Orphans' Picnic

A Walt Disney Mickey Mouse Cartoon.

The ORPHANS' PICNIC hosted by Mickey & Donald quickly becomes a complete shambles - thanks to the multitude of naughty little rodents.

The Duck dominates this funny little film, with Mickey relegated to supporting player. The animators liked to use the Orphans' rare appearances almost like a force of nature - relentless, uncontrollable & completely undisciplined. Walt Disney provides the voice for the Mouse; Clarence Nash does the same for Donald.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

Mickey and Donald very kindly treat the local orphans to a picnic in the countryside. And how do they repay them? By tormenting them and ruining the picnic. How about that for gratitude. It's not massively funny but the orphans (all looking like little Mickeys) are so cute. And would I be correct in assuming that they made an appearance in the Toon Town scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Vividly animated it may well be but beneath the cleverness of some gags and the class of it's appearance there ain't much laughs in Orphan's Picnic. If I had my way the little scoundrels would be cleaning chimneys for the rest of their life for that behaviour.

Once I saw that this cartoon features those Mickey-lookalike kids and Donald Duck, I knew those kids will have a ball at Donald's expense. Poor Donald got his picnic food stolen from those brats, and gotten himself pursued by bees that the kids provoked.

Nothing redeemable in this cartoon - very predictable and not very humorous. Wished those bees would have stung those annoying, irritating, and selfish brats.

Grade D---

I have always enjoyed Disney Silly Symphonies, and while I do this one it's not one of my favourites. The story is rather routine with the orphans being mean to Donald and sweet with Mickey, the orphans may be deliberately undisciplined but here they are also bratty and hard to like and Mickey, while nice to see, is hardly in it and when he does appear he's not very funny. However, there is also Donald, who I usually do rely on to be at least a bright spot, and I wasn't disappointed. His frustration and very futile attempts to outwit the orphans are what drive the cartoon and he is hilarious for it. The gags are also amusing, with the two best gags involving bees, one with a bee sandwich and the other is Donald being chased by them. The pace is crisp, the animation is bright and colourful and the music is energetic. Walt Disney and Clarence Nash voice Mickey and Donald impeccably. Overall, an amusing but not great cartoon with Donald stealing the show. 7/10 Bethany Cox