Donald's Penguin

In this Disney short, Admiral Byrd ships Donald Duck a penguin from the South Pole. Donald takes the penguin as his pet, but gets angry with it when he thinks it has eaten his goldfish.

It could have been all-around adorable cartoon, but the penguin acting as a stuck-up animal at first and eating Donald's goldfish was cause for it to have no redeeming qualities. Donald wasn't even very funny in this one and, save from the nice animation, this is one of my least favorite Donald cartoons.

To me, you wouldn't get a good laugh with this cartoon. It might be cute for others, but overall, it wasn't entertaining.

Grade D--

Ah, how much I love this cartoon. It is funny and cute if anything. Donald's Penguin also is lovingly animated, with detailed and colourful backgrounds and crisp character features. The music is as is the case with these Disney cartoons is excellent, the scripting is funny and there are some interesting sight gags such as the goldfish disappearing suddenly. The characters featured are engaging, Donald, superlatively voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash, is as cantankerous as ever. But in a rare case, he is almost upstaged by none other than Tootsie, who is one of the most adorable penguins I have seen in anything to do with animation. Also some lively chemistry between Donald and Tootsie and a simple but effective story.

Overall, sweet and entertaining! 10/10 Bethany Cox

Donald's Penguin (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Donald receives a package, which happens to be a penguin named Tootsie. Soon Donald is trying to teach him a few things but when he thinks the penguin has eaten his goldfish things turn bad.

DONALD'S PENGUIN isn't the greatest Disney short ever produced and it's not even one of the best from the Donald series. If you're a fan of Donald then I'm sure you'll still want to check it out but there's really nothing too special on display here. The highlight is certainly Donald's reaction to thinking his goldfish have been eaten. As you'd expect the animation itself is quite good but there just aren't enough laughs or action to keep the film more entertaining.

Donald Duck is one of my favorite Disney characters, and this is one of my favorite shorts from the 1930s era of Donald's cartoon career. In this concise narrative, Donald acquires a penguin from a package. I have procured the DVD edition of "The Chronological Donald Duck #1," which contains the specified short. Like most theatrical shorts I've watched, it's both cute and funny at the same time.

The funny part is when Tootsie, the penguin, wakes up with a start and slaps Donald in the face. I also love it when Donald turns around and the fish disappear suddenly. The sweet part is when Donald just couldn't shoot Tootsie for eating the fish. When Tootsie was thought to have been shot, Donald scrambled around looking for her as the gun blew up the wall. In the closet, she had concealed herself, and Donald's discovery forgave her past transgressions.

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

DONALD'S PENGUIN - a surprise gift from Admiral 'Bird' at the South Pole - arrives and takes an immediate interest in the Duck's pet fish...

This enjoyable little film features good animation and a lively interplay between the two main characters. Although cute & full of spunk, this was to be Tootsie the penguin's only appearance in a Disney cartoon. The story was written by the legendary Carl Barks. Clarence "Ducky" Nash provides Donald with his unique voice, as well as producing a penguin noise or two.

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 will always pay off.