Donald's Double Trouble

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

DONALD'S DOUBLE TROUBLE begins when he hires a sophisticated look-alike stranger to woo Miss Daisy.

Donald's volcanic temper is the main attraction in what is a fairly amusing little film - written by Roy Williams, who would later become one of the adults on TV's classic Mickey Mouse Club. Using a Ronald Colman-like voice for the Duck's alter ego is an inspired idea and the same voice would be used again for DONALD'S DREAM VOICE (1948) & DONALD'S DIARY (1954). Clarence Nash provides the Duck with his normal 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 storm of naysayers, 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 needs to improve on his English (because when you sound like Donald Duck that can sometimes be a problem for Daisy Duck), so he happens to run into someone who looks just like him but talks like Trevor Howard or something, and then there's the old switcheroo (and of course the Trevor Howard Donald is attracted to Daisy on first sight). Wackiness ensues, and there's several funny send-ups with this premise Sure, yes, it's a sitcom premise... but the ending has kind of haunted me my whole life. That sounds heavy, but at the end of this short, when Daisy discovers the obvious (it happens after a climactic scene inside of a 'Tunnel of Love' portion of a carnival), she's in a frenzy saying a whole lot of fast gibberish at the two 'Donalds'. That's just... if you're a real little kid seeing it, trust me, it stays with you!

Donald's classic and unique voice and wacky personality may have gotten the best of him when his relationship becomes at odds with Daisy. So, he hires a look-alike who has a charming demeanor and a suave voice to woo Daisy back for him. However, the look-alike seems to want Daisy all to himself.

It's classic animation at some of its best and a lovable story that will send the audience laughing. It's charming and hilarious at the same time and a romance triangle that will leave you wondering how Donald will find himself out of this predicament.

It's one of the funniest cartoons from my childhood and still holds up well to this day.

Grade B+

A simple, but very well done cartoon, with decent animation and top notch music. To further elaborate, the story is simple but effective, the animation is not as smooth or as colourful as other Disney cartoons but nice enough and the music is stunning as it usually is. Though I have to say I loved the voice acting. As usual, Clarence Nash does a stellar job voicing Donald, while Leslie Denison is even more impressive offering a sophisticated approach to Donald's lookalike. Gloria Blondell once again is terrific as Daisy. The three ducks have a lot of fun in a nice amusing cartoon overall, elevated by a hilarious ending.

9/10 Bethany Cox