All in a Nutshell

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Donald's latest business enterprise - a roadside shop to make & sell his homemade walnut butter - attracts the hungry attentions of Chip 'n' Dale.

ALL IN A NUTSHELL is a humorous little film, but no different from the many others that pit the temperamental Duck against the feisty chipmunks. Clarence Nash provides Donald with his unique voice; Chip 'n' Dale are largely unintelligible.

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 will always pay off.

The next short alphabetically on Disney Plus is "All in a Nutshell" a Donald Duck short produced in 1949 and distributed by RKO. I, like most people my age, were exposed to these sorts of cartoons as small parts of the schedule, on either BBC or ITV.

Donald Duck has a "nut butter" shop in the middle of a wood. His production is automated and all he has to do is feed in the Walnuts and put the jars on shelves. When he runs out of nuts, he locates a collection in a tree, unfortunately the collection belongs to Chip and Dale and the pair are not happy about having their winter haul stolen. When they see his shop, and taste his produce though, they soon decide that the butter is a far better option and begin stealing the jars.

We'll gloss over "Donald's Nut Butter" as that would have been innocent back then and only takes on a childish amusement nowadays.

I was surprised about just how much slapstick violence there was in this, as I more closely associate that with "Tom and Jerry" rather than and of the Disney characters. It was fun though and the animation was really well done.

While Chip and Dale are cruel and insensitive, Donald always seems to be the one to get the ball rolling. He was developing a nice business, but he couldn't resist invading the chipmunk's territory and stealing from them. The problem is that once these guys are wronged, they take no prisoners. They are downright nasty in taking their revenge. They also really intent on stealing anything they can. Let's face it, however. Donald is not going to win.

Donald Duck does battle with those mischievous (and annoying) chipmunks, Chip and Dale, again. Those rodents this time are raiding Donald's butter shop full of walnut juice and what results is more of the same vs. battles, with the characters tricking and humiliating each other. It's a little funny at times and, as always, the animation is great. But, Donald always getting the worst end of the bargain gets really old and I really prefer to see him win at the end of the story for a change, especially over those two pests. Those greedy chipmunks really need a good smacking or two.

Grade D-

I love Disney, and I also love the Donald Duck/Chip 'n' Dale cartoons. No matter how routine in the story they are, they never fail to charm and amuse me. All in a Nutshell is not only one of their best, but also one of their funniest. I especially love the part where Donald was shot out of the log cannon doing Goofy's famous yell. Is the story routine? Yes in a sense it is, but this doesn't matter, when All in a Nutshell is so well paced and funny. The animation is typically wonderful, all three characters are beautifully drawn, and there is so much detail in the backgrounds. The music is enough to lift even the heaviest hearts, from the jaunty motifs of the background music to the spirited opening credits song that you can find on other cartoons of theirs and on those with Donald on his own. Donald is a great foil to them, witty and cantankerous, and the chipmunks are cute in appearance but man can they be quite antagonistic. I have to say though, they sure like their nuts don't they? Overall, one of the best Donald Duck/Chip 'n' Dale cartoons, shows you are never too old to love Disney. 10/10 Bethany Cox