Mickey Meets the Giant is Volume 1 of the Walt Disney Fun-to-Read Library. It is an adaptation of the story of The Valiant Little Tailor starring Mickey Mouse. Although it is not a book adaptation of the 1938 Mickey cartoon Brave Little Tailor, Gustav, the giant from that short, is the antagonist of the story.
Synopsis[]
Mickey is a traveling woodcutter who arrives in a town called Cedar Grove one day. While getting his ax sharpened, he notices many of the townsfolk are panicking. When he asks why they tell him that they're looking for someone to defeat the giant who has been causing problems for them. They tell him that the giant has whistled so loud that he caused huge winds that knocked them out of their beds, jumped rope all over the freshly-planted fields, and left huge footprints that got filled with rainwater, laughed so hard at the sight of his water-filled footprints that he scared off all the animals in the forest, and put a huge boulder in the middle of the path out of town.
Mickey volunteers to face the giant, but the people of Cedar Grove do not think he could succeed. The policeman (played by Chief O'Hara) sends the town's strong man, Stan Dolittle, to face the giant. But before long, Stan returns, having been dropped into a cup of tea by the giant. The townspeople then send in their tallest citizen, Tall Tom, to challenge the giant, despite that he is not at all brave. Tom immediately comes back just after seeing the giant break the tallest tree in the forest in two. Mickey again says he's going to go beat the giant, but first, he will need a bag, a drinking straw, and a big piece of round, white cheese.
Mickey goes to look in the giant's cave and sees that he is not home. When he gets outside to wait for the giant, though, he finds himself standing on the giant's foot and announces that he has come to challenge the giant. The giant scoffs at this and demonstrates his strength by pulling the widest tree out of the ground and pounding the ground so hard it creates a canyon. Mickey then prepares to throw a small stone and tricks the giant into throwing the boulder that was blocking the pathway. Then, when Mickey says he is going to drink all the water in a nearby pond, he gets the boastful giant to drink all the water in the lakes in the fields. Finally, he then asks the giant to squeeze water from a stone, which he fails to do. Mickey then squeezes water from the round, white cheese, pretending it's a stone. This scares the giant enough to run out of town and never come back, and the people of Cedar Grove declare Mickey their hero.