Comando Pato

This Disney propaganda film made towards the end of World War II was designed to raise morale amongst the American troops.

A scared Donald Duck accidentally lands in a Japanese jungle and takes on the troops. You don't see much fighting more the aftermath of broken planes. There's loads of silly and amusing slapstick moments. As you would expect from a film from this time, there are some crass Japanese stereotypes. This is elevated above many of the Disney propaganda films of the time due to excellent animation and some amusing antics from Donald Duck.

The film appears on out of print and fairly expensive On the Front Lines collection and it's one of the best on there. The picture quality is decent, but not amazing. Unless a HD upgrade is released it's as good as you can expect.

Disney and Donald Duck are a perfect combination when it comes to animation. Commando Duck is simply wonderful, and one of Disney's best World War 2 shorts. True it does stereotype the Japanese and in a way that not everybody is going to find gratifying. But actually I wasn't offended by the stereotyping and I love their sense of humour, their one-liners are a definite highlight of Commando Duck. Donald is a great and charismatic lead character, one who you feel for and understand his frustration and predicament. The animation is beautifully done, with colourful backgrounds and I loved how the washed down air-planes look like something from a Salvador Dali painting. The music is rousing and nimbly orchestrated, while the one-liners and gags, mainly from Donald accomplishing his goals quite by accident, make for great and very inventive(especially the solution to how Donald will destroy the base).

All in all, one of the best Disney WW2 shorts and extremely entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Donald Duck is a paratrooper and is given an impossible mission. The fact that he doesn't squawk and carry on means that this cartoon is deadly serious. He goes into combat and does things only more heroic figures would even try. He encounters the stereotypical Japanese and has to decide what to do.

The heavily supplied "Donald" must head to a Japanese airbase on a remote island. There he is to surround and wipe them all out...! Well narrowly avoiding a couple of crocodiles upon landing, he sets off on his mission whilst the vocals of his well camouflaged enemy indulge in some stereotyping pidgin-dialogue about only shooting people in the back. Quickly, "Donald" realises that his inflatable dinghy isn't bullet proof, nor is it much use on waterfalls either, especially when more and more full of water and expanding exponentially - though the resulting inundation clearly has it's uses. Cartoons were regularly used as propaganda tools, but I rarely remember one quite this aggressive. Not just in the animation, itself, but in the whole presentation. Somehow, even the perilous antics of the duck didn't inject much humour into this and I didn't love it.

Donald is a commando (duh) who has to wipe out an entire Japanese airbase all by himself. I love it when he gets his commands: 'surround them!'. Reminded me of Chaplin's 'Shoulder Arms', where Charlie claims to have surrounded a dozen enemies all by himself.

Donald doesn't get far though as his parachute gets stuck in two trees, and a lifeboat is all that's left of his belongings. Who knew that lifeboat would flood the entire airbase though!

Funny if silly little WWII short, with not that many nasty references to the Japanese, except when one Japanese guy says to another: 'Remember the old Japanese saying: always shoot a guy in the back!'.

6/10.