"A Donald Duck Cartoon"

Release Date June 2, 1944

Synopsis

Donald is given a wartime assignment to wipe out a Japanese airfield.

Characters

Donald Duck

Credits

Director : Jack King

Videos

Germany

Donald Duck's 50 Verrückte Jahre

France

Bon Anniversaire Donald

Italy

Paperino Marmittone

Laserdiscs

Japan

Donald Duck's 50 Crazy Years

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : On the Front Lines

Disney Treasures : The Chronological Donald Duck Volume 2

Cut Scenes

All reference to the Japanese as the enemy has been cut out.

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Comments

From Richard F. Jebe : The german Video is uncut! And it is in englisch language with subtitles. But it is PAL. D'oh!

From Jerry Edwards : Donald is given a secret mission to wipe out a Japanese airbase. Unfortunately, he isn't told how he is supposed to accomplish this alone. Donald gets swept over a waterfall, causing his raft to continue to enlarge like a huge balloon - filling up the water from the waterfall. Donald is thrown clear when the balloon bursts and watches all the debris from the flood wipe out the base.

This is a very imaginative cartoon and one of Donald's funniest. It is full of anti-Japanese jokes, including sniper Japs refusing to fire at Donald until Donald's back is turned to them.

From Jesus Daprice : The scenes with the washed down airplanes looked very much like a Salvador Dali painting.

From Ryan : This is one of my favorite Donald Duck cartoons. Donald is told to destroy a Japanese airfield. However, he has to watch out for dangerous things such as alligators and snipers (the shooting Japanese). I always laugh at the Japanese caricatures. In fact, I own a book called "Our Glorious Century," which covers the chronicle of the 20th Century. It has a photograph of Japanese people who look very much like one of them in this cartoon. I think Disney should show this cartoon on TV and it should be uncensored. As Jesus Daprice pointed out, the planes that are washed up after the river floods the airfield does look like a Salvador Dali painting.

From Erik : A very funny Donald short. Though I had to watch it with German subtitles, it was spoken in English, and I could care less. This cartoon had me rolling on the floor. The Donald wartime cartoons really are as funny as it gets.

From Mike : I watched this one the first time when I was 3 years old. It was funny then, and it is even more funny now as I am 18 years old and knows a little bit of history.

From Baruch Weiss : I must admit Donald is out of character, he looks scared rather than angry, but nevertheless it was a fun cartoon. I liked the Japanese characters.

From Da Von : I think I remember seeing this Disney short on the Disney channel back in the mid-'90s. That was back when that channel on our old, last TV in the den was scrambled and when it was clear it lasted for at least a week in our area (that probably was the case that I know of anyway). Unfortunately, it was one of those channels that my parents would have had to call our cable service provider for and probably pay extra, and they either couldn't afford or weren't willing to do that (not sure), so I was stuck with that, which was why I didn't get to watch it clearly often for years (until sometime into the 2000s, when it was finally unscrambled altogether and the TV station/network or cable provider decided to do that at last, fine time...) but could hear. Again, anyway, this was one of those times when the picture was clear and normal. I was dressed and ready to go somewhere with my mama, to pick up my daddy from work (not sure if that was it, but I think it is), and I just watched this until my mama was ready to go in the meantime. I recollect liking this the first time I saw it (and still do), though I'm not quite sure if I saw the whole thing or just some of it. This is definitely one of my favorite WWII-era/ wartime Disney shorts, I like the Japanese snipers too. Also, I like Donald's fast-thinking, spur-of-the-moment tactics and techniques in getting out of perilous situations, tackling them and taking on the enemies. He still managed to do some improvising and be creative on the spot despite not already having a plan of attack nor any fellow army men to accompany and assist him, but he still came through in the end. It's a neat short and although I'm not really an adventurous person and wouldn't want to go through what he or anyone else did, I guess I do, however, like watching the adventurousness of it , which I think, for me, is what makes this such a great, interesting short and among the best in my opinion. This and others like it would be perfect to watch in history class, even if you're not a big history buff, they would hopefully make the subject more interesting, fun, entertaining and even much easier to wrap your mind around or engross. I recommend it for that reason, plus, history becomes more fascinating when done in animated form. I contemplated and was tempted to order one of those Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets, and plan on doing so soon, I might get the On The Front Lines one first or Disney Rarities, but I still plan on getting the former if I don't decide on that one officially first. For all the first time viewers of this short, check it out like I did again for the first time in years or buy one of the 2 Walt Disney Treasures on which it's featured/included. I enjoyed it and know you all will too.

I have seen "Commando Duck" and would like to
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