Orphans' Benefit
Foreign titles: Die Kindervorstellung (German), Mickey Bienfaiteur (French)
- Studio
- Walt Disney Studios
- Distributor
- RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Synopsis
Mickey and his pals put on a revue for the orphans.
Characters
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Clara Cluck
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Riley Thomson
Producing
- Producer
- Walt Disney (Executive Producer)
Animation
- Animator
- Jim Armstrong, Sam Cobean, Bill Dunham, Arthur Elliott, Norm Ferguson, Ed Love
Voices
- Voice
- Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse), Clarence 'Duckie' Nash (Donald Duck), Pinto Colvig (Goofy), Florence Gill (Clara Cluck)
Production notes
A color remake of the 1934 Burt Gillett black and white short.
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 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, as well as his face, which changed from white to flesh-toned, first seen in The Pointer (1939). Donald also changed in his body shape and size relative to Mickey.
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. The film 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.
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 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, as well as his face, which changed from white to flesh-toned, first seen in The Pointer (1939). Donald also changed in his body shape and size relative to Mickey.
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. The film 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.
