Parade of the Award Nominees

Parade of the Award Nominees is an animated short which was made for the 1932 banquet for the 5th Academy Awards, featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends leading a parade of caricatured Hollywood stars.[1]

Parade of the Award Nominees
The first time Mickey appears in color outside of posters
Directed byWalt Disney
Produced byWalt Disney
Animation byJoe Grant
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWalt Disney Productions
Release date
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The short is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon produced in Technicolor, two years before The Band Concert. United Artists had recently agreed to present fund the production of Disney's Silly Symphony shorts in color, and producers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney hoped that presenting Mickey Mouse in color at this prestigious occasion would help to convince UA to bring color to the Mickey Mouse series as well.[2]

Plot edit

The short features Mickey Mouse leading a parade of caricatured nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress. He is assisted by Minnie Mouse, Clarabelle Cow, and various anthropomorphic animals and insects as musicians and pages. The nominees in order of appearance were:

Pluto rounds up the procession that reads "THE END".

Production notes edit

  • Parade of the Award Nominees is the first film in which Mickey appeared in color, and his shorts were green, not yet the iconic red shorts that he would come to wear in the film series.
  • Parade of the Award Nominees is the first Disney short to develop with RCA's Photophone early-in-film sound system.
  • Pluto, presented in color for the first time, is gray rather than yellow-orange.
  • Animator Joe Grant was hired to create the caricatures of the award nominees. It was his first work for Disney and he continued working in their story department for 70 years.
  • The winners who appear in the parade were Hayes, and Beery and March who were joint winners.
  • It was only shown at the Awards banquet and never intended for the general public; it was eventually released on both LaserDisc and DVD as part of Mickey Mouse cartoon compilation sets.

Home media edit

The short was released on December 4, 2001, on Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Grob, Gijs (2018). "Parade of the Award Nominees". Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse. Theme Park Press. ISBN 978-1683901235.
  2. ^ Kaufman, J.B.; Gerstein, David (2018). Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History. Cologne: Taschen. p. 148. ISBN 978-3-8365-5284-4.
  3. ^ "Mickey Mouse in Living Color DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved February 20, 2021.

External links edit