Wet Paint

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

A desperate Donald tries to keep a mother bird from tracking up the WET PAINT on his convertible.

The main attraction in this little film is watching the Duck engage in yet another temper tantrum. This was Susie the Bird's only appearance in a Disney cartoon. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald with his unique voice.

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, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. 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.

In this Disney cartoon short, Donald Duck repaints his car, but gets interfered by a string-loving bird. After tangling with the bird, Donald finds himself painting over bird tracks, hand prints and dirt on his vehicle. His flustered expressions are classic and funny, and Donald gets almost the brunt of all the bad luck in this short. But, the bird doesn't seem crafty and mischievous like Donald's other adversities like the irritating honey bee and the selfish and greedy Chip n'Dale. Instead, it's just a playful little innocent animal who just want to befriend Donald, as the ending shows.

Overall, a nice little cartoon with redeeming qualities, despite Donald getting the bad luck again as usual.

Grade B-

I've always loved Disney and Donald Duck. Wet Paint is not an immediate favourite, but it is a lovely and amusing cartoon. Beautiful animation(look at the vibrancy of the colouring and fluidity of the backgrounds), a sweet engaging story and an energetic music score are definite things to like. Donald is as lovable and as temperamental as ever, what happens with his temperament is one of Wet Paint's interest points, and seeing Susie here makes you wish she was in more cartoons.

In conclusion, a lovely cartoon that has two great characters, a story that engages you, a few amusing moments and of course wonderful production values. 10/10 Bethany Cox