Sky Trooper

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Assigned to peeling potatoes at Mallard Field, Donald wants more than anything to take to the air as a SKY TROOPER. Maybe Sergeant Pete can change his mind...

Here is one of Donald's wartime cartoons, with lots of laughs and physical comedy. Pete has finally found his niche as a military noncommissioned officer. The legendary Carl Barks was one of the writers involved in this little film; Clarence Nash provides the Duck 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.

I have a lot of nostalgia for the Disney cartoons, and this is especially true with Donald, whether with Chip 'n' Dale, Goofy and Mickey, Pete, his nephews Huey, Duey and Louie or by himself. Sky Trooper is a fine example of Donald with Pete. They work wonderfully together, with Donald likable and Pete amusing and sometimes scary. Both Clarence Nash and Billy Bletcher do a fantastic job with the voice work, their voices are distinctive yet both put so much energy into their characters, especially Bletcher. On top of that, the animation is beautiful, and there is a suitably jaunty music score that immediately draws you into the cartoon. The humour also works, with imaginative gags and inspired physical comedy. All in all, a soaring achievement really. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Donald Duck is in the U.S. Air Force, but pealing potatoes while watching the fighter jets fly by, wishing he could be part of the flight journey. So, he convinced his superior, Pete, to let him fly. However, he was tricked into parachuting out of an airplane, which was something Donald didn't want to do. This results in some funny moments where Pete and Donald wrestles who would stay in or out of the plane, with the ending outcome being a blast.

The bit part where Donald tries to pin a tail on the donkey, but ended up pinning Pete's behind was funny. The parachuting part was average at best. But, it's nice seeing Donald wanting to serve his country.

Grade B-

There's one bit of information that's often left out when someone writes about "Sky Trooper": the great Billy Bletcher plays Donald Duck's nemesis, Sgt. Pete.

The diminutive Mr. Bletcher had a large vocal range and a voice that could be tiny or 10 feet tall. He could do everything from little high voices to big-voiced villains like Pete. He played The Big Bad Wolf in all three of Disney's "3 Little Pigs" cartoons.

Bletcher was also the voice of Papa Bear in several cartoons in Chuck Jones' "Three Bears" series as well as other voices at Warner Bros. He stars in MGM's "The Captain and the Kids" series as the blustery Captain himself.

Bletcher first appeared on-camera in 1915 (an uncredited appearance in a silent film) and he worked as an actor (both on-camera and in voice over), writer and director until 1971.