365 Films A Year!

Viewed August 26, 2006

Continuing my viewing of the classic Donald Duck Disney cartoons, we come to Modern Inventions, which is a bit too formulaic for my tastes. First of all, it is just a series of wacky interactions between Donald and several “inventions” that inevitably lead to Donald being abused in some way. There is also a running gag about a robot butler constantly taking Donald’s hat (he seems to carry an endless supply of them, from his standard sailor’s hat to a bowler, to a Napoleanic hat).

It’s focus on the comedy bits is too strong for my tastes. There’s not enough character stuff here compared to the best Donald shorts. (It kind of reminds me of the gag-for-the-sake-of-it style of Chaplin versus the gag-supports-the-story style of Keaton.) That being said, there are certainly plenty of perfectly good jokes in Modern Inventions and Donald is his usual loveable crank. It’s just not a very strong entry.

Donald’s Ostrich is much better. It finds Donald working at a train station and accidentally saddled with a lovestruck ostrich. The situation naturally leads to lots of mayhem, with the ostrich eating everything in sight. There are tons of gags, but they are more centered around Donald specifically and his frustration with the Ostrich. This makes Donald’s Ostrich a more typical (and therefore satisfying) outing.

Self Control finds Donald attempting to control his temper by following the advice of a radio personality, “Smiling Uncle Smiley”. Naturally, he is unsuccessful (although the advice does work for a short period) and the guidelines only result in Donald ultimately losing his cool. Although heavily gag-oriented, Self Control shows Donald struggling with his volatile nature. (Something that would be delved into even more in the next short.) Not that strong a film, it’s still good fun.

Finally, I’d also like to mention the next film in the series, Donald’s Better Self, even though I saw it years ago (so it can’t count for the project). It’s a classic short (which is no doubt why it is one of the ones I’ve seen) that pits “good angel” Donald versus “naughty devil” Donald in a struggle over Donald’s nature. It’s one of the best.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 2:05 pm and is filed under 1937, 1938, Animation, Comedy, Short. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.