Uncle Donald's Ants

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

UNCLE DONALD'S ANTS arrive in force to filch a cake and a jug of maple syrup from his kitchen.

This is an amusing little film, with watching temperamental Donald deal with the buggy depredation the main attraction. The decision to depict the wee insects as a foraging tribe of African natives adds a bit more interest to the story. Clarence Nash provides the Duck with his unique voice.

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.

Donald Duck is baking a cake. Carrying supplies back hme, he drops a grain of sugar on his driveway. Soon the ants next door are marshaled in his home, stealing the cake and laying a macaroni pipeline to transport his precious maple syrup to their homes.

The ants seem to be primitive natives, yet they have all the engineering skills of cartoon beavers. Donald Duck doesn't stand a chance against them. But then, does he against any of his foes?

Uncle Donald's Ants is not one of Donald's best, but any short of his is worth a look and it is no exception here. The animation is a little lacking in finesse at times, Donald's first entrance looked a little rough, but most of it is smooth with the vibrant colour you expect. The music is wonderful, fitting with every gag, sound, action and expression, I particularly enjoyed the march-like theme for the ants at the beginning. The story is simple, but always amusing, crisply paced and Donald giving the sugar to the ant was very sweet. The humour is very Donald, very Disney, but not to the sense that it's over-familiar. What's more the gags are very funny. The story plays to Donald's trademark personality beautifully, and he is very enjoyable and charismatic to watch as always. The ants steal the show though, their language(yes they have their own language, and it's so cool!) alone is priceless. Clarence Nash shows that after nearly two decades of voicing Donald that he still has it with no signs of faltering. To conclude, enjoyable and entertaining, liked it very much. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Donald Duck spills some sugar on the street. Before he knows it his place is full with ants. This Disney short is quite funny. The ants definitely have the best jokes. Their language alone is very funny. Very entertaining. 8/10.

From the title of this cartoon short, you would know immediately what the program was going to consist - a fight between Donald the ants, with Donald losing. That is exactly what happens, as Donald drops sugar on his sidewalk, attracting ants to invade his home and steal his huge jar of Maple Syrup.

While the animation is great, with the ants' march and them turning macaroni sticks into a long tunnel to funnel away the syrup representing nice special effects, there is really no redeeming qualities in the characters. They're just greedy ants who want to steal. And, poor Donald couldn't get any redemption - even if he displayed a little bit of kindness when he offered an ant a sugar cube at first.

It's a very predictable cartoon, overall.

Grade D---