Mickey's Amateurs (1937)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Pinto Colvig
Erdman Penner

Release Date:

17 April 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

Mickey hosts an amateur hour radio show. Among the acts: Donald forgetting the words to "Twinkle Twinkle...

Plot Keywords:

Radio Show | One Man Band | Amateur Hour | Clara Cluck | Cartoon Cat

Cast

Walt Disney	...	Mickey Mouse (voice)
Florence Gill	...	Clara Cluck (voice)
Clarence Nash	...	Donald Duck (voice)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2782) | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Movie Connections:

Edited into "Disneyland: This Is Your Life Donald Duck (#6.23)" (1960)

No Talent Necessary

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

MICKEY'S AMATEURS perform for audience approval in the worst possible way...

This wonderful little film - a spunky spoof of Major Bowes' Amateur Hour, a very popular radio show of the era - features top-notch animation and plenty of solid laughs. Mickey is the MC keeping the program moving along. Donald Duck is hilarious in his determination to recite Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Buxom & boisterous, Clara Cluck appeared in only a handful of cartoons; here she gives one of her most memorable performances as she attempts to 'sing' to the piano accompaniment of the (unusually) giddy Clarabelle Cow. Goofy literally brings down the house as a one-man band with his unique presentations of 'In the Good Old Summertime' and 'There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight.' That's Pete having trouble with his rendition of 'Loudly The Bell In The Old Tower Rings' as the film opens. Walt Disney supplied the voice for Mickey, Clarence Nash did the honors for Donald, and the inimitable Florence Gill clucks for the marvelous Miss Clara.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.