Trombone Trouble

In this Walt Disney cartoon we see Donald Duck irritated by Pegleg Pete who is playing the trombone in the most terrible way. Not only Donald hates it; in the sky we see the gods Jupiter and Vulcan quite irritated as well. When the gods discover that neighbor Donald has some trouble with it as well they give him some of their powers. When Donald finds out he has some special powers he goes to Pete to learn him a lesson. The gods are pleased at first, but Donald knows how to spoil that...

'Trombone Trouble' is a nice cartoon although it is pretty dull in the first half. The second half makes up for that. The Donald Duck cartoons are almost always entertaining and there is no exception here. The voice of Donald Duck is provided by Clarence Nash.

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Pete's severe lack of musical ability is causing TROMBONE TROUBLE in heaven (for Jupiter & Vulcan) and on earth (for neighbor Donald Duck).

This humorous little film (written by the legendary Carl Barks) takes good advantage of the turning worm gambit, as the pair of Greek gods, whose nap is being ruined by Pete, bestow temporary supernatural powers upon the Duck. The tune Pete is attempting to perform is the Stephen Foster classic, `Old Black Joe.' Clarence Nash provides Donald with his unique voice.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This is a hilarious Donald Duck cartoon where Donald's beauty sleep was disturbed by Pegleg Pete's awful trombone playing. Donald's polite attempts to get Pete to quiet down were met with harsh responses. Even the gods Jupiter and Vulcan were disturbed, so, they gave powers to Donald so he could counter Pete's sour notes. What resulted were funny magic Donald vs. Pete action.

It's a nicely done story with beautiful animation and memorable characters. I thought the fact that the gods resembled ducks was a nice homage to Donald, and the ongoing feud between Donald and Peglet Pete was entertaining to watch.

Donald shows off his classic fiery personality, and the devilish faces he makes after learning he was granted magic powers was freaky and hilariously funny at the same time.

It's a fast-paced and pure fun cartoon. I was glad that bad-lucked prone Donald actually got the upper hand in this story - a rarity for him!

Grade A

Trombone Trouble has enough to entertain anybody fond of Disney or Donald Duck. It did entertain me, but at the same time it didn't wow me over. The first half is rather slow, the gags don't really kick in until later on and this particular half is more setting the story up and takes for my liking a little too long to do so. When my flatmates, some friends and I had a Disney short marathon last night, one found herself asking questions like how loud Pete's trombone playing was to wake up and infuriate the gods and what the gods were doing residing over the United States. While I am not as picky when watching cartoon shorts, her questions I feel were valid, even I was intrigued by the volume of the playing and how the force of it didn't destroy anything, and when you're asking yourself these kind of questions it could take away from your enjoyment. The second half quickens up the pace though, and the gags are fun and well-timed, Pete's playing is awful and all the funnier for it. I also liked that it was one of the rare cases where Donald wins, and seeing as I'm having trouble with noisy neighbours at the moment I could identify with his situation. The animation is excellent with lots of sumptuous colour and fluid detail, and the music is both dynamic and energetic. Donald and Pete are well-matched and their personalities shine as they're played to their strengths. Overall, not the most even of Disney shorts but it is fun and entertaining, and there's not much of a reason for people to really dislike it. 7/10 Bethany Cox