The Disney studios completed the silent version in August 1928, but did not release it in order to work on Steamboat Willie.

Following the original film, the events of the short take place in the Pampas of Argentina with Mickey cast as the gaucho of the title.

The latter emerges the victor (by covering Pete's head with a chamber pot he pulls out from under a bed) and finally gets hold of Minnie.

In later interviews, Iwerks would comment that Mickey as featured in The Gallopin' Gaucho was intended to be a swashbuckler, an adventurer modelled after Fairbanks himself.

[citation needed] Pete had already been established as an antagonist in both the Alice Comedies and the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series, but this short marks his first encounter with either Mickey or Minnie.

It is also the first time she wears her distinctive oversized high-heeled pumps, although they fall off when she is kidnapped, and she spends the rest of the cartoon shoeless.

Soon after Walt and his animators revised their star (for the first, but not for the last time), after which Mickey Mouse became the "wholesome" character designed to appeal to children and to please the parent.

The Film Daily (January 6, 1929) said: "This features Mickey Mouse, the demon hero who has his ups and downs trying to rescue his sweetie who has been kidnapped by the villain Cat.

It has some neat comedy effects through the addition of sound, which make the film far more enjoyable and laughable than it could possibly be in silent form.

Sound effects won some laughs here on their own, but after it's all over the impression remains that any alert pit drummer can duplicate... Value in this one comes from the antics Disney makes his figures perform during a chase and a duel.