Sea Salts

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Elderly SEA SALTS Donald Duck & "Mac" Bootle Beetle have shared many seafaring adventures - especially when they were castaway on a deserted island back in 1926...

Although the animation in this little film is routine, the story is still quite engaging, showing, as it does, the affectionate bond between The Duck & The Bug. This was the second of only three cartoons to feature the Bootle Beetle; his popularity never caught fire and stardom remained an elusive dream. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies the voice for Donald.

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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. 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.

Donald Duck is always worth watching, he is one of my favourite ever animated characters, and Sea Salts is no exceptions. It is different to what we usually see with Donald and any of his adversaries, but this change of pace was refreshing. There have been shorts of his with better animation than here, but that doesn't mean it was bad, far from it. It is very colourful and detailed, just not with much that leaps out as unique. The music as ever with Disney is lushly orchestrated, enhances the humour and matches the actions and expressions of the character superbly. There is the odd subtly funny gag, the best being Donald's sailor dance and he breaks his back, but it is mostly about Donald and Bootle- here as friends not enemies- who recall their memories and that is really very touching. It may be unusual to see Donald actually not suffering, as far as I'm aware it is the first time where that's been the case, but within the story this did work and was appropriate I think. It is one of those cases also where we really do feel sorry for Bootle as he doesn't get anything to eat. Donald and Bootle are great together, and fare equally as individual characters. All in all, a lovely and well done short. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A beetle who has served on ships and wrecks with Donald Duck reminisces about their time together.

No sooner do I comment on THE GREENER YARD as the first Donald Duck cartoon I've seen with the point of view entirely elsewhere, then the next one does the same. And earlier. It shows Mr. Duck as we've always known him to really be: irascible, selfish, taking pleasure in others' discomfort, yet thoroughly human. Well, duck-like, if you prefer. It's an interesting way to offer a a Donald Duck cartoon, and Dink Trout offers a fine old man's voice for the narration.

Donald Duck takes on the title of sea captain. He is friends with 'Mac' Bootle Beetle, and he tells of the time he and Donald were shipwrecked and how they spent time coping afterward.

Donald was pretty crafty in this one, always seemingly cheating Bootle out of his rations share, and then using him as bait for fishing. But, Donald does show his true friendship with the beetle when he brings him on board a raft in order to be rescued by a passing ship.

The animation is this short is full of color and splendor and the plot of the story takes us away from the more conventional and cliché Donald Duck shorts. Most importantly, Donald doesn't get the brunt of all the bad luck in the story and he seemingly ended up quite well at the cartoon's climax, aging gracefully and still spending time with Bootle.

It's a different Donald Duck cartoon, especially due to us seeing Donald at an "old age" for the first time I think, but it's a touching cartoon with a Donald free of any bad luck!

Grade A