Donald und der Strauß

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

An ostrich is delivered to the Wahoo train station platform and proceeds to create merry mayhem for baggage handler Duck.

This lively and very enjoyable little film boasts good animation and a fine sense of fun. Hortense proved to be a bird capable of stealing scenes even from the Duck, but DONALD'S OSTRICH would be both her first & final film performance. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's unique voice.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

Donald receives a package that contains an ostrich.It was fun to see the big bird eating all the stuff of the station,and becomes addicted to the events that happen.See it,it will bring a smile on your face.

Donald's Ostrich (1937)

** (out of 4)

Donald is at work when a package suddenly springs open and it's an ostrich. There's a note attached to it saying that the ostrich will eat anything and for the next several minutes that's exactly what he does.

DONALD'S OSTRICH is a pretty bland short, which is shocking considering this was Disney after all. It's not that Disney never made a bad film but this one here is really lacking any laughs and I'd argue that it's really not all that creative either. The entire running time basically has the ostrich eating various items and reacting to what it has eaten. This just isn't all that funny and the one-note gag gets rather old quickly.

Donald is now employed at a train station out in the country. A package off a train breaks open and out pops Hortense the Ostrich. Wow, a recipe for chaos if there ever was one. Obviously Hortense falls in love with Donald and gives him loads of kisses, which he strangely doesn't like. Donald chases Hortense all over the station as he tries to keep her under control and stop her swallowing alarm clocks and accordions and stuff.

Yes, it's the usual mayhem and nothing particularly remarkable. From the mild entertainment of this cartoon it's easy to see why Hortense the Ostrich never came back.

I say this as a big fan of Disney and Donald Duck as I have said several times. Donald's Ostrich is certainly not a terrible short, it has great animation with the characters well-drawn, the backgrounds crisp and the colours vibrant, the music is very pleasant on the ear and is full of energy and helped by Clarence Nash's impeccable voicing, Donald's easily frustrated and temperamental persona works well with him. However, Donald would have fared even better if he had a strong character to work with. Unfortunately Hortense is not really that compelling, animated great but not very funny(in fact sometimes annoying above all else) and the chemistry with Donald is rather bland. The gag where anything in sight is eaten is a good one to work with, but is undermined by the fact that it gets repetitive fast. Also the premise of Donald's Ostrich is simple, not a bad thing, the real problem is that it all feels routine and not much is done with it. Of the gags, the only one that I really found more than amusing in effectiveness was the one where the radio as a device is used, a very inventive gag and used well. Overall though, didn't work despite some good points. 5/10 Bethany Cox