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.

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

This short is aptly titled: it is a birthday party for Mickey. Disney released much more interesting and engaging shorts than this, but it is quite a collection of the majority of significant characters in Disney shorts and is at least worth seeing on that score. The animation, as is typical, is excellent. Worth seeing at least once.

This short was released in conjunction with the 25th anniversary of Mickey Mouse. The film kind of plays like your grandparent's home movies. There aren't many comic situations, just a lot of the classic Disney characters clowning around in front of the camera. There really isn't any story. The animation is classic Disney but only Goofy's attempts at making a birthday cake results in any comedy.