''Orphan's Benefit'' (sic; original title) is an animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

produced by

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in black-and-white. It was first released in 1934 and was later remade in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

in 1941 under the corrected title ''Orphans' Benefit''. The cartoon features

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

and his friends putting on a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

-style

benefit show A benefit concert or charity concert is a type of musical benefit performance (e.g., concert, show, or gala) featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate hu ...

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 Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

appear together, and it was the 68th Mickey Mouse short film to be released, and the sixth of that year. The short releases a new character-Donald Duck. It was also the cartoon which had the first story to be written that featured Donald Duck, though it was the second Donald Duck short to be produced and released, after ''

The Wise Little Hen ''The Wise Little Hen'' is a 1934 Walt Disney's ''Silly Symphony'' cartoon, based on the fable ''The Little Red Hen''. The cartoon features the debut of Donald Duck, dancing to the Sailor's Hornpipe. Donald and his friend Peter Pig try to avoid ...

''. ''Orphans' Benefit'' features original music composed by

Frank Churchill Frank Edwin Churchill (October 20, 1901 – May 14, 1942) was an American film composer and songwriter. He wrote most of the music for films directed by Walt Disney, such as ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', ''Dumbo'', ''Bambi'', '' The Adve ...

. The voice cast includes

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

as Mickey,

Clarence Nash Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...

as Donald, and

Florence Gill Florence Gill (27 July 1877 – 19 February 1965) was a British actress. In Walt Disney's animated films, Gill made a specialty for 20 years of voicing hens, including Clara Cluck, The Wise Little Hen and other assorted fowl. Gill was a member ...

Clara Cluck The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional universe, fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving The Walt Disney Company, Disney cartoon characters Mickey Mouse, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto (Disney), Pluto, Goofy, and ...

. The original cartoon was directed by

Burt Gillett Burton F. Gillett (October 15, 1891 – December 28, 1971) was a Film director, director of animation, animated films. He is noted for his Silly Symphonies work for Walt Disney Pictures, Disney, particularly the 1932 short film ''Flowers and Tree ...

and distributed by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...

while the remake was directed by

Riley Thomson Riley A. Thomson Jr. (October 5, 1912 – January 26, 1960) was an American animator and comics artist who spent most of his career working with Walt Disney films and characters. He directed six Disney short films including ''The Nifty Nineties'' ...

and distributed by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

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, and they are given free lollipops, ice cream, and balloons. Donald Duck begins the show by reciting "

Mary Had a Little Lamb "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is an English language nursery rhyme of nineteenth-century American origin, first published by American writer Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7622. Background The nursery rhyme was fi ...

", and then reciting "

Little Boy Blue "Little Boy Blue" is an English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 11318. Lyrics A common version of the rhyme is: Little Boy Blue, Come blow your horn, The sheep's in the meadow, The cow's in the corn. Where is ...

." But when he says, "come blow your horn," an orphan loudly blows his nose. He recites it a second time, but this time, ''all'' the orphans blow their noses. Donald loses his temper over his performance being interrupted in this manner and challenges them to fight but is pulled backstage by an off-screen stagehand. The next act is

Goofy Goofy is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. He is a tall, Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic dog who typically wears a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled f ...

Horace Horsecollar Horace Horsecollar is a cartoon character created in 1928 at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Horace is a tall anthropomorphic black horse and is one of Mickey Mouse's best friends. Characterized as a boastful show-off, Horace served as Mickey’s ...

, and Clarabelle Cow performing an acrobatic dance. Horace dances with Clarabelle and Goofy attempts to catch her but gets his head stuck. Goofy then throws Clarabelle back to Horace. Horace spins Clarabelle around and throws her in Goofy's direction. Goofy catches her dress, pulling it off as she flies past, 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 interrupt Donald, and the orphans punch Donald into a daze with their boxing gloves. Then, Donald is once again pulled backstage, after performing his infamous temper, all because of provocation. For the next act,

performs "''Chi mi frena in tal momento''" from Act II of

Gaetano Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the '' bel canto'' opera style dur ...

's ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel ''The Bride of 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 ends the show and finally accepts a horrid defeat.

Firsts

''Orphans' Benefit'' was the first appearance of Donald Duck in a ''

'' series film, marking the characters' first joint appearance. Donald had previously appeared only in a ''

Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' is an American animation, animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Silly Symphonies'' were originally inte ...

'' film. Although ''Orphans' 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 ''Orphans' 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." ''Orphans' Benefit'' also represented a new direction for Disney cartoons, according to Disney historian Marcia Blitz: "It can be seen that the framework of ''Orphan's Benefit'' was traditionally

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...

. Audiences laughed at Donald's physical mishaps, much as they laughed at

Chaplin Chaplin may refer to: People * Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director * Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin Films * '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983) * ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992) * ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...

's or

Keaton Keaton may refer to: *Keaton (name) *2712 Keaton 71 may refer to: * 71 (number) * one of the years 71 BC, AD 71, 1971, 2071 * 71'' (film), 2014 British film set in Belfast in 1971 * '' 71: Into the Fire'', 2010 South Korean film See also * ...

'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". Animator

Ward Kimball Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honored ...

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. The later Disney film ''

Mickey's Amateurs ''Mickey's Amateurs'' is a 1937 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. Originally entitled ''Mickey's Amateur Concert'' during production, the cartoon depicts an amateur talent show hosted ...

'' (1937) was directly inspired by ''Orphans' Benefit''. Both films feature stage shows with various acts interspersed with Donald attempting to recite a nursery rhyme. The film was also the debut of Clara Cluck, who would go on to appear in six other cartoon shorts.

Reception

The response of audiences to the film, particularly Donald's character, led to the duck being featured more in future cartoons. Ward Kimball said, "the reaction

o ''Orphans' Benefit'' O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...

that came pouring into the studio from the country was tremendous The kids in the theater loved or hated or booed Donald Duck."

Voice cast

*Mickey Mouse:

*Donald Duck:

*Clara Cluck:

*Goofy:

Pinto Colvig Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Co ...

Remake

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 show the characters attending a theater where they would watch scenes from several old, mostly black and white ''Mickey Mouse'' films (among them ''Orphans' Benefit''). The story artists envisioned the characters humorously interacting with themselves on the movie screen. This required the old animation footage to be redrawn completely rather than added in its original state. 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 in Technicolour, since many characters had changed in appearance since the early 1930s, such as Donald's duckbill changing shape. ''Orphans' Benefit'' was the first of these films to be remade. The result was an almost exact

shot-for-shot Shot-for-shot (or shot-for-shot adaptation, shot-for-shot remake) is a way to describe a visual work that is transferred almost completely identically from the original work without much interpretation. Production uses In the film industry, most ...

version of the original, with added color and redrawn characters and backgrounds. The film was directed by

and used almost the entire original soundtrack, the only change being the final line, from "Aw nuts!" to "Aw phooey!" which had become a catchphrase for Donald by that time. ''Orphans' Benefit'' was released to theaters on August 12, 1941, by

. 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 ''Orphans' 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 David Gerstein (born February 6, 1974) is an American comics author and editor as well as an animation historian. Gerstein has five books and countless comic book credits to his name. He has written many Disney comics stories, usually featuring ...

speculated that Disney's World War II propaganda (such as ''

Der Fuehrer's Face ''Der Fuehrer's Face'' (originally titled ''A Nightmare in Nutziland'' or ''Donald Duck in Nutziland'' ) is a 1943 American animated anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions, created in 1942 and released on January 1, ...

'', ''

Education for Death ''Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi'' is an animated propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on January 15, 1943, by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Milt Kahl, Wa ...

'', and ''

Victory Through Air Power ''Victory Through Air Power'' is a 1942 non-fiction book by Alexander P. de Seversky. It was made into a 1943 The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Animation, animated Victory Through Air Power (film), feature film of the same name. Theories D ...

'') or the

Disney animators' strike The Disney animators' strike in 1941 reflected anger at inequities of pay and privileges at the non-unionized Walt Disney Productions. Walt Disney responded to the five-week strike by firing many of his animators, but was eventually pressured in ...

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."

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. Donald impersonates the comedian

Jimmy Durante James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced song ...

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 A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, but ...

from the original ''Orphans' Benefit'', depicting Donald being punched by an orphan, sold for $286,000 (then £174,390) at a

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

auction in New York. ''

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' confirmed this was the most money ever paid for a black and white animation cel.

Adaptations

In 1968,

Disneyland Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from The Walt Disney Company's motion picture studios, television series, theme parks, and traditional studio albums produced by its ...

released an abridged audio-only version of ''Orphans' Benefit'' on the album ''Mickey Mouse and his Friends'' as the track "Mickey's Big Show." The album was re-released in 2010 as a digital download on

Amazon MP3 Amazon Music (previously Amazon MP3) is a music streaming platform and online music store operated by Amazon. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights man ...

and the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

. 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''. The same year an English version was published in the American comic book "Walt Disney Magic Moments" #1, called ''The Orphans' Benefit''.

Releases

;Original *1934 – Original theatrical release *1954 – ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

'', episode #1.4: "The Donald Duck Story" (TV) ;Remake *1941 – Original theatrical release *c. 1983 – ''

Good Morning, Mickey! ''Good Morning, Mickey!'' is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It was first aired on April 18, 1983 when Disney Channel was launched. It was one of the Disney Channel's first original programs, a ...

'', episode #18 (TV) *1997 – '' The Ink and Paint Club'', episode #1.10: "Mickey, Donald & Goofy: Friends to the End" (TV)

Home media

The original was released on December 2, 2002 on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White''. The remake was released on May 18, 2004 on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two: 1939-Today''. Additional releases of the remake include: *1987 – "Cartoon Classics: Here's Mickey!" (VHS)
Orphans' Benefit
'' at "The Encyclopedia for Disney Animated Shorts" *2006 – " Extreme Music Fun" (DVD)

References

External links

* (original) * (remake) * (original) * (remake)
''Orphan's Benefit''remake
at ''The Encyclopedia of Animated Disney Shorts'' {{Burt Gillett 1934 films 1941 films 1934 animated films 1941 animated films American black-and-white films Animated films about orphans 1930s Disney animated short films 1940s Disney animated short films Disney film remakes Donald Duck short films Films about entertainers Films about theatre Films directed by Burt Gillett Films directed by Riley Thomson Films produced by Walt Disney Films scored by Frank Churchill Mickey Mouse short films Short film remakes