Donalds Verbrechen

Despite the other reviews I find this short lesser and little funny.You have to wait till the end to smile.I believe that was one of Don's failures.

Donald has a date with Daisy. But he has no money. So there are his industrious nephews, who have saved their allowances in a piggy bank. First we have the back and forth of whether to break the bank. Then when the deed is done, the incredible guilt. Donald is only human (ha ha). He does show some admirable traits in the end, but he does pay a price.

Donald Duck stars in this animated short film that lacks a solid plot and is aimed more at parodying the neo-noir cinema of the time. The animation is something that always delivers what is promised in this type of short film and it must be recognized that the references to film noir are quite good and compensates for the lack of plot with a visual appeal in the references in which it seems that Donald is having a nightmare caused by that voice that talks to him constantly. That gives a feeling of something out of Hitchcock. The only thing that can be said about this short film is that it is fun to watch and is only fascinating for its noir references without offering much. My final rating for this short film is a 7/10.

"Donald" is having a crisis of consciousness. He has an hot date all lined-up with "Daisy" but he hasn't a cent to his name. Then he espies his nephews' piggy bank and reckons there could be no harm in "borrowing" from it for the night! He has a swell time on the town but on his way home afterwards is wracked with guilt. He's a criminal, a bank robber, an untrustworthy rogue who sees apprehension in everything from his own reflection to a cat raiding a bin to an humble streetlight! How to made amends? It's got the crime doesn't pay message writ large, but that's amiably immersed in loads of daft scenarios as this duck's imagination depicts all sorts of tortures that result from his wrongdoing! The animation is entertainingly fluid, with plenty of action and even a few more sinister touches as it whistles along for eight minutes of moral with mischief.

Donald's Crime is a great cartoon. If there was anything that I felt could have been done better was that I didn't really buy the scene where he repays his nephews, it was something that he easily could have done in the first place. That aside, the animation is wonderful, especially in the scene where Donald imagines himself as a criminal, it has lots of colour and atmosphere with the backgrounds detailed and the character designs expressive. The music is jazzy and very upbeat. There may be funnier Donald shorts around, but few that are as interesting in story. The story here has a lot of suspense in the scenes where Donald feels guilt, and Donald's inner thoughts shown as reality as a playboy, gangster, big shot and prisoner was very intriguingly done. Donald is different to the character we are used to, usually he is one who is easily frustrated and has a bad temper, here he is shown as dishonest but after feels the guilt and is more sympathetic. It was a nice idea to do something different from normal and it meant that we could really identify with Donald. Daisy and Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie are on great form too, but it is Donald's cartoon and he carries it wonderfully, helped also from Clarence Nash's ever impeccable voice work. All in all, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox