Mickey's Orphans

This film was nominated for Best Animated Short in 1932. While it didn't win, it is one of the few Mickey Mouse cartoons so honored, as the Academy tended to pick more artsy fare such as Disney's Silly Symphonies for the award. It's a shame, really, as Mickey's cartoons were always good and always important to the genre.

In this sadistic little cartoon, some old lady leaves a basket on the doorstep as Mickey, Minnie and Pluto are inside getting ready for Christmas. When they find the basket, out jump about 30 kittens and they turn out to be totally awful--destroying the home and making nuisances of themselves. Apparently, Mickey and Minnie are gross enablers and do nothing to stop them from literally destroying EVERYTHING and instead give the horrible cats a merry Christmas. It's all very cute and sadistic--lots of fun but not exactly deep or memorable.

Very good black and white animation and songs, this one is fun but far from Mickey's best. I think the kittens were the reason this was singled out by the Academy--especially since LEND A PAW (featuring Pluto and Mickey) did win the award in 1942 and it was also about an orphan kitten rescued by Pluto.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Minnie & MICKEY'S ORPHANS are a vast number of unwanted, mischievous kittens left on their doorstep one stormy Christmas Eve.

Nominated for an Academy Award, this lively little black & white film derives much of its enjoyment from watching the tiny felines torment poor Pluto and nearly demolish the Mouse House. The performance of 'Silent Night' by the Mice is charming. One of the kittens does a quick spoof of Charlie Chaplin.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This is the first Mickey Mouse short to actually be nominated for an Oscar, losing to Flowers and Trees. The real "mouse that roared" does nothing very special or elaborate in this cartoon. It's cute and enjoyable and I suppose it's representative of the black and white efforts which Disney was doing at the time. Probably more impressive in 1931, it's still worth watching today. It runs on the INK AND PAINT CLUB on Disney Channel. Recommended.

Mickey's Orphans is one of the first, perhaps the first, Christmas-themed Mickey Mouse cartoon, and is a very good one. Of the Disney Christmas shorts, my favourites are Mickey's Good Deed, Donald's Snow Fight and Pluto's Christmas Tree. True, it does use the formula of little children/animals causing chaos that we've seen with Orphan's Benefit, Orphan's Picnic, Mickey's Revue and Mickey's Nightmare, but to me this is one of the better cases of Disney using this formula. The only real complaint actually is that Mickey and Minnie don't seem to show any anger or concern over the antics of the little kittens. I can understand why they don't want to make Mickey angry, in The Pointer for example he got mad at Pluto and I have heard of people who were turned off by that, but for me it just seemed rather unrealistic. If it were a character like Donald Duck though, a character who is easily frustrated, things would be different. However, the animation is great, the black and white is shaded beautifully and, apart from the kittens changing size occasionally, everything is detailed and clean. The standout animation were with the life-like snow effects and the Christmas tree, which still looked genuinely festive even without colour. The music is energetic as ever, yet puts you in the mood for the festive season and makes you all warm and cosy inside. The Silent Night sequence is incredibly heart-warming. Mickey's Orphans doesn't forget to be fun either. The gags see the kittens sawing up couches, knocking over vases and shooting down dishes, but the best one was the one with Mickey and Pluto pretending to be Santa and a reindeer, which is both hilarious and delightful. Mickey and Minnie are likable enough, though I do wish their actions were more realistic at times, Pluto is energetic and the kittens for all their naughty behaviour are very cute indeed. On the whole, very entertaining and heart-warming short. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I couldn't get into this. An act of kindness leads to absolute destruction. When the cats arrive it's as if Ebola has been loosed in the house. None of them have even the slightest sense of affection. I wanted some sort of message here. I'm sure, for some, their using their toys to reek destruction on the family is funny, but it needed some sort of inciting incident. Not my favorite although the animation and the clever methods of destruction are interesting.