"Spanky" and Disney's "Mickey's Mellerdrammer"?

[bwsmith]

For those of you who are both LR fans and Mickey Mouse fans, you may have noticed that both "Spanky" (1932) and "Mickey's Mellerdrammer" (1933) are stories of the lead characters putting on a play of "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

disneyshorts.toonzone.net/years/1933/mickeysmellerdrammer.html

The similarities between these shorts is remarkable, particularly in the choice of the flogging scene and ice-river escape.

Obviously, Spanky came first, but did Walt Disney copy Hal Roach in this cartoon, or was Uncle Tom's Cabin such a well-known play that these were an independent coincidence?

[ymymeatemup]

I think "Uncle Tom's Cabin" might have been about the best-known play among the general public back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is why Warner Bros. could put that gag in their cartoon "My body might belong to you, but my soul belongs to Warner Bros." People back then got the joke. That being said, I'm sure Disney was well aware of the Our Gang series.