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Walt Disney’s Classic Animated Characters Presents Disney’s Clara Cluck

Walt's Dreamer | May 07, 2009 | 0 comments

Clara Cluck was born — make that hatched — to shine in the spotlight. Blessed with buxom good looks, aristocratic bearing and a magnificent singing voice, Madame Cluck was known as “the barnyard nightingale,” the illustrious title with which Mickey Mouse introduced Clara in Orphan’s Benefit (1934). No stranger to the thrill of applause and curtain calls, Clara is a performer serenely confident in her singing abilities. This not-so-little hen radiates stage presence whether she’s squawking an aria or just being a good neighbor to Mickey and Minnie.

When did Clara first start clucking? As with Donald Duck and Goofy, it all started with a voice. A concert singer classically trained at London’s Royal Academy of Music named Florence Gill performed an impression of a hen clucking grand opera, and her unusual recital impressed Walt Disney. Florence was cast as the voice of the title character in the 1934 Silly Symphony The Wise Little Hen (which was also Donald’s debut film), and that her unique vocalizations inspired Walt and his artists to create Clara Cluck. Her debut was Orphan’s Benefit (1934) in which this grand dame took center stage as if she was born to it, and cackled her way to immortality (accompanied by pianist Mickey Mouse) with an unforgettable solo rendition of the sextet from Lucia.

From then on there was no stopping this ever-enthusiastic prima donna as she made every opera piece her own. Clara was spectacularly spotlighted in Mickey’s Grand Opera (1936), wherein she is given top billing on the opera house marquee, even outranking her co-star Donald Duck. In this uproarious operatic epic, Clara sensitively squawks a duet from Rigoletto with dashing Donald. Madame Cluck’s inimitable vocal stylings actually earned her a 1936 review in Stage magazine favoring her above her contemporaries at the Met.

As befitting a professional devoted to her craft, Clara is impassioned about her performances, and she is equally devoted to her friends. A regular and valued member of Mickey’s close-knit neighborhood, Clara always pitches in whenever Mr. Mouse’s community becomes involved in a performing project or just a fun get-together. In Mickey’s Amateurs (1937), Clara lends her clucky vocal chords to a radio recital, accompanied on the piano by friend and neighbor Clarabelle Cow. In Symphony Hour (1942) Clara is an instrumental member of Maestro Mouse’s orchestra, exposing even more musical expertise as she soulfully plays the bass violin. And when the gang gathers for a relaxing shindig at Minnie’s house in Mickey’s Birthday Party (1942), the feathers fly as Clara dances up a storm, almost pummeling poor Donald in the process.

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As part of the Disney comic book cast, Clara often plays a supporting role in amusing stories featuring Daisy Duck. As Ms. Duck’s close friend and confidante, Clara is an honored member of Daisy’s Chit Chat Society, devoted to playing bridge and doing charitable work. She at times even double dates with Daisy and Donald, accompanied by her beau, Rockhead Rooster. On television, Clara has appeared with the rest of the gang on House of Mouse.

But it is with her dramatic and imposing singing voice that this extraordinary prima donna has feathered her own nest as a truly legendary performer. A distinctive and absolutely outsized personality, Madame Clara Cluck is one of the few greats of the stage who can rightly claim to have never laid an egg.

Clara Cluck Filmography

1. Orphan’s Benefit (1934)

Orphan’s [sic] Benefit was a short theatrical cartoon made by the Walt Disney Company in 1934. The cartoon features Mickey Mouse and his friends putting on a talent show for a group of orphans.

The cartoon introduced Donald Duck into The Mickey Mouse universe, and Goofy, previously known as “Dippy Dawg”, uses the name “Goofy” for the first time. It was also the first appearance of Clara Cluck. Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow also appear.

The cartoon was remade in 1941 in color and with the character models updated.

2. Mickey’s Grand Opera (1936)
3. Mickey’s Amateurs (1937)
4. The Fox Hunt (1938)
5. Orphan’s Benefit (remake of 1934 original) (1941)

Orphan’s [sic] Benefit was a short theatrical cartoon made by the Walt Disney Company in 1934. The cartoon features Mickey Mouse and his friends putting on a talent show for a group of orphans.

The cartoon was remade in 1941 in color and with the character models updated.

6. Symphony Hour (1942)

Symphony Hour was a cartoon made by Walt Disney starring Mickey Mouse in 1942.

Mickey leads a radio orchestra who performs the overture to Light Cavalry (by Franz von Suppé). The sponsor (Pegleg Pete as Mr. Sylvester Macaroni) loves the rehearsal, but come the actual performance, Goofy drops all the instruments under an elevator, destroying the instruments’ sounds. Sylvester Macaroni hates it, but the audience loves it anyway.

Clara Cluck is in the orchestra in the beginning “rehearsal” sequences but not in the actual performance at the end. Other characters appearing in this short are Donald Duck, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar.

At one stage, Donald is so fed up with the chaos caused by the wrecked instruments that he packs his things and leaves. Mickey, determined to carry on come what may, points a gun at Donald’s head to get him back into playing. This scene is missing in some versions of the short.

Mickey would go into a 5-year retirement from animation after this short, not having another starring role until 1947′s Mickey’s Delayed Date (although he does appear in two Pluto cartoons released between these years). This was also the last appearance of Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar and Clara Cluck in animation for decades. They were not seen again until 1983 in Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

Leonard Maltin has called this short a “Spike Jones version of The Band Concert“. The animation is by:

Kenneth Muse
Les Clark
Bernie Wolf
Ed Love
John Elliote
George DeBeeson
Jack Campbell
Jack Manning
Marvin Woodward
Jim Moore

7. Mickey’s Birthday Party (1942)

Mickey’s Birthday Party was a cartoon made by Walt Disney starring Mickey Mouse in 1942, in which Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar and Clara Cluck throw a big party for Mickey where the mouse’s wild rhumba dancing rules the day. Goofy tries baking a cake, but keeps messing it up, such as making too much noise while it’s baking, etc.

This short is a remake of the 1931 black and white short The Birthday Party. The 1931 version only had Mickey, Minnie, Clarabelle and Horace, since none of the other characters existed at the time. This cartoon is animated by:

Marvin Woodward
J. Moore
Bernie Wolf
Kenneth Muse
Riley Thomson
Les Clark

8. Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)

Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a twenty-four minute animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released in the United Kingdom on October 20, 1983 by Buena Vista Distribution. The film was released in the United States on December 16, 1983 as an accompaniment to a re-release of The Rescuers.

It is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, featuring Scrooge McDuck as his namesake and inspiration Ebenezer Scrooge and Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit. This film was based on a 1972 audio musical entitled Disney’s A Christmas Carol.

Mickey’s Christmas Carol was the first new Mickey Mouse cartoon made in 30 years after The Simple Things. It was also broadcast on TV on NBC from 1984-1990, CBS from 1991-1998, and ABC in 2000 and 2003. On December 10, 2008, it was shown on ABC Family (along with Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too) as part of their “25 Days of Christmas”, but with several abrupt edits.

The short is also featured, without its opening credits, in the direct-to-home release, Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse. It is also available on the ninth volume of the Walt Disney Classic Cartoon Favorites DVD collection, as well as in the Walt Disney Treasures set Mickey Mouse in Living Color – Volume 2; however, the latter is the only DVD release to retain the film’s widescreen aspect ratio.

9. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Steven Spielberg and based on Gary K. Wolf‘s novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?. The film combines the use of traditional animation and live action with elements of film noir, and stars Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd, Kathleen Turner and Joanna Cassidy. Who Framed Roger Rabbit is set in 1947 Hollywood, where cartoon characters (referred to as “Toons”) commonly interact with the studio system of Classical Hollywood cinema. The film tells the story of private investigator Eddie Valiant caught in a mystery that involves Roger Rabbit, an A-list Toon who is framed for murder.

Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights to Who Censored Roger Rabbit? in 1981. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment to help finance the film. Zemeckis was hired to direct the live action scenes with Richard Williams overseeing animation sequences. For inspiration, Price and Seaman studied the work of Walt Disney and Warner Bros. Cartoons from the Golden Age of American animation, especially Tex Avery and Bob Clampett cartoons. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators.

During filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand and the shooting schedule lapsed longer than expected. However, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released with financial success and critical acclaim. The film brought a re-emerging interest from the golden age of American animation and became the forefront for the modern era. Roger Rabbit left behind an impact that included a media franchise and the unproduced prequel Who Discovered Roger Rabbit.

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