Feueralarm!

Fire Chief (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Donald Duck decides to play a fire chief to his three nephews who of course thinks he is the coolest uncle in the world.

FIRE CHIEF really doesn't have too much of a plot but fans of Donald will certainly enjoy it. There's quite a bit of action here all centered around being a firefighter but I'd say that there really weren't too many that actually made me laugh. With that said, there are some good action scenes here including poor Donald taking all sorts of abuse as his showing off just can't be matched by his talent. There's a mix-up with some gasoline, which leads to a fun sequence as well.

Donald Duck is the fire chief in a department manned by him and his nephews. Huey, Louie and Dewey.

The cartoon short is in magnificent Technicolour and is good fun for a Disney short.

The nephews are upset by Donald's snoring and the mischievous trio set off the fire alarm. Donald's bumbling soon causes more disasters which includes putting the hose on the gasoline tank before hosing the a burning building.

The result; pretty soon everything is up in flames including Donald's own hat.

Poor Donald, those nephews are certainly a handful.

This is a hilarious Donald Duck cartoon where he and his nephews try to put out a fire that was started in their very own fire station. After stumbles and late starts and slow reactions, they've finally doused the station with water. But, when the hose is broken, Donald inadvertently douses the station with gasoline, with obvious results.

It's funny from start to finish, with classic Donald and Huey, Duey and Louie expressions and characteristics and colorful graphics. Donald basically sums up all his misadventures at the end - "You can't win, you just can't win."

Grade A

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Donald Duck, the FIRE CHIEF of Hook & Ladder Company 13, manages to start a roaring conflagration in his own engine house.

Donald gets himself into trouble yet again - with able assistance from Huey, Dewey & Louie - in this well-animated little film. There is a good chance that viewers who have suffered a devastating fire will not find this cartoon very amusing. The story was written by the legendary Carl Barks; Clarence Nash provides the voices for the entire Duck clan.

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.

Donald is another name for disaster. Why do you think Cockney rhyming slang uses Donald Duck for bad luck? In this cartoon Donald is a Fire Chief and his nephews his staff. Being such an incompetent leader he soon sets fire to the station-house itself and cannot save it for the life of him. Whether tackling raging hoses, falling through the sky or pumping gasoline into fire Donald suffers the worst of everything as Huey, Duey and Louie duck (pun intended) for cover.

The cartoon features some cuteness not often found in Disney shorts. I never really believed that was something he ever intended. The vivid animation always seems to be first and imaginative mayhem second. This short has all three.