Donald chez les ecureuils

Very funny Oscar-nominated Donald Duck short featuring Chip & Dale. While it isn't the first Chip & Dale cartoon, it is the first in which they go by those names. It's also their first pairing with Donald Duck. The story has Donald at a wintry cabin. He decides to chop down a tree for some firewood. Needless to say, the small tree he chooses is occupied. Chip & Dale want their home back and are happy to torment Donald in the process. This leads to a battle between the duck and the chipmunks with expectedly humorous results. It's well-animated with beautiful colors and nice music. It's got a lively pace and several funny gags. This is good fun that anybody who loves these classic characters should get a kick out of.

Chip and Dale are among my favorite Disney cartoon characters, so this was a nice visit. Their design in this official debut wasn't the best of them, but that's my only nit-pick. I love their antics when they fight with Donald Duck and naturally get the better of him.

See it for yourself and you'll hopefully enjoy it even after all these years.

This is one of the first Disney cartoon featuring Chip N'Dale. Here, they meet Donald Duck, which isn't a pleasurable first meeting as Donald chopped down a small log so he could light a fire in the bitter cold, unaware that the chipmunks were living inside.

Donald is my favorite Disney character, so I don't like him being the brunt of all bad luck all the time. But, he does have some funny moments in this cartoon, especially where the snowball splashes in his face. The chipmunks' fast-talk was hilarious at times. Chip plays the more thoughtful and know-it-all chipmunk, while Dale is the more goofy and clueless one.

I remembered watching this cartoon short as part of a video cartoon short compilation when I was a kid. I've always thought the cartoon shorts were funny when I was a kid, but became a little more partial toward Donald Duck as he became my favorite character and Chip N'Dale became more annoying. But, it's still a fun cartoon for the kids and good for any true fans of the chipmunks.

Grade B-

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

CHIP AN' DALE make Donald's life miserable after he cuts down their tree for firewood.

The story & animation are routine, but the film is significant in that it is the first in which the Chipmunks are named, hence the title. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's voice; the little rodents are often unintelligible.

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 always pay off.

Despite the title, this is NOT the first appearance of Chip and Dale in cartoons. Instead, it's their third--and their first starring vehicle.

When the film begins, Donald, ever the jerk, chops down Chip and Dale's tree. Naturally the pair resent this--plus he's stolen their nuts! So the pair go in search of their tree or at least what's left of it. The rest is a battle between the two rodents and Donald and, as you'd expect, they get the better of this grouchy bird throughout the cartoon.

So is this a classic? Perhaps. I liked the cartoon and it's well made but it also lacks the wonderful sadism of Warner Brothers' comparable pair, Hubie and Bert--characters that were far less popular but whose nasty antics make me laugh car more than a Chip and Dale cartoon. Still, well worth seeing.