- Orphan's Benefit
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Orphan's Benefit Mickey Mouse series 
Donald Duck follows Mickey Mouse on stage in their first joint appearanceDirected by Burt Gillett Produced by Walt Disney Voices by Walt Disney
Florence Gill
Clarence NashMusic by Frank Churchill Animation by Johnny Cannon
Norman Ferguson
Ward Kimball (inbetweener)
Dick LundyStudio Walt Disney Productions Distributed by United Artists Release date(s) August 11, 1934 (USA) Running time 9 minutes Country United States Language English Preceded by Mickey's Steamroller Followed by Mickey Plays Papa Orphan's Benefit is an American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was first released as a black-and-white cartoon in 1934 and was later remade in Technicolor in 1941 under the title Orphans' Benefit. The cartoon features Mickey Mouse and his friends putting on benefit show for a group of unruly orphans. It contains a number of firsts for Disney, including the first time in which Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck appear together.
Orphan's Benefit features original music by Frank Churchill. The voice cast includes Walt Disney as Mickey, Clarence Nash as Donald, and Florence Gill as Clara Cluck. The original cartoon was directed by Burt Gillett and distributed by United Artists[1] while the remake was directed by Riley Thomson and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures.[2]
Contents
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 lolly pops, ice cream, and balloons by Mickey and Minnie from the box office.
Donald Duck begins the show by reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb", dancing "Sailor's Hornpipe", and reciting "Little Boy Blue." But when he says "come blow your horn," an orphan blows his nose and Donald gets frustrated. Mickey encourages him to continue, but the second time all the orphans blow their noses. Donald's temper flairs and he challenges them to fight, but is forcibly removed from stage.
The next performance is Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, and Clarabelle Cow performing an acrobatic dance.
After this, Donald returns to have his revenge by reciting "Little Boy Blue" and blowing his own horn before the orphans can respond. While he is laughing, the orphans throw their ice cream at him provoking him further. As Donald challenges them to fight again the orphans punch him with boxing gloves almost knocking him out. Donald is again removed from stage.
Mickey then introduces the "Barnyard Nightingale," Clara Cluck, who sings a clucking aria accompanied by Mickey on piano. She is also harassed by the orphans, but seems to be unaware of it.
Finally Donald returns to the stage one last time 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." This angers Donald all the more, yet while he challenges the orphans to fight again, they tie bricks and other heavy objects onto their balloons, float them over his head, and pop the balloons with their slingshots unleashing a barrage which culminates in a box of raw eggs. When it's all over Donald finally accepts defeat and exclaims "Aw, nuts!"[3]
Firsts
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 the Silly Symphonies series.
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, for example 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."[4]
Orphan's Benefit also represented a new direction for Disney cartoons, as noted by Disney historian Marcia Blitz: "It can be seen that the framework of Orphan's Benefit was traditionally slapstick. Audiences laughed at Donald's physical mishaps much as they laughed at Chaplin's or Keaton's. But in this instance there was the added dimension of Donald's abrasive personality. Surely nothing like it had ever been seen in a cartoon."[5] Animator Ward Kimball who worked on the film called it a "turning point" for the studio, citing its extensive use of character animation which was used to physically convey personality.[6]
The film was also the first appearance of Clara Cluck[7] who would go on to appear in six other theatrical cartoon shorts. The mice children also made their first appearance as orphans, later appearing in Orphan's Picnic (1936) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). They had appeared earlier as Mickey's own children (Mickey's Nightmare) and as his nephews (Giantland).
Reception
The response of audiences to the film, particular Donald's character, led to the duck being featured more in future cartoons. Ward Kimball said "the reaction [to Orphan's Benefit] that came pouring into the studio from the country was tremendous[.] The kids in the theater loved or hated or booed Donald Duck."[6]
Remake
Orphans' Benefit 
Theatrical release posterDirected by Riley Thompson Animation by Jim Armstrong
Ed LoveDistributed by RKO Radio Pictures Release date(s) August 22, 1941 (USA) Color process Technicolor Preceded by The Nifty Nineties Followed by Lend a Paw In the summer of 1939, in anticipation of Mickey Mouse's 12th anniversary the following year, Walt Disney commissioned a two-reel short film tentatively called Mickey's Revival Party. The plan was for this film to open with the characters arriving at a cinema where they would watch scenes from several old, mostly black and white[8] Mickey Mouse films (among them Orphan's Benefit). The story artists envisioned the characters humorously interacting with themselves on the movie screen. This therefore required that the old footage could not be simply added as-is to the new film, it had to be redrawn completely.
It was during this process that Walt Disney decided to completely reproduce several of these old shorts in color. It was also an opportunity to update the character models, since many characters had changed in appearance since the early 1930s. Perhaps most noticeable were Mickey's eyes which had changed from solid black eyes to white eyes with pupils, first seen in The Pointer (1939). Donald also changed in his body shape and size relative to Mickey.
And so Orphan's Benefit was the first of these films to be redone. The result was an almost exact frame for frame version of the original, except for the added color and updated characters.[9] The film was directed by Riley Thomson and used almost the entire original soundtrack, the only change being the final line, from "Aw nuts!" to "Aw phooey!" which had become a common catchphrase for Donald by that time. The title of the film also saw a small change making it more grammatically correct, although this was not reflected in some promotional material such as the film poster (seen right). Orphans' Benefit was released to theaters on August 22, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures.[10]
The next film scheduled for reproduction was Mickey's Man Friday (1935), but it was never completed. The original concept for Mickey's Revival Party was shelved and Orphan's Benefit became the only Disney film to be recreated scene for scene. It is unknown what led to the cancellation, although animation historian David Gerstein speculated that World War II or the Disney animators' strike of 1941 may have played a role, or that Walt Disney simply preferred to work on all-new films rather than "extensively revisit the past."[11][12]
Historical notes
Donald's recitation of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was inspired by Clarence Nash's own recitation of the poem on the radio, a performance he had intended to sound like a nervous baby goat. It was largely because of this performance that Nash was hired by Disney to voice the duck.[13]
Donald impersonates the comedian Jimmy Durante when he says "Am I mortified! Am I mortified!" His bill even changes shape to make fun of Durante's famous nose. The joke was not as noticeable in the remake because Donald's bill keeps its shape.
In 1989, an animation cel from the original Orphan's Benefit, depicting Donald being punched by an orphan, sold for $286,000 (then £174,390) at a Christie's auction in New York. Guinness World Records confirmed this was the most money ever paid for a black and white animation cel.[14]
Adaptations
An abridged audio-only version of Orphan's Benefit was included in the album Mickey Mouse and his Friends as the track "Mickey's Big Show." The album was released by Disneyland Records in 1968, and was re-released in 2010 as a digital download on Amazon MP3 and iTunes.[15][16]
In October 1973 the story was adapted into a 13 page comic book story in the Italian publication "Cartonatoni Disney" #14. The story was called Recita di Beneficenza, or Benefit Recital.[17] The same year an English version was published in the American comic book "Walt Disney Magic Moments" #1, called The Orphans' Benefit.[18]
Releases
- Original
- 1934 – Original theatrical release
- 1986 – Walt Disney Presents, "The Donald Duck Story" (TV)[19]
- 2002 – "Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White" (DVD)
- Remake
- 1941 – Original theatrical release
- 1991 – "Here's Mickey: Cartoon Classics" (VHS)[20]
- 1997 – Ink & Paint Club, episode #10 "Mickey, Donald & Goofy: Friends to the End" (TV)[21]
- 2004 – "Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two" (DVD)
- 2006 – "Extreme Music Fun" (DVD)
Notes
- ^ IMDb title|0025609}}
- ^ Orphan's Benefit at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Changed to "Aw, phooey!" in the remake
- ^ A Letter from Dick Lundy on "Mayerson on Animation." 18-05-2006; retrieved 07-07-2011.
- ^ Blitz, Marcia (1979). Donald Duck. New York: Harmony Books. p. 36. ISBN 0-517-52961-0.
- ^ a b Gabler, Neal (2007). Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. New York: Vintage. p. 201-2. ISBN 0679757473.
- ^ Like Donald Duck, Clara Cluck had previously appeared in name only in several Disney children's books. Her first mention was in The Adventures Mickey Mouse: Book 1 (1931) where she is included in a list of Mickey's barnyard friends.
- ^ The Band Concert was the only color film included in these which totaled 19 films. (Gerstein)
- ^ Orphan's Benefit Comparison on YouTube. Both versions are shown side by side with the original cut to synchronize with the remake.
- ^ Orphan's Benefit at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Gerstein, David (2005). Walt Disney's Mickey and the Gang: Classic Stories in Verse. Timonium MD: Gemstone Publishing. p. 230. ISBN 1-888472-06-5.
- ^ A side-by-side comparison of Disney’s “Orphan’s Benefit” on Cartoon Brew
- ^ Biographies of 10 Classic Disney Characters at the official Disney website
- ^ Guinness World Records, retrieved 2011-09-22
- ^ Unknown Artist – Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse And His Friends at Discogs.com
- ^ Mickey Mouse And His Friends at Amazon.com
- ^ Recita di Beneficenza at INDUCKS
- ^ "Walt Disney Magic Moments" #1 at INDUCKS
- ^ Walt Disney Presents Episodes on ABC
- ^ Orphan's Benefit at "The Encyclopedia for Disney Animated Shorts"
- ^ Movie connections for Mickey, Donald & Goofy: Friends to the End" on the Internet Movie Database
External links
- Orphan's Benefit (remake) at the Internet Movie Database
- Orphan's Benefit (remake) at The Encyclopedia of Animated Disney Shorts
- Orphan's Benefit (remake) at the Big Cartoon DataBase
Categories:- 1934 films
- American films
- English-language films
- 1941 films
- Disney animated short films, 1930s
- Disney animated short films, 1940s
- Disney film remakes
- Donald Duck short films
- Films about entertainers
- Films about orphans
- Mickey Mouse short films
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