even a sleepy stork. Their slap‑slap‑slap attempts turn the simple job into a chaotic circus of comedy, delivering nonstop laughs as they scramble to keep the tower ticking.
Warning: spoilers below!
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Read the complete plot breakdown of Clock Cleaners (1937), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy are assigned to clean a tall clock tower in a bustling city. The trio takes on different tasks as the clockwork world comes to life: Mickey works from the outside, riding the clock’s second hand and scrubbing the face with a mop, while inside, Goofy tackles the gear teeth with a large toothbrush.
Donald, meanwhile, begins to mop the mainspring, humming Hickory Dickory Dock as he ignores several warning signs. He presses on with his chore until the mop catches the mechanism and lurches it loose, trapping him inside the clock. The moment is playful yet tense as the machinery seems to have a mind of its own, and Donald’s attempts to regain control intensify the slapstick chaos.
Inside the clock chamber, a sleeping Stork blocks Mickey’s path as he tries to wake it. The avian visitor proves stubborn: it refuses to move, and when Mickey does manage to nudge it, the stork looks settled again in a different position, only to end up right back where it started. The stork’s stubbornness becomes a recurring obstacle, turning every effort into a comic struggle.
As Mickey finally decides to eject the stubborn visitor, the stork dives back in and snatches him, carrying him away as if he were a baby. It drops Mickey after a moment, then flies back in, leaving him swinging on a rope with a bucket of water looming above, threatening to drench him at any moment.
Back outside, Goofy is inside the bell’s exterior, humming Asleep in the Deep as he cleans the metal with his characteristic gusto. The clock’s interior comes alive at 4:00 PM, and two mechanical statues emerge to ring the bell: the first, Father Time, and the second, Lady Liberty. They take turns striking the bell, creating a total of four rings that rock Goofy and unsettle the rhythm of the tower.
With each ring, Goofy’s head vibrates, and the chaos escalates. He barely has a moment to regain his balance before the next ring arrives. He glances around, suspicious, and blurts out the playful line, > Mice! The bells continue, and the vibrations intensify, pushing Goofy toward action.
The sequence grows more chaotic as the third ring prompts Goofy to leap out, ready to strike back, while the fourth ring brings a final knock from Lady Liberty’s torch arm, knocking Goofy soundly and sending him into a lovestruck daze. Mickey, watching nearby, repeatedly steps in to try to save his friends, narrowly averting disaster at several turns.
A spectacular chain of misadventures culminates when Goofy, riding a pole, slides through a window into the clock and lands on the mainspring Donald had just reassembled. Their intrusion unravels Donald’s careful setup, and the trio tumbles into the same gear where Donald was stuck earlier. The result is a humorous rhythmic motion—three bodies moving in sync as the clockwork responds to their slapstick antics, a final tableau of chaos and coordinated silliness within the ticking heart of the tower.
Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:15
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Animated shorts where a classic trio of characters get lost in a whirlwind of slapstick.If you enjoyed the chaotic teamwork of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in Clock Cleaners, you'll love these movies. This collection features similar animated shorts and comedies where a classic trio of characters turns a straightforward task into a frenzy of slapstick fun and collaborative chaos.
Stories in this thread typically feature a simple premise—a job, a journey, or a goal—that is immediately complicated by the distinct personalities of a three-character team. The narrative unfolds as a rapid chain of cause-and-effect gags, where each character's unique reaction to a problem creates the next, bigger problem, building to a crescendo of coordinated silliness.
These films are grouped together because they share a core comedic engine: the dynamic between a trio of archetypal characters. The humor stems from their teamwork (and lack thereof) in the face of escalating, non-threatening chaos, resulting in a consistently light, fast-paced, and playful viewing experience.
Stories where characters battle whimsical, Rube Goldberg-like machinery for comedic effect.For viewers who loved the clockwork chaos of Clock Cleaners, this list finds similar movies. Discover stories where characters face off against whimsical, complex machinery, turning their environment into a playground of slapstick challenges and inventive visual comedy.
The narrative pattern involves a character or group entering a complex mechanical space—a factory, a clock tower, a elaborate home—with a simple goal. The machinery, often anthropomorphized, responds with a series of unpredictable, chain-reaction events that turn the protagonist's task into a fight for survival against gears, springs, and levers, all played for laughs.
These movies are united by their use of a intricate, semi-autonomous mechanical world as the central comedic device. The shared experience is one of witnessing orderly systems devolve into chaos, driven by physics-based humor and the endearing struggle of characters against an inanimate yet playful foe.
Don't stop at just watching — explore Clock Cleaners in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending — every page helps you truly understand what Clock Cleaners is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.
Track the full timeline of Clock Cleaners with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.
Discover the characters, locations, and core themes that shape Clock Cleaners. Get insights into symbolic elements, setting significance, and deeper narrative meaning — ideal for thematic analysis and movie breakdowns.
Get a quick, spoiler-free overview of Clock Cleaners that covers the main plot points and key details without revealing any major twists or spoilers. Perfect for those who want to know what to expect before diving in.
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