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Orphan's Benefit
Background information
Director: Burt Gillett
Writer:
Song writer: Frank Churchill
Animator(s):
Release date(s): August 11, 1934 (Original) August 22, 1941 (Remake)
Running time: 9 minutes
Budget:
Gross revenue:
Country:

Orphan's Benefit is an animated short film staring Mickey Mouse that was made in 1934 and remade in 1941.

Plot[]

The mice orphans arrive at a theater for a free show entitled "Mickey's Big Show: Orphan's Benefit." As they file into the building they are given free lollipops, ice cream, and balloons.

Donald Duck begins the show by reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and then reciting "Little Boy Blue." But when he says "come blow your horn," an orphan loudly blows his nose to disrupt Donald's performance. He recites it a second time, but this time the orphans blow their noses. Donald loses his temper over his performance being interrupted and challenges them to fight, but is pulled backstage by an off-screen stagehand.

The next act is Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow performing an acrobatic dance. Horace dances with Clarabelle and Goofy attempts to pick him up but gets his head stuck. Goofy then throws Clarabelle back to Horace. Horace spins Clarabelle around and throws him in Goofy's direction. Goofy catches her dress and Clarabelle closes out the act by hitting Goofy on the head. Donald decides to exact his revenge by reciting "Little Boy Blue" again and blows his own horn before the orphans can respond. An orphan blows ice cream at him to provoke Donald and the orphans punch Donald into a daze with their boxing gloves. Then, Donald is once again pulled backstage.

For the next act, Mickey introduces Clara Cluck, who clucks "Chi mi frena in tal momento" from Act II of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, accompanied by Mickey on piano. When she is unable to reach a high B-Flat note, an orphan fires a slingshot to help finish the song.

During the final act, Donald returns to the stage and quickly recites one line – "Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn" – and waits for the orphans to interrupt him. Yet as they seem well-behaved this time, Donald continues the recitation. But when he says "Where is that boy who looks after the sheep?" the orphans answer in unison "Under the haystack fast asleep, you dope," causing Donald to lose his temper again. The orphans tie bricks, a plant, a fire extinguisher and eggs onto their balloons, float them over his head, and fire their slingshots. After being laughed by the orphans, Donald closes out the show and finally accepts defeat.

Characters[]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Orphan's Benefit was the first appearance of Donald Duck in a Mickey Mouse series film, marking the characters' first joint appearance. Donald had previously appeared only in a Silly Symphonies film.
  • The film was also the debut of Clara Cluck who would go on to appear in six other cartoon shorts.
  • The orphans strongly resemble Mickey and Minnie's "dream babies" from Mickey's Nightmare. They even have the same rambuctiousness
  • Although Orphan's Benefit was Donald's second appearance, the film was the first to significantly develop his character. Many of Donald's personality traits first seen in Orphan's Benefit would become permanently associated with him, such as his love of showmanship, his fierce determination, belligerence, and most famously his easily provoked temper. The film also introduced some of Donald's physical antics, such as his signature temper tantrum of hopping on one foot while holding out one fist and swinging the other. This was the creation of animator Dick Lundy who termed this Donald's "fighting pose."
  • The soundtrack and voice clips for the 1941 version were taken straight from the original 1934 animated short of the same name. One minor difference at the end is where Donald says "Aw, phooey!" instead of "Aw, nuts!"
  • In the 1941 version, Donald's beak doesn't morph into Jimmy Durante's nose when he says "Am I mortified! Am I mortified!"
  • This color remake is a sequence by sequence remake, the character models were updated to match the characters' designs as of 1941.
    • However, Mickey's model is his 1941 design is in the poster, he is actually in his 1940 design in the 1941 version of the short.
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