Le dilemme de Donald

One of the best Disney shorts. Highly recommend. Same very funny.

The title is a bit of a misnomer. It's actually Daisy's dilemma. For once, she is thrust center stage. No longer the shrinking violet or amiable catalyst, she displays a ruthlessly self-centered neurotic streak light years removed from the traditional Carl Barks comic-book conception. We sympathize with her all the same, despite her theatrics — which are not all that exaggerated when you think about it. I've known fans who would hang around stage doors for interminable lengths of time, patiently waiting for a fleeting glimpse or grudging autograph from their idol, gaining comfort during their long vigil just from the sight of a poster.

Donald's Dilemma is unusual for Disney in that it tells a definite story, laid out in the traditional premise/plot development/resolution fashion, rather than presenting just a series of gags and variations on a single theme (for example, wanting to fly, trying to sleep, jitterbugging, skinning a bear) which often ends abruptly when time is up. Happily, this well-crafted story experiment is highly successful, thanks to an ingenious central idea which is cleverly developed and brilliantly characterized, and direction that is both unusually snappy and atmospheric from the usually stolid Jack King.

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

DONALD'S DILEMMA is really Daisy's - after a conk on the head leaves her boyfriend a crooning sensation with no remembrance of her whatsoever.

Daisy has one of her very best screen roles in this humorous little film. The fickleness of the public's taste in popular entertainment comes in for a bit of gentle ribbing. Roy Williams, one of the adult members of TV's The Mickey Mouse Club, was the writer on this project. Clarence Nash provides Donald with his ordinary 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 storm of naysayers, 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.

This is the old bit where someone gets hit on the head and a whole new personality appears. Donald and Daisy are walking down the street when a flower pot falls from a high floor in a skyscraper. He is suddenly transformed into a great actor, singer, and personality. He's on the cover of magazines, he fills entire concert halls, on and on. Meanwhile, Daisy wants him back the way he was. This leads to serious complications and a predictable finish. Watching him get there is a load of fun.

This is a funny cartoon where Daisy goes see a psychiatrist, distressed over Donald getting amnesia from a knock on the head. Donald doesn't recognize Daisy and becomes a famous singer, becomes the world's darling instead of Daisy's.

Daisy I thought has always been bullish to Donald. Now, seeing her getting the brunt of all the bad luck and mishaps in this cartoon, from her getting kicked out by the stagehand to her going crazy over losing Donald, was rather funny and entertaining.

Great fun here with lovable characters and beautiful animation.

Grade A