Ode To The Unlucky Quacker - Best of Donald Duck

For my second top 20, I guess I will have to give you an extra-bonus and realize a promise I made to you, me dear public !
However , to properly understand the title , you'll have to unfortunately read this article whenwillthehurtingstop.blogspo… SMELL The fail ! witness the affront! Behold the blasphemy ! Contemplate the rotten contempt! Heed the disdainfulness ! Gaze at the arrogance! Glare at the pomposity! See the pretension! Note the snobbishness! What a revolting display of snooty superciliousness !
(the thesaurus is your friend !)

This article is nothing more but a tantamount of infectious vilification and discredit towards the art of animation and Donald's contributions to that noble art ! Seriously I am sick and tired of this Bullcrap about Comics Donald being impossible to translate to the big screen as much as the so-called One-note character of Cartoon Donald (bowlderized Doppelganger, my scrotum...) ! Also what's with people only mentionning the Chip and Dale crap? Did they ACTUALLY watch all his filmography ? . This to me is just a fucking lazy excuse to not give the duck a chance, and that is what Disney execs have been doing. But one problem at a time, we will get to the comics later ...

A lot of fans (a lot of donaldists) decry that the treatment of Donald in both mediums is different as day and night and that he is an everyman in the comics. Now that is complete Bullcrap ! Were we watching and reading the same Donald ? He is THE average Joe in BOTH ! He started as cute quacking trickster but has increased in complexity in regard to personality, physical appearance, and story versatility.
Donald's every bit as varied and relatable in both mediums, the one true difference is just that animation is different from comics so there are separate storytelling techniques , simple as that! (thought bubbles are to comics what facial expressions and mood variations are to animation...)

Donald actually had a career in animation in the first place because he HAS a personality ! He actually reflects who people are (which is part of what makes both he and Daffy so endearing , but let's not get sidetracked !), he was a symbol for whoever lived the great depression! People can relate to a character who was frustrated and tried to get by despite the bull that gets thrown at him. He is not a saint , he can get impatient , mad, lazy , hypocritical BUT he also wants to improve his own life or do good more often than not.

Now before starting the first countdown , I think it is better to talk about each director quickly :

Jack Kinney was undoubtely an amazing director, not only for Donald as we'll see but also for PERFECTING Goofy. Interestingly, he loved the idea of exploring Donald's mind; Don's monologuing a lot in Kinney's best shorts. RETAIN What I said right here people.... you'll get soon why .

Dick Lundy is the man who animated him in his first appearance and directed some fun stuff with him.

Jack King. Easily the greatest Donald director EVER... the man just deserves a lot more respect and praise than what he's given.
The guy may have been an old hand BUT he had the most varied and the most entertaining shorts ever ... I was not joking when I previously called him the precursor to the adventurous Barks Donald !He definitely embraces the essence of Donald as the ultimate average Joe ! And he easily had the best Daisy ever ! So all hail the King, Baybay !

Jack Hannah.... on the one hand, I do praise him as an excellent storyman and as having a great sense of timing than his contemporary colleagues. He also introduced Tony Anselmo to Clarence Nash (great move ! That is a great idea Mr Hannah , thank you !). But after a few very good shorts (the best of Hannah in general is a riot!) , he literally buttfucked Donald's animated career and reputation ... Here is something all of you should remember : Fall guys in cartoons or comics are at the center of their stories ! Donald may be a comedic loser but the short has to be about HIM not the fucking vermins . Hannah made the shorts about the vermins unfortunately , to the exclusion of all other things that could involve a character as multi-layered as Donald Duck. I think they should have handed Don to a director who'd understand the essence of the duck, not put him in those lame formulas at the expense of the wonder that could have been Don's world in animation, as it was in his comics! And I don't blame Donald one bit for trying to kill Humphrey Bear or Chip and Dale. They were soooo lame and fucking grating! I mean people love to belittle the duck's voice but can stand the chipmunks voice ? Are you shitting me ?! Thank God for Rescue Rangers to retool these 2 pests into actual characters !(Dale is likable but Chip is still slappable in that ...)

Well like every Doug Walkeresque top 20 I did or will do , we need the appropriate tune for this countdown ... Take it away Dr.Von Drake! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-j8D_…



20) DUCK PIMPLES (1945 Kinney)

Donald falls prey to his overactive imagination when he falls asleep while listening to a suspenseful radio program. He is mostly passive here and has to survive through his own very & bizarre little film. Who says Don has no imagunation ?

19) CRAZY WITH THE HEAT (1945 Bob Carlson)

This is Bob Carlson sole effort with the duck and it is a riot. Goofy and Donald are both stranded in a desert and both suffer mirages and thirst. Okay Not entirely accurate because Donald is the one who suffers from Goofy's obliviousness ...

18) DONALD'S DOUBLE TROUBLE (1946 King)

Chewed by Daisy over his temper, Donald hires a look-a-like to make it seem that he's changed for the better. However, the look-a-like soon begins to muscle in on Donald's territory as he himself is attracted to Daisy...

17) DONALD'S TIRE TROUBLE (1943 Lundy)

While speeding through the countryside, Donald has a flat tire. Due to the wartime rubber shortage, Donald has to fight the flat through the whole cartoon. The idea is so simple that it works to perfection with a character as diverse as him . Anyone had a flat tire problem here ?

16) CLOWN OF THE JUNGLE (1947 Hannah)

Donald is in the rainforest in South-America as a bird-photographer. All of Donald`s attempts of taking pictures of the rare birds are ruined by the aracuan bird... and the rest is just history . This is one of his craziest, fastest and funniest . The synergy between Donald and the aracuan bird is simply flawless.(much better than any Chip and Dale stuff...)


15) DONALD'S LUCKY DAY (1939 King )

Who said he was always unlucky ? And boy did he need every ounce of good fortune here !


14) CONTRARY CONDOR (1944 King)

Donald Duck = EXTREME Ornithologist !

13) TRICK OR TREAT (1952 Hannah)

Easily one of the best Halloween-themed cartoons. Donald not wanting to be bothered by any trick-or-treaters, prepares his counter-attacks to whoever asks for candies. He even picks on his nephews by putting live firecrackers in their trick-or-treat bags and by dumping water on their heads. Then Witch Hazel comes in and teaches him a much-deserved lesson and hilarity ensues. Carl Barks would adapt this toon into an excellent comic (expanding the story by making Donald even more aggressive and stubborn and Hazel's tricks more varied !)


12) THE EYES HAVE IT (1945 Hannah)

Donald plays pranks on Pluto by using hypnotism glasses to change him into different animals.But it backfires, when Pluto is changed into a lion.


11) BELLBOY DONALD (1942 King)

Donald not only gets the lousiest jobs , but also the worst clients! After Donald's hotel manager gives him a lecture about Donald's impoliteness to the guests, Donald is taunted continually by Junior, Senator Pete's son. Donald controls his temper until the very end...


10) IN DER FUHRER FACE (1944 Kinney)

Donald has a nightmare that he is living in Nazi Germany, where everything is shaped like a swastika. This is a very effective propaganda and is also one of the best anti-nazi cartoons. It is the only Donald Duck cartoon to win an Academy Award.

9) MODERN INVENTIONS (1937 King)

THIS is the cartoon that kickstarted Donald's career in animation as a solo star. He is still a young Donny here like in other cartoons such as "Donald's Penguin" or Donald's better self" (He'd become an adult Duck by the mid 40's). The robotic butler (voiced by Billy Bletcher) and its penchant for taking headgears away is quite the peculiar . It also marked the arrival of Carl Barks as a story writer for the Duck's films... a collaboration that will strike gold for years !

8) WET PAINT (1946 King)

Easily the one with the simplest of situations... and the most heartwarming of endings !


7) CHEF DONALD (1941 King)

Donald is listening to a radio cooking program while mixing up a batch of waffles. But he's distracted and uses rubber cement instead of baking powder... all you need to know !

6) Mr DUCK STEPS OUT (1940 King)

This marks Daisy's big debut and one of the slickest Donald shorts ever made !Daisy proves to be a hell of a dancer and a fun-loving one at that.The nephews want to have fun with or at the expense of their uncle and come up with excellent gags to do so !


5) TROMBONE TROUBLE (1944 King)

Pete's severe lack of musical ability is annoying both heaven (for Jupiter & Vulcan) and earth (for neighbor Donald Duck).
The pair of Greek gods, whose nap is being ruined by Pete, decide to give the POWAAAAAA to the Duck. Ass-kicking ensues...

4) OFFICER DUCK (1939 Geronomi)

Donald at his most heroic and inventive . Here's the story : Officer Duck is awakened from his (sleeping) duties to arrest "Tiny" Tom , the "little" guy... who happens to be BLACK MOTHERFUCKING PETE (who lights his cigar with a gun...) ! Our brave hero finds the strategic diversion by disguising himself as a baby ...


3) DONALD'S DIARY (1954 Kinney)

7 minutes of pure fun and a classic satire about married life. Basically ,Donald falls asleep and dreams of his day, and from there, it all goes to hell (the usual for Don actually XD ...). First, Daisy's brothers sneak into the car and Donald has to kick them out, then she questions the stone in her wedding ring. He learns some unsettling things about Daisy, that she looks like hell first thing in the morning, she picks her husband's pockets the moment he walks through the door, and even invites the whole family to dinner without telling him, resulting in everybody but Donald getting to eat.And it goes worse from here...
This is also where you discover that Donald's inner thoughts in his head sound very different than his spoken words


2) DONALD'S CRIME (1946 King)

Donald, needing money for a date with Daisy (Donald his career poor...he remains poor !), steals from his nephews' piggy bank. After the date, his conscience starts haunting him with a gangsteresque voice and he has to find a way to rectify his misdeed ...


MORE THAN HONORABLE MENTIONS: DONALD's PENGUIN (1939) {easily his cutest cartoon ever!}, SLEEPY TIME DONALD (1947)/DONALD's DILEMMA (1947){2 of Daisy's best appearances}, DONALD"S BETTER SELF(1938),THE AUTOGRAPH HOUND (1939), WINDOW CLEANERS (1940), FIRE CHIEF (1940), COMMANDO DUCK (1944),THE PLASTICS INVENTOR (1944),
DONALD'S OFF DAY (1944), THE CLOCK WATCHER (1945), The TRIAL OF DONALD DUCK (1948) ...etc...
And the greatest Donald cartoon IS....

1) DONALD's DREAM VOICE (1948 King)

The most touching and most innovative Donald cartoon of them all, using what most Disney execs (wrongfully) see as a handicap : his VOICE! He works here as a brush salesman but can't get to buy anything because of his quacky . After many failures, he buys Ajax voice pills that makes him sound charming and smooth. From that point , everything goes fine until the last pill...


About his voice now, since most people see it as the reason of not making anymore movies with him.

First off , Comics and animation differ a lot ! You don't need to have your characters speak too much in animation (or else it will bore the audience). Donald's body and reactions are expressive enough to make the point about what is happening, so there is nearly no need of having him talk too much ! Any other character you can think of does the same (Scrooge does not speak as much as he does in the comics. And it turned out well !)
Second ,Donald sounds quacky to people , but normal to himself. His inner monologues sound very different than his spoken voice (Leslie Denison was Donald's internal voice while Clarence Nash did his spoken voice...) . Why not use that to your advantage then ? He is , again, expressive enough to make these introspective scenes work ! If he has to tell the audience a story , there is the indirect narrator trick : His adventures are for the most part narrated by someone ...and at the end we discover that the someone was Donald the whole time !
And finally , this is not a fucking good enough reason to ignore the Huge potential of Donald and Scrooge animated adventures ! I am talking LONG animated features like the Goofy Movie ! Who is the moron who spread the notion that his comics can't become animated films ? THIS IS STUPID ! That is how some unimaginative lazy dunces think to avoid the effort while the "solution" to the (non)-problem was right under their fucking noses !
HELL , ROBOT CHICKEN UNDERSTOOD THAT ! www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnEWFG… I find him rather intellgible !

So this concludes the second of many top 20s to come ! And this is not the last you'll see of him. The comics though will need their own proper intro because we will have to set the record straight on a few things...