Donald en el país de las matemáticas

I know I saw this at least four times in public school. Disney did some instructional films during his tenure. In this one, Donald Duck with his whiny squawk and lack of discipline, bemoans the "fact" that he finds mathematics boring. But in steps the disembodied voice of Paul Frees (Boris Badenov) who leads Donald to Mathmagicland where he can see all the benefits of learning about numbers and geometric concepts. After one viewing in about fourth grade, this film was indelibly stuck in my head. We learn about why there are diamonds outside the rails of pool an billiard tables. We see how formulas are constructed. Mostly, it's a history lesson, showing how mathematics has aided people moving into modern time. And Donald is his usually squawky presence.

In Grade 11 Trig class, we made our teacher rent this as a going away present for the Seniors who were graduating early. This is a great example of the teaching power of film. In straightforward fashion, Donald overcomes his fear of numbers through illustrative examples. Plus, it teaches kids to play pool! Learn to use the diamonds on the table, and you too can improve your game with geometry and simple arithmetic. Recommended!

Donald in Mathmagicland is the Alice in Wonderland of educational cartoons. It makes very little sense, and to explain the nonsensical happenings, is the simple fact that this is mathMAGICland. If you're into some strong story telling, this is not for you, but if you want an entertaining and educational Disney flick, than this one is for you.

Donald Duck is transported to Mathmagicland. In this land, various happenings in normal life are explained through math, and an ominous voice talks to Donald, voiced by Paul Frees. Donald learns how instrument strings are mathematically designed, and how the game of chess in a math process, how the game of pool can be mathematically calculated, and much more.

This is not much of a story. It makes no sense, and has no real ending, but it's still a great short. The animation is fantastic. The animation features constant morphing of shapes and it's hard to imagine that these animators could use these techniques 50 years ago. The live action is thrown in well, also. The scene where they teach how to calculate pool is the most interesting in the movie, and the mixture of live action pool and Donald Duck looks excellent, and is a nice throwback to techniques used in Donald's earlier picture "The Three Caballeros".

Paul Frees is an excellent narrator, and Donald Duck is the perfect character to send to this inexplicable math land. The animation is great, and this educational Disney film is brilliantly animated and very informative.

My rating: *** 1/2 out of ****. 30 mins.

This movie is a must-watch by anyone from age 6+. It may be from Disney. It may have a cute, animated Donald Duck on the cover. It may be a classic "short" (27 mins). What is most impressive about this IMPORTANT piece of entertainment is the ability to converge entertainment with education to create something children, high school students, and professional mathematicians alike see the value of this excellent little film.

This is not your standard short about Donald playing hockey with his triplet nephews. It isn't Mickey and Pluto chasing Chip and Dale up one tree and down another. It isn't Goofy "YA-HA-hooey"ing his way along another bumbling adventure. This is good old fashioned egghead mathematics in the most joyful, silly, absorbing way possible. It is a marvel.

If you are a math teacher, PLEASE buy a DVD copy of this and show it annually to your classes, no matter what grade - 1st-12th -- even university-level would find it invigorating. If you are a student of any age, track this down and watch it. You'll never look at music, chess, pool tables, or algebraic equations (yes, they are all in there) the same again.

The best review I can give is this: My sister-in-law teaches 4th grade math and had never heard of this show. I went home and pulled it out of our library to "loan" to her. When my college-age son saw what I had in my hand, his eyes lit up. "My Trig teacher put that on for us! It's AWESOME!!!" I'm 52 and flunked geometry in high school. My 19yo son was an honors math student through high school. If we can BOTH find this little short to be incredible, I could ask nothing more.

Disney, I applaud you. Thank you for this tiny slice of edutainment that is worth every penny and every second spent watching. It's pure "mathematical joy" - two words I never thought would share the same sentence in my vocabulary.

First, let me trot out my creds. I took a PhD in combinatorial mathematics from Ohio State in 1986. I'm going to claim this is relevant for two reasons: one, that this cartoon is based upon some deep and beautiful mathematics; that this material can open up into deeper study for any student, from junior high to postgraduate.

The second is that this can open up mathematics for kids, and I will offer myself as an example. I remember seeing this when I was pretty young, and really got hooked on the bit about learning to play pool "by the Diamond method". It offered that math was "a lot more than just two times two", and that it was cool to study math.

The cartoon focuses deeply on non-arithmetic aspects of math, and that is welcome. Even as an adult, I still find it entertaining, but would be something I would give to any kid I cared about to expose him to the art behind math.

Buy it for the kids, or for yourself. But be prepared to study number theory and algebraic geometry, if you follow the leads -- rich material awaits... and as the cartoon notes, there are still many other doors to open and new things to discover...