MICKEY'S ORPHANS
By 1931, Walt and his crew had really gotten into their groove. They were producing quality cartoons and constantly updating their animation techniques as well as their artwork and storytelling.
When Mickey's Orphans was released on December 7, 1931, the audience loved it! They were touched by Mickey and Minnie's compassion toward the dozens of orphan kittens despite their destructive nature.
In this short, directed by Burt Gillett, a stranger leaves a basket on Mickey Mouse's doorstep in the harsh, cold, snowy winter night. Mickey finds the basket and brings it inside only to find that there are dozens of kittens in the basket!
Instantly, the kittens start playing in their destructive, yet innocent behaviour. But Mickey loves them through all of this, and even dresses up as Santa to bring them all presents!
In the end, everything is destroyed, even their beautiful Christmas tree!
There is not much in the way of plot in this movie, which is the way of many of these old cartoons. The interest is reliant on visual gags and fun music which this short provides.
Mickey's Orphans was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) in 1932, the first year the category existed! It was up against It's Got Me Again, a very early Looney Tune, and the Silly Symphony, Flowers and Trees (also directed by Burt Gillett) which went on to take the Oscar.
As a Christmas themed cartoon, this one sort of leaves you wanting the kittens to have learned something about Christmas spirit. But instead, the cartoon ends with the kittens destroying Mickey's Christmas tree leaving Mickey and Minnie flabbergasted. Not quite the happy ending most specials try to convey.
You can watch Mickey's Orphans on the first disc of Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume One
The other day in my character design class we were discussing our favorite Disney villains. It got me thinking... what makes a great villain? What is it that makes someone truly villainous? I went through the list of Disney villains and discovered there are four basic villain types: Silly, Power-Hungry, Animal Killer, Evil.
The Power-Hungry villains would be Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Hades (Hercules) and Jafar (Aladdin). Their motivation is simply that they're not at the top and they'll get rid of anyone who stands in their way of getting there.
The Evil villains are the villains who have no motivation to harm others or do the bad things they do. They're pure evil. We really hate them, even though they're just a bunch of drawings moving quickly in front of us. 
I realize the last three have motivation in that their status or power is being threatened by the main character. But the reason I put the Wicked Witch and Stepmother on there is because they're heartless towards girls who should be treated as their own daughters. The Wicked Witch actually tries to have Snow White killed. And Shere Khan has what I would call the same kind of evil as the Borg from Star Trek. When he shows up, you know you're screwed. All of the animals of the jungle are scared to death at the mention of his name. He rules the jungle because his threatening presence has given him that power. I think he's one of the scariest Disney villains.
My top, most evil, most despicable villain of all time is Judge Claude Frollo. He's racist, judgemental, cruel... and he does it all in the name of God. He judges on appearance. He manipulates. And everything he does is to make him look good before God. We're never really given a real motivation for why is the way he is, other than his religion. To me, he's as evil as they come.
Back in August, Robert Zemeckis was reported to be seriously considering moving his ImageMovers production company to The Walt Disney Co., in a multi-year deal. Now it seems that this romour has become reality. Yesterday, Zemeckis announced that he will be setting up his motion-capture shop in the Mouse House and will direct a number of productions that will be distributed by Disney.
Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Oswald for Universal pictures. He was a typical cartoon character with simple facial features and solid colour body shapes that bared many similarities to Felix the Cat and Bimbo from Betty Boop. In fact, Mickey Mouse is pretty much a copy of Oswald with smaller ears.
When Disney and Iwerks left the studio to persue their own dreams, Walter Lantz continued to use the character of Oswald but made some changes to compete with the quickly evolving animation medium. Most notibly, Oswald was given gloves, shoes, a shirt and a cuter face due to the head being larger and the ears being smaller. Lantz also started making Oswald cartoons with sound in 1929.
Dell comics put out an Oswald comicbook in 1942, taking the current Oswald style and moulding it to fit in with other Lantz characters like Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda. The comicbook style greatly influenced the cartoons and soon Oswald began to look more cartoony and his fur became two-toned.
After Walt Disney's Alice Comedies had become stale, he and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal's animation producer, Charles Lantz. Disney and Iwerks quit after Lantz suggested a 20% budget cut despite the series high ratings. Disney made 26 Oswald cartoons in 1927 and 1928 and then lost the rights to his character. Lantz continued on to make over 150 more cartoons and Disney and Iwerks went on to create their biggest success, Mickey Mouse.
Mickey and Pluto are decorating the tree but some unexpected guests (Chip and Dale) have made their home in the tree and are dazzled by all the lights and decorations. Pluto sniffs them out and ends up destroying everything trying to catch them.
While the animation was really good on the chipmunks and Pluto, I am not a fan of Mickey's animation in this era of his career. The artists thought to change him up a bit. They made his ears not as round and his nose a bit longer. He never wore his trademark red shorts anymore and he moved like he had no neck. This cartoon is a good example of how even the best animators can make Mickey look "wrong".
Both of these films were directed by Wilfred Jackson. Santa's Workshop was released on Dec. 10, 1932 and The Night Before Christmas was released Dec. 9, 1933. They very much seem like sequels to each other. I'm not sure if they're intended to be or not.
The Night Before Christmas is what seems like a continuation of Santa's Workshop. The design of Santa is exactly the same (which is great... unlike certain sequels of certain Frosty the Snowman specials). In this film, we see Santa making his first delivery. He slides down the chimney (very cool animation by the way. The chimney seems to swallow him up) and into the fireplace. He sets down his bag and the toys march themselves out of the bag to the tree. It would have been very easy for them to reuse the animation from the first film, but every toy and movement is different... including little wooden Mickey Mouse toys.
Thirty years after Mickey's appearance in The Simple Things in 1953, Disney decided to put their main star in another theatrical film. Mickey's Christmas Carol hit the theatres on December 16, 1983 before a re-issue of The Rescuers. It is a retelling of the classic Charles Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol.
While Scrooge McDuck had a few cartoons before this one, it wasn't until now that Scrooge became a well known character. This cartoon set the tone for his character for years to come. In 1987, Scrooge went on to star in his own TV series, DuckTales where he used the lessons he learned in this Christmas classic in everyday life.
This is, and always will be, a classic to be viewed by generations to come. It is also a must see for any animation enthusiast. You can find it on various DVDs but the best viewing would be the original widescreen version on 