This short is aptly titled: it is a birthday party for Mickey. Disney released much more interesting and engaging shorts than this, but it is quite a collection of the majority of significant characters in Disney shorts and is at least worth seeing on that score. The animation, as is typical, is excellent. Worth seeing at least once.
8 Reviews
Mickey's home movies
Squonk16 December 1998
This short was released in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Mickey Mouse. The film kind of plays like your grandparent's home movies. There aren't many comic situations, just a lot of the classic Disney characters clowning around in front of the camera. There really isn't any story. The animation is classic Disney but only Goofy's attempts at making a birthday cake results in any comedy.
One great party!
OllieSuave-00714 July 2017
This is a cool cartoon short from Walt Disney, rich in animation and featuring some of the best drawings of the characters, including that of Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.
Minnie surprises Mickey with a get-together of his favorite friends on his birthday at her house. There are plenty of fun moments including Minnie playing on the organ (Mickey's new birthday gift), Donald doing a Spanish dance, and Donald doing the salsa with Clara Cluck (which was more he could handle at the end!).
Another funny moment is when Goofy attempts multiple times to bake a cake, only to fumble it each time. So, he resorted to buying one from a bakery, only to accidentally tossing it at Mickey.
This is one great party. Awesome seeing so many characters together: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Clara Cluck and Carabelle Cow - all having fun celebrating the Mouse's birthday and doing the conga!
Grade A
Minnie surprises Mickey with a get-together of his favorite friends on his birthday at her house. There are plenty of fun moments including Minnie playing on the organ (Mickey's new birthday gift), Donald doing a Spanish dance, and Donald doing the salsa with Clara Cluck (which was more he could handle at the end!).
Another funny moment is when Goofy attempts multiple times to bake a cake, only to fumble it each time. So, he resorted to buying one from a bakery, only to accidentally tossing it at Mickey.
This is one great party. Awesome seeing so many characters together: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Clara Cluck and Carabelle Cow - all having fun celebrating the Mouse's birthday and doing the conga!
Grade A
Funny and rhythmic
bob the moo16 June 2009
Feeling a bit low that no one has really done anything for his birthday, Mickey is overjoyed to find that Donald, Minnie and a group of other friends have set a surprise party for him at his house! Now, all it needs is for Goofy to finish that cake.
Although I'm not a fan of this period of Disney I did enjoy this short. Usually when I see the wholesome comedy of Disney I begin to yearn for the slightly cleverer WB cartoons of Bugs et al. However this film does what it does well and didn't make me wish it were anything else.
The central scene of the short is the party, where Mickey and guests dance with Minnie continually breaking away to check Goofy's progress with the cake. Each time she checks him, he has just managed to destroy his most recent effort. While it isn't exactly cutting edge humour (even then) it has energy to it that makes it seem funnier. The ongoing dance feeds into Goofy's movements in the kitchen and makes it all feel joined up.
Overall this isn't the height of comedy and isn't consistently laugh out loud funny. However it has rhythm and is fun to watch and well worth a 5 minute slot of your time.
Although I'm not a fan of this period of Disney I did enjoy this short. Usually when I see the wholesome comedy of Disney I begin to yearn for the slightly cleverer WB cartoons of Bugs et al. However this film does what it does well and didn't make me wish it were anything else.
The central scene of the short is the party, where Mickey and guests dance with Minnie continually breaking away to check Goofy's progress with the cake. Each time she checks him, he has just managed to destroy his most recent effort. While it isn't exactly cutting edge humour (even then) it has energy to it that makes it seem funnier. The ongoing dance feeds into Goofy's movements in the kitchen and makes it all feel joined up.
Overall this isn't the height of comedy and isn't consistently laugh out loud funny. However it has rhythm and is fun to watch and well worth a 5 minute slot of your time.
What could be LESS patriotic than picturing flagrant . . .
pixrox110 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . food waste during the onset of American food rationing to feed our boys fighting overseas during World War Two? Yet the Walnut Dizzy mob of misfits sees nothing wrong with trying to wring their yuks from depicting a kitchen, several cakes and a few years' worth of ration stamps for goods such as flour, sugar, butter and eggs being totally destroyed, ruined and wasted on the occasion of MICKEY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY. As you watch Dizzy's wartime output, you have to wonder how much payola it took to keep the U. S. Army film censors from blowing their whistles against such outrages.
Mickey's Reunion
Vimacone14 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Mickey's career starting to recede by the late 1930's as more well rounded cartoon personalities became more popular with audiences. Disney started to focus more on feature films during that time as well, which led to less remarkable cartoon shorts. Donald's cartoons quickly became formulaic, while the Pluto and Goofy shorts were the best source for comedy. Yet, the Mickey cartoons still had the remarkable charm as they always did.
One memorable aspect of this short, is that this is one of the few shorts in the 1940's that features Mickey's original supporting characters from his early career, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and Clara Cluck. Not counting the remake of ORPHAN'S BENEFIT (released a few months earlier), this is sort of a reunion of all of Mickey's regular supporting cast (although Pluto is conspicuously absent).
Ken Muse and Riley Thompson do a terrific performance of animating Mickey doing a solo dance number. True to the classic Mickey-Donald-Goofy setup, there's intercutting comic situations involving Donald dancing with Clara and Goofy baking a cake and having troubles with an oven with a mind of its own (I wonder if Volcanic Heat was an actual oven setting in those days; it made for a hilarious gag). The latin beat that the party goers dance to is likely a subtle nod to the Good Neighbor policy that Disney had a hand in while this short was in production.
Donald may have been a box office draw for Disney in the 1940's and 50's, but Mickey is the legacy for the cartoon shorts. This is a quintessential Mickey at his best.
One memorable aspect of this short, is that this is one of the few shorts in the 1940's that features Mickey's original supporting characters from his early career, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and Clara Cluck. Not counting the remake of ORPHAN'S BENEFIT (released a few months earlier), this is sort of a reunion of all of Mickey's regular supporting cast (although Pluto is conspicuously absent).
Ken Muse and Riley Thompson do a terrific performance of animating Mickey doing a solo dance number. True to the classic Mickey-Donald-Goofy setup, there's intercutting comic situations involving Donald dancing with Clara and Goofy baking a cake and having troubles with an oven with a mind of its own (I wonder if Volcanic Heat was an actual oven setting in those days; it made for a hilarious gag). The latin beat that the party goers dance to is likely a subtle nod to the Good Neighbor policy that Disney had a hand in while this short was in production.
Donald may have been a box office draw for Disney in the 1940's and 50's, but Mickey is the legacy for the cartoon shorts. This is a quintessential Mickey at his best.
Birthday time with Disney
TheLittleSongbird6 June 2012
Not one of my favourites, but a nice cartoon all the same. The story is rather routine, though crisply paced and never less than entertaining, and Mickey though as likable as ever even for a character that has his name in the title plays second fiddle in terms of laughs to Goofy and Donald. Goofy and Donald are just great though, Goofy's hopeless attempts to bake a cake and his idea at the end represented by a light bulb that he reaches up to touch are the highlights of the cartoon and Donald's dancing was great to see, amusing and interesting. Another good scene was the Conga Train, which does make you want to go to the Rio Festival. The animation is bright and colourful, and the music from the whimsical orchestration to the rhythmic South American dance music(even a little bit of atonality on the organ) is typically wonderful. I also appreciated seeing the likes of Clara, Horace and Clarabelle, all three fun in their own way and makes one wish they were in more cartoons. All in all, a fun if not completely exceptional cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox
A Big Party For A Little Mouse
Ron Oliver4 February 2003
A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.
Minnie gets help from Donald Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar & Clara Cluck to make MICKEY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY a big success.
Lots of fun in this little film, with much amusement derived from watching Madame Cluck nearly dance the feathers off Donald and seeing hapless Goofy turned loose in Minnie's kitchen. Also of interest is enjoying Horace, Clarabelle & the formidable Clara in their virtual swan song performances. Subsequently, Clara would make only the most fleeting of curtain calls 41 years later in MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1983), while it would be another 48 years until Clarabelle & Horace had substantial roles again, in THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER (1990). Blame must regrettably be laid at Disney's door for allowing these talented thespians to be forcibly retired from the screen. Clarence Nash & Florence Gill provide the unique voices for the Duck & the Cluck. For the record, Mickey turned 14 in November of 1942, the year this cartoon was released.
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 will always pay off.
Minnie gets help from Donald Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar & Clara Cluck to make MICKEY'S BIRTHDAY PARTY a big success.
Lots of fun in this little film, with much amusement derived from watching Madame Cluck nearly dance the feathers off Donald and seeing hapless Goofy turned loose in Minnie's kitchen. Also of interest is enjoying Horace, Clarabelle & the formidable Clara in their virtual swan song performances. Subsequently, Clara would make only the most fleeting of curtain calls 41 years later in MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1983), while it would be another 48 years until Clarabelle & Horace had substantial roles again, in THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER (1990). Blame must regrettably be laid at Disney's door for allowing these talented thespians to be forcibly retired from the screen. Clarence Nash & Florence Gill provide the unique voices for the Duck & the Cluck. For the record, Mickey turned 14 in November of 1942, the year this cartoon was released.
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 will always pay off.
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