Truant Officer Donald

Is it just me, or does "Donald Duck" sound just like Katharine Hepburn here? He's got himself a shiny new badge and is on the look out for school dodgers when he finds his three nephews frolicking in the pool. He swiftly apprehends them but suffice to say they are not going to go willingly and are soon besieged inside their den thwarting all of their uncle's efforts. Whatever wheeze he comes up with, they have a plan - they even have three oven-ready turkeys and loads of self-raising flower! It's good fun this one, with plenty of imaginative action and mischief right from the start and it's even money throughout as to who might come out on top.

In this cartoon, nominated for an Oscar, Donald-animation's answer to the ulcer- is his typical genial and charming, sweet-tempered self. Haf the fun of these is watching Donald come out on the short end of things time and time again, for Donald is about as bright as he is even-tempered. The rest of the fun is watching his inevitable comeuppance, which here is as appropriate as it is predictable. Recommended.

This is my sixth review of an Oscar-nominated cartoon for 1941, having previously done the same for George Pal's Rhythm in the Ranks, Friz Freleng's Rhapsody in Rivets, Walter Lantz' Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B, Rudolf Ising's The Rookie Bear, and Hanna-Barbera's The Night Before Christmas. In this, one of two Walt Disney Studios entries, Donald Duck is indeed a truant officer who eyes his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie having fun swimming thinking they're skipping school. So he takes them any way he can but those three manage to find ways to elude him everytime. At least until they go to their clubhouse. I'll just now say this was quite a funny cartoon nearly from beginning to end. Resident Duck director Jack King really brings the laughs throughout. Only four more Academy Award nominated animated shorts to go...

Once again, a hilarious and fun if slightly predictable cartoon. Donald is as volatile and entertaining as ever and his nephews Huey, Duey and Louie are cute and mischievous. Clarence Nash voices all four characters and does a stellar job, keeping things amusing while never overdoing it. The story is in a way unsurprising, but well-paced and kept afloat by the imaginative gags especially the gag with the chickens/turkeys and one of the nephews pretend to be an angel and the wonderfully ironic ending is also noteworthy. Also north of note are the pristine-looking animation, the colours look gorgeous, and the energetic music score, always a big part of why I enjoy Disney(and Looney Tunes too for that matter) cartoons as much as I do.

Overall, Truant Officer Donald is a lot of fun, makes me appreciate Disney all the more and that you are never too old to love Disney. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

TRUANT OFFICER DONALD will do anything to get his Nephews back in school...

Written by the legendary Carl Barks and nominated for an Academy Award, this funny little film has plenty of laughs. The hilarious gag with the roasted chickens raised a few eyebrows at the time of the cartoon's first release. Clarence Nash provides the voices for the entire Duck clan.

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.