ORPHAN’S BENEFIT (1934)
Article 4782 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-15-2015
Date: Burt Gillett
Featuring the voices of Pinto Colvig, Walt Disney, Florence Gill
Country: USA
What it is: Mickey Mouse cartoon

Mickey Mouse hosts a benefit for orphans.

My last encounter with Mickey Mouse also featured orphans, but this isn’t a sequel to MICKEY’S ORPHANS; the orphans this time are all mice rather than cats. Still, they’re as rambunctious as the orphans in the earlier short, and since this is a revue-style animated short that features several different characters, it gives them the exact foil I’d suggested in my review of the earlier cartoon; they take on an early version of Donald Duck, and from what I gather, this was the first cartoon where he loses his temper. The revue numbers including recitations from Donald, a ballet featuring Goofy, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar, and an aria by Clara Cluck. The gags are somewhat more creative this time, and this is much funnier than the early short; my favorite moment is the orphan’s final attack on Donald. This short would be remade seven years later with the characters redrawn; these early versions look somewhat different than their later incarnations.