Straight Shooters

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Donald runs a crooked shooting gallery at the Carnival, until some real STRAIGHT SHOOTERS - his three Nephews - happen by.

This is another in a long series of cartoons in which The Donald gets punished for his bad behavior. The story is unremarkable, but the animation is well done. However, the Nephews disguising themselves as a curvaceous duck vamp in order to attract the romantic attentions of their somewhat lecherous Uncle has rather disturbing implications...

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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. 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 Duck runs a shooting gallery at a carnival, with candy boxes as prizes. His nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie walks by and Donald offers them a free shot at the targets, but Donald tricks them with cheap prizes and gimmick-ed guns. So, the nephews decided to take revenge and get back at their uncle. What results are the usual back and forth tricks between Donald and his nephews - nothing too funny here and Donald gets his usual beating and the bad luck. Poor Donald - always lettings things get the best of him, especially getting outsmarted by his bratty nephews. Wished there are more cartoons where Donald gets the upper-hand.

Grade D

I happen to like the Donald Duck cartoons with his three nephews Huey, Duey and Louie. Straight Shooters is not one of my favourites of theirs, I do prefer Donald's Nephews, Donald's SnowBall Fight, Good Scouts and Truant Officer Donald. Although there is a lot to like, the story is rather unremarkable coming across as somewhat routine, also there are a couple of noticeable continuity errors such as Donald throwing down all the bulbs and still having one left the next second. However, the animation is beautiful especially in the colours and the music as energetic as ever. The gags are still imaginative and timed immaculately, with the best moments being in the final two minutes or so such as with the "another dollar" gag and particularly the one when the nephews vamp themselves up in the Egyptian museum. Clarence Nash's vocal work is impeccable as always. All in all, fun and worth watching, I've just seen better. 8/10 Bethany Cox