Soup's On

Soup’s On seemed awfully familiar to me when I watched it this time around.  The ending especially gave me an odd sense of déjà vu, but when I looked back, I couldn’t find another Donald short like it.  Perhaps it stems from the fact that the short is a reliable version of the Donald and his nephews trope, and doesn’t stray too far afield.  Nonetheless, it’s enjoyable.

I’ve noticed that there are several people who don’t enjoy the Donald’s nephews shorts, but I’m not one of them.  I think they’re wildly entertaining and enjoy seeing the boys work Donald up to the point of distraction.  In this case, it’s because they are doing what boys typically do, which is to ignore cleanliness when there’s food involved.  The boys refuse to wash their hands, so Donald refuses to let them eat.

If you’ve been through this sort of thing in your house with your kids, you probably get this short a little more than most.  I laughed hysterically at the ends the boys will go to in order to avoid the simple act of hand washing.  The humor lies on both the surface level of the gags that they pull on Donald but also below in that they could claim their prize of a turkey dinner with a quick run of their hands in the water. 

The climactic gag comes when the boys have Donald chase them through the countryside, to the point where a rock falls on his head and knocks him unconscious.  The boys, sensing opportunity, make Donald believe that he’s died and turned into an angel.  It’s a very funny scene that morphs into a surreal one.  Donald is up on the hay bale the boys have turned into a cloud, and for what seems like an eternity is playing the harp.  Why it takes so long, I have no idea.

Once it’s resolved, however, and Donald is down from his perch, we get some vintage Donald Duck anger.  He’s always at his best when angry, and here Donald transforms into a raging devil to chase the boys off screen.  That salvaged the short from the debacle of the harp solo and made Soup’s On a very funny short.

Pluto's Fledgling

Pluto is problematic to me.  I don’t necessarily enjoy his shorts as much as the others, but I do enjoy the artistry behind them.  After all, a Pluto short done well features superb animation, since his emotions have to be expressed through motion and not his voice.   But when that fails, it makes for some bad stuff.  Where then, do I fall on Pluto’s Fledgling?  Is it one or the other?  Frankly…it’s a little of both.

The animation of Pluto and the young bird who falls from the nest is good most of the time.  Their interactions are pretty exciting and fun, and they make for some good comedy.  The storytelling in this short is strong because the actions flow naturally one to the next, without a lot of exposition needed.  The set up is minimal, the action is easily understood and it is funny as well.

After the fledgling falls out of the nest, Pluto takes care of it, trying to get the young bird back up into the nest and out of his life.  It doesn’t exactly work that way, however, since the bird falls out yet again, and Pluto realizes that he needs to get the bird to learn to fly in order to keep him from falling.  To accomplish all of that without words is an achievement, and the interaction of the bird walking on Pluto’s nose and so on is quite fun to see.

The next part of the short, however, where Pluto attempts to teach the youngster about flying, is not quite as enjoyable.  The gags work, no doubt, but the “human” touch isn’t quite there.  Pluto tries getting the bird to drag along behind him like a kite on his tail and then decides to slingshot the bird into the air.  Neither works out very well, but they’re amusing enough.

It seems somewhat different in tone, however, from the beginning of the short.  Pluto shows a motherly and concerned nature in the beginning, and switches over to a little more annoyance while going through these actions.  Then, at the end, when the little guy has learned to fly, he switches back.  It’s that inconsistency that kept me from loving this short, but I still recommend it as a fun little Pluto gag reel.

Inferior Decorator

The year of 1948 continues to surprise me, as the quality of Disney shorts had begun to slip until this point.  1947’s entries were not that great, and I wondered out loud if the Disney animators were more distracted with the feature film pursuits.  Now, though, I see shorts like Inferior Decorator and wonder why things went South in the previous year.

This short is incredibly imaginative and fun, but it is still simple enough to be easy to follow.  In it, Donald contends with a less than brilliant bee, who makes the mistake of trying to pollenate a flower on the wallpaper in Donald’s house.  The bee starts off the short as a source of amusement for both Donald and the viewer,  but as always, things change.

One aspect of this short that is often overlooked in others is the music.  Outside of the Silly Symphonies, music isn’t always a big part of the shorts.  Here, though, the music sets the mood, tells the story in certain places and drives the narrative forward.  The bouncy attitude of the bee is matched by a bouncy attitude.  When the bee gets stuck in some glue, the music hums and buzzes with him as he tries to escape.  It’s really well done, and makes the short that much more enjoyable.

As mentioned before, though, the tone shifts midway through the short.  Donald spends the first half tormenting the bee, trying to get him to embarrass himself further.  As things progress, though, Donald ends up getting himself stuck in the wallpaper on the ceiling, leaving himself open to attacks from the bee.  The bee ends up in a spot of trouble himself, dealing with a cork on his tail, but eventually manages to free himself to attack Donald.  It’s a fun back and forth that makes for a slight racheting up of the tension.

The ending is one of the better comeuppance gags I’ve seen from a Donald Duck short.  I won’t spoil it too much, but suffice to say the bee gets his revenge with a little help from his friends.  It’s that kind of role reversal and comedy that makes Inferior Decorator so fun.  The entire thing made me smile from start to finish, and even giggle out loud for a while.  This is one you absolutely must check out.

Tweetwatch - Monday, September 26 - 8:30p ET - THOR

By Odin's beard!  The Marvel Studios huge release of THOR has struck Midgard, and 'tis time to join in a Tweetwatch of the newest of the Disney host of characters.  Gather your mead and mace, join your kin at home and hearth and make hearty noise as we enjoy this great fun film.  Here's how you join the fun:

1. Follow me and Disney Film Project on Twitter

2. Get a copy of THOR.  The Bluray and DVD is available everywhere, so you shouldn't have any problem finding this one.

3. Subscribe to our Friendfeed room. It's been a little wonky the last few weeks, so try to sign up early and make sure you can get in.

4. On Monday night shortly before 8:30p, jump in to the Friendfeed room and get your DVD or digital copy cued up.

6. At the right time, I'll tweet or post that we should start the movie, and I'll update the feeds with relevant facts about the production

It's that simple!  This is a fun flick, so come on in and join us for the excitement.

See you tonight!








It's that simple! Great time will be had by all. Can't wait to see you there!

Disney Film Project Podcast - Episode 38 - Newsies

We're carrying the banner this week on the DFPP, as the crew is joined by our first of many guests from TouringPlans.com, Henry Work, as we discuss Newsies.  The cult classic by Disney has many admirers and detractors, but we go through it in depth with Henry as we kick off TouringPlans Month.

We love TouringPlans.com, not only because Todd and Ryan both blog there, but because they are the official sponsor of our show!  Check out TouringPlans.com for all the tools you need to save time and money at Walt Disney World or Disneyland.  No matter if it's the Crowd Calendar, the Touring Plans or the Lines mobile app, TouringPlans.com has you covered.

Listen, download, etc.

Show notes:

• IMDb
• Wikipedia
• Soundtrack
• The bloopers Cheryl mentions
• The real story of the strike
• More about the strike
• Bale's reaction to Newsies several years later
• Newsies the musical
• Irving Palace Theatre
• New York World - Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper
• Some info about Houses of Refuge
• Moviola - the film editing equipment Todd mentions
• Henry on Twitter
• Betamouse

Enjoy the show!

Cat Nap Pluto

Cat Nap Pluto is not a short that you should watch while you’re sleepy or even somewhat tired.  It could easily get frustrating and irritate you more than you can possibly imagine.  Pluto is interested in taking a nap, yet he gets denied by Figaro.  If you have kids and have ever tried to take a nap, you can probably relate.

The first part of the short, however, seems rather aimless.  It takes about a minute and a half for Pluto to even show up.  Instead we get time that seems to be “Figaro’s cute antics” for no discernible reason.  There’s nothing wrong with Figaro or his antics, but it just doesn’t seem necessary.  He wakes up, bounds around the house and tries to wake up Pluto, who is not there.  That should be a short intro, but it takes quite a while.

Pluto shows up dragging in from what seems to be a very rowdy night out.  After all, we know that the milk man just showed up, and that happens in the morning.  Pluto is red eyed and sleepy.  It makes you wonder what the main dog was up to the night before, eh?  He comes in and collapses in bed, bringing in the great running gag of the short, which is the Sandman version of Pluto showing up to throw sleep into his eyes.

This gag gets repeated in a variety of places, as Figaro keeps trying to keep Pluto awake.  My personal favorite, and the only laugh out loud moment of the short, was when Pluto stuck his head underneath the couch to get away and the Sandman follows, lugging his sack behind him.  It’s really funny for reasons I might not even be able to explain.  I just know I loved it.

The main issue I have with this sort is that I cannot figure out why Figaro is trying to keep Pluto awake.  It does not seem like a good idea for the little cat to antagonize the larger dog.  If I were Figaro, I’d leave well enough alone.  That doesn’t happen, however, and Figaro ends up getting knocked out by his own version of the Sandman.  The problem is, there’s no reason for any of this to happen in the first place.  It’s a short that has some funny gags, but the story needed a little more  meat on the bones to make it truly entertaining.

The Trial of Donald Duck

When you see a short titled The Trial of Donald Duck in the queue to review, you get excited.  I’m going to state that as an immutable fact, because I was very intrigued about what this one would be about.  After all, it’s not like Donald is one of those characters who would sit idly by and take being cross examined, right?  And whatever he did has to be pretty funny?

Watching the short did not let me down.  Donald gets in trouble not for some heinous act that he is framed for, but for his every day temper in a new environment – a fancy restaurant.  It’s a perfect scenario for Donald, because his aggravated state plays perfectly well against the calm, accommodating demeanor of a restaurant waiter.  It’s a study in contrast that makes the whole thing that much funnier.

It’s also a bit of social commentary, because the restaurant bears the brunt of the satire.  Donald comes in simply wanting a cup of coffee, and gets served a miniscule drop of coffee that would barely wet his whistle, and the charge for that is obscenely high.  On top of that, the unsophisticated Donald pulls out his lunch box and starts chowing down.  The waiter then turns on him, writing out a bill for all the items in the lunch box. 

This turn in the short, where the waiter turns from a harmless irritant to a cold-hearted and literally stone faced antagonist, is key to the entire short.  It makes Donald sympathetic while still allowing him to maintain his temper and short fuse.  That’s a brilliant turn that makes this short unique.  It’s not something we have seen done well before, but here it works.

Donald even manages to get his revenge after he was sentenced.  Despite being forced to wash dishes, Donald instead rushes through his chores, breaking as many dishes as he cleans.   The tables get turned on the waiter, which gives this a satisfying ending as well as some great humor.  The storytelling in this short is compact, brilliant and a great example of how to use Donald Duck well.

Disney Film Project Podcast - Episode 37 - The Fox and the Hound

The DFPP crew are the best of friends, so we took to examining the Fox and the Hound, the recent Bluray/DVD re-release from Disney.  Join us as we take a look at Tod, Copper, Chief and Vixey and their adventures through the woods.  It's an interesting look at society and more, with lots of implications for Disney.

Listen, download, etc.

Show notes:

• IMDb
• Wikipedia
• Soundtrack
• The Novel by Daniel P. Mannix
• Daniel Mannix novel
• Fox and the Hound 2 - the midquel
• The story of Don Bluth's walkout
• Brad Bird on Ollie Johnston
• Disney Insider article
• Original Roger Ebert review
• Article covering Disney's inner strife
• Original Richard Corliss review

Enjoy the show!!!

Pluto's Purchase

Off the high of Melody Time, we come to the next short released in 1948, which is Pluto’s Purchase, a fairly standard bit of business that is entertaining if not outstanding.  Pluto is engaged by Mickey to run an errand, which is an interesting use of the main dog.  I wish I could get my kids to get to be as dogged in their pursuits as Pluto is in this short.

Pluto is given money and sent to the butcher shop for a huge link sausage.  The fun begins when Butch the bulldog sees what Pluto is up to and decides to intervene.  Butch has clashed with Pluto before, but this time rather than Pluto initiating the fight, it’s more Butch trying to subvert Pluto’s goals than the other way around.  It’s a nice change to the normal formula that has the added bonus of providing set up for a great ending joke.

The premise is fine, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired.  There are not really any standout gags or sequences in this short.  Nothing really measures up to the stuff we saw in the earlier shorts of 1948.  It’s not that they are bad by any means, just ordinary.  We see Butch try to trip Pluto, retaliation, a stolen sausage and a chase scene through the streets.  It’s enjoyable to watch, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

It’s the chase scene that is the part that really disappoints.  As I said, Butch is the one who starts the trouble this time, not Pluto.  But when Pluto sees that Butch is involved, he runs like crazy, just like he does in every other short these two are involved in.  While it makes sense because Butch is larger than Pluto, it doesn’t fit with the ethos of the short.

Where Pluto’s Purchase redeems itself is the fun twist ending.  I won’t spoil it, but there’s a neat reveal of why Mickey is trying to get the sausage that turns the whole short on its head.  That original bit of business makes the other parts worthwhile.  So it ends up that Pluto’s Purchase isn’t the best Pluto short ever, but it’s still a fun and quick moving work.

Melody Time

Melody Time is a mixture of several kinds of short subjects, as we discussed yesterday.  They basically break down into two types, though.  On the one hand, there are shorts that tell a story and have a narrative flow and those that are designed to interpret the music and rely on imagery and visuals.  The film opens with a more story based short, Once Upon a Wintertime.

As the opening song makes clear, this film will touch on romance a bit.  That bit is Once Upon a Wintertime, as the opening shots make clear that this will be a short about the courtship of two young lovers as they are ice skating.  This short is a throwback to the Silly Symphonies, as the characters don’t speak, and the tale is told through the music and the motions.  The looser body style of the characters and the ability to bend, squash and stretch them plays very well.  It allows the characters to express emotion with their movements as well as their faces, and that serves the short well.

Completely shifting gears in the second short, Bumble Boogie, Disney revisited a piece that was originally intended for Fantasia.  The Flight of the Bumblebee gets updated from its classical roots and reworked as a jazz piece.  This short is much more in the Fantasia mode, as the bumblebee that serves as the main character is attempting to escape the surrealist impressions of the music.  It’s a fun concept and executed quite well, which I really loved.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed follows, and it’s a complete 180 from the previous two shorts.  While it’s still set to music, this piece is a story, told with a narrator and musical background.  Dennis Day narrates and does the voices, except an angel voiced by Dallas McKennon of Big Thunder Mountain fame.  It’s a quintessential American tale, and the animation doesn’t work too hard to be flashy or showy, but instead focuses on storytelling and emotion.  That’s the right choice, because this is probably the most sincere and beautiful piece in the film.

By coming directly after Johnny Appleseed, Little Toot is ill served, in my opinion.  The story of a small tugboat that overcomes the odds, very similar to The Little Engine That Could, is a much simpler story.  It pales in comparison to the emotional resonance of Johnny Appleseed, but it’s not to meant to serve that purpose. This is a fable that imparts a lesson, and does so well.  If it had come second, after Once Upon a Wintertime, it might have flowed better in the film and gotten more recognition.

Trees is the next piece, a recitation of the Alfred Joyce Kilmer poem set to music, with interpretations on screen.  It just doesn’t click for me.  While the poem and the imagery are beautiful, there’s nothing to latch onto and draw the viewer into the animation.  It’s pretty to look at, but has very little to offer beyond that.

The next piece redeems the film, though, as Blame It On the Samba is inspired.  Donald Duck and Jose Carioca are inspired by the aracuan bird to get out of their funk and begin dancing.  It’s a simple premise, but the manic energy of the aracuan, the character involvement of Donald and Jose and the fun, frantic scene transitions make this a fast paced and enjoyable short.  It makes things happy and exciting after the slow moment of Trees.  This is the last vestige of the South American Goodwill Tour shorts, and it does a great job of infusing the culture but making it accessible.

The final piece of this film is Pecos Bill, a short that has served the Disney company extremely well through the years.  Telling the tall tale legends of Pecos Bill, the short takes up a significant portion of the film, and it resonates not as an artistic statement or a masterpiece of animation, but an amazing tale that is very well told.  It’s not the emotional or heartwarming example of Johnny Appleseed, but an exaggerated and over the top tale of amazing deeds.  Pecos himself is charming and fun, his actions make the viewer laugh and smile, and his ultimate fate is sad, yet fitting.  It establishes Bill as a character, and though the ending makes sure Disney could not revisit him, using him in the theme parks and other areas made a ton of sense.

As a film, Melody Time holds up extremely well.  With the exception of Trees, every piece is vibrant, exciting and evokes the proper emotions.  Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill are distinctly Disney tales that have been reused over and again.  The other pieces, like Blame It On the Samba or Bumble Boogie, are in the mold of earlier films, but still manage to break free and create something new.  It’s a great overall film that all Disney fans can still enjoy today.

Background of Melody Time - The Package Features

As 1948 wears on, we come to the Disney animated release of that year, Melody Time.  It was the 10^th animated feature film from the Disney Studio, and reflects a trend that had been building for quite some time  It was the package features taken to a new extreme.  This was the 6^th package feature released by Disney, and it would be 1950 before Disney released another full length feature story.

The package features began with Fantasia in 1940, which was not created for the same reasons as the others.  Fantasia was meant to be an exploration of music and the visual representations of the stories that music inspired or told.  It was a bold experiment in vision from Disney, although it did not inspire movie goers of the time. 

However, the package films that followed were not the same thing.  Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros were Disney’s attempt to take the cultural information that they had gotten from their South American tour and transforming that from a shorts program into features.  It was a way for the studio to make feature films during World War II that they otherwise would not have been able to release.

It’s worth remembering how devastating World War II and the animator’s strike of 1941 were on the studio.  The closure of foreign markets killed their box office overseas, and the strike dramatically cut production.  It took years for them to recover, and the profits stashed overseas led the studio to invest in live action films that were somewhat cheaper to produce, such as So Dear To My Heart, which will come later in 1948.

So the features that came after the South American films were one of two things – either a combination of stories that could not support a feature film (Fun and Fancy Free & The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr Toad) or an attempt to graft popular music of the day onto the formula of Fantasia, which is where Melody Time comes in, following in the shoes of Make Mine Music.

Melody Time is a collection of disparate shorts, pulled together almost from the scrap heap of Disney’s development of the time.  You have a discarded short from the South American features (Blame It on the Samba),  a longer piece that at one point was considered for a feature (Pecos Bill), a collection of pieces that tell a story (The Legend of Johnny Appleseed, Little Toot) and more music based pieces (Once Upon a Wintertime, Trees & Bumble Boogie).  If it sounds strange, it is.  Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the film and how it works.

Disney Film Project Podcast - Episode 36 - Pete's Dragon

Come with us to Passamaquoddy as the DFPP crew journeys to the small town where flim flam men steal people's money, sailors return from the dead and invisible dragons warm your heart.  It's Pete's Dragon, the heartwarming Disney tale with Mickey Rooney, Helen Reddy and Elliot, the world's best Main Street Electrical Parade float.  

Listen, download, etc.

Show notes:

• IMDb
• Wikipedia
• Rent it on Amazon Instant Video for $1.99
• Soundtrack and Lyrics
• Picture of Elliot float in MSEP from Allears
• Passamaquoddy film references
• Most popular films of 1977
• John Cawley discusses Don Bluth and Pete's Dragon
• Helen Reddy on Wikipedia
• Hurricane Belle and Cape Hatteras
• Pushing Daisies episode The Legend of Merle McQuoddy

Enjoy the Show!!!

Great Mouse Detective Tweetwatch - Monday, September 12 - 8:30p ET

Who's ready to get mousey?  That's right, Monday night's Tweetwatch is the Disney film that sort of started the second Golden Age - The Great Mouse Detective.  Prepare for mystery and excitement as only Musker & Clements can deliver.  There's a change to the Tweetwatch format, though, because Friendfeed has been glitchy lately, so we're switching to a brand new Facebook group!

Here's the details on how to join in.

1. Follow me and Disney Film Project on Twitter, then go join our Tweetwatch - Disney Film Project Facebook group.

2. Get a copy of The Great Mouse Detective.  The DVD is anywhere from $10-15 at Target, Walmart, etc.  iTunes has a digital copy to buy for $9.99.  The best option, though, is that Disney Movies Online offers it for rental for only $2.99.  Go get it there!

5. On the appointed night, jump in to the Tweetwatch Facebook group and get your DVD or digital copy cued up.  If you don't use Facebook, use #GMDetective to tweet about the movie, and I'll throw in tweets as well.  If you follow that hashtag, you'll be able to play along.  In Facebook, you'll just click on "Join Group Chat" to join in.

6. At the right time, I'll tweet or post that we should start the movie, and I'll update the feeds with relevant facts about the production

It's that simple!  This is a fun flick, so come on in and join us for the excitement.

See you Monday night!

Donald's Dream Voice

Donald’s struggles with his voice are well documented in the canon of the Disney films.  He’s switched himself with a double because of it.  He got hit on the head and changed his voice, leading to great fame.  And now, in Donald’s Dream Voice, he finds a pill that solves the problem.  It’s a new solution to an old problem, and it leads to a gag filled short that continues an improvement in the Donald cartoons of this timeframe.

First of all, I got a kick out of seeing Donald strolling the streets as a brush salesman.  If you’ve ever heard stories of the Fuller Brush man who went door to door selling brushes, that’s what Donald is doing here.  It’s an amusing role for someone with the temperament that Donald has, and destined to fail.  That makes for good comedy.

It’s not just that turn that makes things funny, though.  There are subtle things that improve the gags in this short.  Take, for example, the home owner with the thick New York accent who says he can’t understand Donald.   That’s some funny stuff.  It all leads to Donald’s depression with Daisy that he can’t sell anything, and his desperation to try something new.  That’s when he sees the voice pills on the street.

Buying and taking the voice pills leads not only to a better, clearer voice for Donald, it also leads to a massive increase in his brush sales.  Women start taking him seriously, even throwing money at him.  It increases Donald’s confidence and makes him eager to ask Daisy to marry him.  So, of course, it has to go horribly wrong.  His pills get away from him and spill into the street, leaving him only one. 

Donald’s pursuit of the final pill is a hilarious bit of business, as he chases the pill through the streets and onto the hat of a particularly large gentleman.  When the pill finally ends up in the mouth of a cow, who then chides Donald for his voice, things have come full circle.  This short ties all of that together extremely well.  It’s a well crafted piece of work that shows attention to comedic timing, detail and the types of things Disney is known for.  Sadly, that is not the norm during this period of shorts, which makes this one stand out so much more.

Bone Bandit

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:  Pluto gets into it with another animal over some kind of food.  By this point all of you should have stopped me, because we’ve seen this formula quite a bit.  Bone Bandit is merely the latest example of the Pluto clashing with small critters formula, with a gopher taking the antagonist role this time around.

Pluto awakens from a nap with a hankering for a bone, and in a nice little visual gag, he dreams up the “treasure map” that tells him where he has buried his supply of bones.  That was a cool gag that gets around one of Pluto’s weaknesses – his inability to talk.  Finding creative ways to make him interesting despite that handicap is the top challenge for Pluto’s animators.  The map gag works well to accomplish that.

Sadly, when he finds the bone, a gopher has beaten him to it.  The gopher is more interested in somehow swallowing the flowers above into the ground, but in the process disturbs Pluto’s bone.  After getting into a bit of a kerfuffle with Pluto, the gopher’s focus switches from stealing the flowers to irritating Pluto, either by stealing his bone or other means.

After messing with the bone for a while, the gopher switches his focus to the flowers that seem to make our doggy friend sneeze.  Once this discovery is made, the short is an exercise in ratcheting up the comedy as things go along.  One sneeze from Pluto becomes many, an underground confrontation gets ugly, and ultimately, Pluto’s sneeze triggers the near destruction of the entire backyard of the house.

It’s the quick escalation from routine to ridiculous that really saves this short from being just another Pluto cartoon.  That’s not to say that this is on the level with the Disney classics, but the fun ending that features the entirety of the backyard in chaos is reminiscent of the early Pluto shorts, when he would destroy everything.  In this case, it’s the end of an otherwise enjoyable if predictable short.

Daddy Duck

Many times over I’ve mentioned in this space that Donald Duck works best as a character when he is in a situation of his temper getting out of control rapidly.  What makes that even more amusing is when the situation forces him to control that same temper.  We’ve seen Donald be faced with job loss, medical ills, etc. if he didn’t calm down.  In Duck Daddy, though, he is given the ultimate check on his temper – a child.

In this case, the child is a joey, or a baby kangaroo, but Donald is still cautioned to remain in control of his temper, or else he will not be a good parent.  As things start out, that’s not so difficult to do.  The joey is adorable and it seems to like Donald.  Even though the kangaroo gets into a few messes, it seems like a typical parent-child relationship.

The character design of the joey is fabulous.  It is so cute that you forget that its feet have just trashed a large part of Donald’s kitchen.  Even when Donald goes to scold the joey, the little guy merely turns it around and clucks right back at him.  The animators and story men did a great job of providing Donald with the perfect antagonist.  The joey is not someone who you cannot sympathize with, and serves as a great counterpoint to Donald’s normal rigidity.

In this short, Donald branches out a little more than usual in his personality.  While normally he is quite matter of fact, he seems to take much of the joey’s jabs in stride.  Even when bath time becomes a problem, Donald doesn’t get that upset, compared to his normal moods.  Where things really get interesting, though, is when the little kangaroo gets scared of Donald’s bearskin rug.  To make him feel better, Donald jumps over and attacks the rug to show the joey that he has nothing to worry about.

Thus begins one of the funniest sequences in the late 40s of Disney animation.  Donald gets a little carried away and has the bear “eat” him, which drive the joey into action.  Imagine Donald in a bear suit running around his house being chased by a kangaroo that is kicking him wildly.  If it sounds funny, watch this short.  Duck Daddy isn’t perfect, but it does give you fun moments and some really big laughs.