Inferior Decorator

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

INFERIOR DECORATOR Donald starts the trouble when he immures an innocent bee in sticky wallpaper paste.

This funny little film was the screen debut for Buzz-Buzz the bee; he would appear in several Disney cartoons with the Duck as his main antagonist. The tune played & hummed throughout is Felix Mendelssohn's Spring Song. Clarence Nash provides Donald 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.

As soon as I saw the bee at the start of this Donald Duck cartoon, I knew bad luck-prone Donald will get stung. While the bee gets his fill feeding on the flower buds, Donald is decorating his house with flower wallpaper. When the bee mistakes the wallpaper with real flowers, Donald gets to have some fun and torments the bee.

From getting the bee stuck on the wallpaper paste to getting it stuck in a wine bottle, Donald gets almost the best of the insect. But, when Donald himself gets stuck, the bee makes a beeline for revenge.

Plenty of silly moments, including Donald humming a song in his classic, cackling voice. But, you really want Donald to get the "win" at the end of the cartoon by this time - he really gets too much bad luck, which makes these cartoons with him pretty cliché and predictable.

Grade C+

Among a series of "bee" pictures starring Donald Duck, antagonized by a bee who likes to use his stinger, Walt Disney gets a lot of chuckles out of INFERIOR DECORATOR, with Donald unwittingly putting up wallpaper with a floral design that attracts the busy little bee.

Full of energetic antics from Donald and the bee, these "B" pictures delighted Donald's fans and Buzz-Buzz was used in many a Donald film short.

Here Donald gets tangled up in the wallpaper while attempting to thwart the bee's attack mode, but manages to get out of a sticky situation by letting the bee get his stinger into a cork. The bee isn't through and signals a swarm of bees to launch an attack on poor Donald.

Fortunately, the short closes before we see the final attack. A typically amusing Donald Duck cartoon where all his good intentions end in frustration.

The Donald Duck shorts have always been greatly entertaining to me. Inferior Decorator may feel routine- although the story accommodates Donald's trademark frustration and anger well- and more could have been done with the chaotically fun but rather abrupt ending, but it still makes for strong entertainment. The animation was definitely a high point, being very colourful and smooth it was clear that a lot of effort went into it. The music is energetic and beautifully orchestrated, enhancing the action and humour with no problem whatsoever. Donald's dialogue and asides are funny and do a fine job complimenting his personality as usual. The gags, helped by the crisp pacing, raise a number of chuckles and are timed well, the final one succeeds in making us feel sympathy for Donald while also feeling that he got his just desserts(contradictory as that sounds). Buzz-Buzz makes his debut in Inferior Decorator and makes for a foil that is cute yet cunning. Donald has no problem stealing the show, just by doing what he does best.

Overall, interesting for the debut of Buzz-Buzz and amusing and well-animated. Definitely worth checking out, without being a complete must-see. 8/10 Bethany Cox