When originally released to theaters, this 21-minute cartoon short was double billed with the Walt Disney film The Living Desert (1953) as a 90-minute package deal. This and "The Living Desert" were the first to be released by Buena Vista. RKO continued to distribute Disney's cartoons until 1956. RKO shut down in 1957.
When Amos is drawing up the BINDING contract with Ben, watch the gestures of his tail as he spells out this word.
In the book, some others historical figures have their own mouse companions the way Ben has Amos. Thomas Jefferson's mouse Red, whose name is repurposed in the film as Jefferson's own nickname, writes a document declaring that mice will fight for freedom against cats. Amos proofreads Red's document and repurposes it for the opening passage of the Declaration of Independence. In the film, Amos comes up with the Declaration's opening himself.
Amos states early in the film that his journey started in "the Winter of 1745," and he is last seen with Ben at the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This would make him at least 31 years old, a considerable age regarding the fact that mice can usually just live up to 2 years. In the book, this point is even more outrageous, because his memories of Ben are being written at the latter's funeral in 1790.
While the movie ends with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the source novella by Robert Lawson then covers Benjamin Franklin's career as US Ambassador to France. The novella's climax is a humorous epic battle between two tribes of French mice.
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