Orphans' Benefit (1941)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Release Date:

22 August 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Comedy | Animation | Short

Plot:

Micky and friends put on a revue for the orphans. Donald recites nursery rhymes, but the orphans torment him...

Plot Keywords:

Clara Cluck | Hen | Remake | Surrealism | Clarabelle Cow

Cast

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

Runtime:

9 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. | Argentina:Atp

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: Mickey tells Donald to behave himself, but it sounds like he is saying, "Pluto, behave yourself."

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Disneyland: Disney Goes to the Oscars (#30.8)" (1986)

Puttin' On A Show

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey and his pals put on an ORPHANS' BENEFIT for a theater full of little brats.

This was a color remake of a black & white cartoon originally produced in 1934. Donald's nursery rhymes, the acrobatic apache dance performed by Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow & Goofy, and Mme. Clara Cluck's operatic aria are all awfully funny. Florence Gill does the clucking for Clara, Clarence Nash provides Donald with his unique voice, Walt Disney does the honors for Mickey.

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 storm of naysayers, 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.