Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Lidia Draper
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Freeman
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Vimacone
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.
OllieSuave-007
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
TheLittleSongbird
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
bob the moo
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.