| Mickey's Good Deed | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Burt Gillett |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Pinto Colvig Walt Disney Marcellite Garner |
| Music by | Bert Lewis |
| Animation by | Johnny Cannon Les Clark Frenchy Detremaudan Norm Ferguson Clyde Geronimi Hardie Gramatky Dick Lundy Tom Palmer Ben Sharpsteen[1] |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mickey's Good Deed (also calledMickey's Lucky Break andMickey Plays Santa in certain home media releases)[citation needed] is a 1932 animatedshort film produced byWalt Disney Productions and released byUnited Artists. Set during theChristmas season and the contemporaryGreat Depression, the cartoon centers on Mickey's act of charity to bring Christmas to a poor family. The film was directed byBurt Gillett and features the voices ofWalt Disney as Mickey andPinto Colvig asPluto.[1] It was the 50th Mickey Mouse short, and the 14th of that year.[3]
Mickey's Good Deed is the first "Mickey Mouse" titled cartoon to develop withRCA's Photophone synchronized early-in-film sound system.
Mickey's Good Deed was Mickey's second Christmas themed film afterMickey's Orphans (1931).
At the start of the cartoon, special effects of falling snow were visible during the opening title sequence.
Mickey Mouse appears as astreet performer playing "O Come, All Ye Faithful" on acello whilePluto howls along. Several people appear to throw coins in Mickey's collection cup and Mickey wishes them a merry Christmas. But when Mickey goes to buy food, he discovers to his dismay that his cup is full of nails, nuts, and bolts.
Eventually, Mickey comes to the home of a rich pig family and begins to play his cello outside. Inside the home, a spoiled pig boy named Adelbert keeps refusing different toys that his father and butler show him. Adelbert then throws a tantrum after seeing Pluto outside, demanding that he wants him. On the father's orders, the butler goes outside and persistently offers Mickey money for Pluto, but Mickey refuses. While running away, Mickey drops his cello and ahorse-drawn sleigh runs it over destroying it. The apparently oblivious party in the sleigh call out a cheerful "Merry Christmas!" to Mickey and Pluto.
Mickey and Pluto later come across the home of a poor cat family. A mother sits at the table crying and Mickey and Pluto see from a picture that the father is in jail and she has no money for food or toys. Emotionally moved by the scene, Mickey returns to the rich home and reluctantly sells Pluto on the condition that he gets treated well. However, Adelbert has no intention in treating Pluto well as he starts abusing the dog to amuse himself.With the money, Mickey buys toys and food for the cat family and their mother, who is now snoring as he makes it back to their house and he delivers the goods dressed asSanta Claus. He barely manages to keep it quiet until he has snuck out of the house, just in time to see the children wake up to find all the toys he left. Mickey leaves satisfied that he helped the cat family in having a happy Christmas, though he feels depressed of selling away Pluto.
Meanwhile, Adelbert starts making a mess in the house by throwing objects at a helpless Pluto; even doing the same to his father and butler, all just to continue amusing himself. The final straw was when Adelbert uses the Christmas tree as a slingshot to send Pluto flying in the air, causing the father to be struck in the butt by the star. Finally fed up with Adelbert's abusive and spoiled behavior, the father gets the butler to throw Pluto out and let him go before proceeding to punish Adelbert by spanking him. Freed from Adelbert's abuse, Pluto happily follows Mickey's tracks to where he finds the lonely mouse sitting in front of a fire along with a snow sculpture of Pluto. Pluto burrows through the snow and pops his head out the top of the sculpture, surprising Mickey. The two friends happily share the pig family's roasted chicken for a Christmas dinner upon reuniting.
The short was released on December 7, 2004, onWalt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two: 1929-1935.[4]
Additional releases include:
