Les tracas de Donald

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

A nighttime leaky faucet turns a very sleepy Duck into DRIP DIPPY DONALD.

Here is another routine Duck cartoon - Donald is always enjoyable to watch, but nothing else about the film particularly distinguishes it. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's unique voice.

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.

Donald returns home in a bus, hurrying to bed to try to get some needed sleep. However, his slumber is constantly interrupted by the leaky faucet from his kitchen sink. You see all these funny images that mirrors the sound of water as it hits the sink, like torpedo and missiles. And, you get to see images of what Donald feels when he hears those annoying water dripping sounds, like earth-trembles and hammers on the head.

Lots of laughable moments from start to finish, and it's classic Donald Duck as you see his frustrated self try to deal with the drippy problem. He will try all sorts of scenarios and you will laugh your hearts out at each attempt. One of the funniest Donald Duck cartoon shorts you will ever see!

Grade A

I am a fan of Disney and Donald, and Drip Dippy Donald was even better than I remembered. The animation is full of vibrancy and detail in the colours and backgrounds, and Donald himself is very well drawn as you'd expect. Many times I've said that the music is a large component of why the Disney shorts work as well as they do and that is true of Drip Dippy Donald too. The orchestration is both lively and sensitive, and above all it is memorable and fits perfectly with the action. What was also good about Drip Dippy Donald was that it took an identifiable subject, and convey it in a funny way as well as showing a serious side. The mix of realism and hyperbole really worked well, the whole hyperbole sequence is amazing without going far off the radar in surrealism. The various ways of how the water causes Donald to go nuts makes for great entertainment and gives Donald a situation where he can play to his strengths. And play to his strengths Donald did, he is easily frustrated, on the edge and eventually almost out of his mind, qualities that show him at his best. Clarence Nash is impeccable with his Donald voice ever distinctive. All in all, Drip Dippy Donald is truly excellent, nothing I can say that is wrong. 10/10 Bethany Cox