Parade of the Award Nominees

For the REAL first time. This short was made for the Academy Awards banquet back in 1932, before politics and TV ratings ruined the prestigious awards AND the 'ceremony'. Funny thing is, Mickey appears wearing green shorts instead of his usual red and Pluto is grey. The short itself is nothing more than a walking parade of all the particular Oscar Nominees that year, including Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt, Helen Hayes, Fredric March and Marie Dressler from Emma. I can see how this would appeal to those at the dinner and no one else but it's cool to be able to watch this for nostalgia purposes.

I did review this before but the IMDb deleted my review for no reason, so lets keep our fingers crossed that they don't do it again eh.

While Parade of the Award Nominees is not one of my favourites, it is significant for being Mickey Mouse's first Technicolour short. It is an entertaining and interesting short also in its own right. There is not much story here, and the alternate colour schemes seemed rather odd to me, I am so used to seeing Mickey in red shorts and Pluto being orangey-yellow that it was quite a shock for Mickey's shorts to be green and Pluto more brown then grey. Other than that, the animation is crisp and bouncy, and I think Minnie's dress was very fitting and a nice change from her usual outfits. The music bristles with energy, there is a cute gag with Pluto bringing up the rear with THE END on his tail and Clarabelle is a pleasure to see doing something rather than either in the background or not used at all. The fairytale background also intrigues, as well as the various nominees, the most famous one to me being Fredric March(and for good reason might I add). All in all, a significant short and a good if not outstanding one. 8/10 Bethany Cox