Disney+, 3:00 a.m. ET
SPECIAL PREMIERE: In this new showcase, Disney+ adds to the canon of Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts, which is where Walt Disney’s entire empire began. Like most other modern continuations of classic cartoons, the animation itself, like the writing, is a bit less animated. But it’s nice to see traditions upheld and continued, rather than just tossed aside and ignored. Are you listening, White House?
TCM, 1:15 a.m. ET
In this 1940 movie musical, Fred Astaire is paired with Eleanor Powell, and they do one stamina-challenging, fantastically precise tap dance number – with minimal edits and with the camera framing their full bodies and panning to follow them – that I just showed to my Rowan University film class. But here, thanks to a late-night showing on TCM, is the entire film, for my students, and you, to enjoy in its entirety. At this point in this pandemic school term, I don’t expect them to watch. But maybe you will…