Duck Pimples

Duck Pimples (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Donald is listening to scary radio broadcasts, which soon has his mind working in overdrive as he finds himself terrified of everything that moves.

DUCK PIMPLES isn't your typical Disney short because it seems like something that would have been made twenty years later by someone on an acid trip. If you watch enough movies then I'm sure you've came across that shorts from the 60s where people trip and before long they're seeing all sorts of bizarre images. That's basically what we've got here because Donald's imagination starts going nuts and he sees a rather weird subplot dealing with stolen jewels. The entire short just has a bizarre feel to it so it really stands out in regards to Disney and the type of shorts they were making during this period.

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

It's DUCK PIMPLES for Donald and his overactive imagination when he falls asleep while listening to a suspenseful radio program.

The Duck gets swept up into the search for purloined pearls in this very funny & bizarre little film. The cartoon's backhanded salute to the power of old-time radio drama is more than justified. Clarence Nash provided Donald with his unique 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 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

It seems to me that a lot of Disney's old cartoons had sort of a nasty side, and "Duck Pimples" is a prime example. I saw it on a video compilation called Scary Tales which also included a cartoon in which Pluto gets sent to Hell and put on trial for crimes against cats (that one was just inappropriate for children).

Anyway, this one depicts Donald Duck letting his imagination get the better of him, as characters from books start coming to life. Borderline violent, it hardly seems like something that people should let the tykes watch. The Warner Bros. cartoons always took a cleverer approach to these things.

What I noticed while reading the cast is the presence of Doodles Weaver. He was Sigourney Weaver's uncle. A character actor, his roles included the boat owner in "The Birds" and the hardware store clerk in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". How many people would realize that the niece of the guy renting Tippi Hedren the boat and trying to keep Sid Caesar and Edie Adams out of the store would have to battle a bloodthirsty alien and get possessed by an evil spirit trying to take over New York?

So, this is not a cartoon that I recommend.

I like to think about that. Walt Disney finances "Duck Pimples", and over seven decades later the niece of one of the cast members gets interviewed for Ron Howard's documentary about the Beatles' touring years. And last year's "Ghostbusters" was better than most people gave it credit for.

As a child I found Duck Pimples fascinating, as a young adult I still do as well as lots of fun. Donald is different somewhat to the persona we usually see him with, usually he is easily frustrated and temperamental, here he is more passive and more of a punch-bag I suppose for the detective. This is an example of Disney doing something atypical, breaking the mold as you will, and doing it extremely well. Besides I do like this side to Donald, even I am more used to the temperamental side. The other characters formulating Duck Pimples right from the slinky woman to the Irish cop are stereotypical, but used to great value comedically, so what could've been an issue wasn't. Duck Pimples also has an interesting story, rapid pacing and a lot of goofy details that has a feel to the very best of Looney Tunes, but used to very imaginative effect here. The gags come by thick and fast, and often hilarious even if silly in tone in how Donald is accused of all these crimes. The animation is colourful and crisp, the music is energetic and the voice work is great from Clarence Nash and Billy Bletcher. In a nutshell, an awesome cartoon and one of Donald's best. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of the weirdest and most surreal shorts I have ever seen and it's really a surprise that it came from Disney. Unlike a typical Donal Duck film, this one has a bizarre stream of consciousness that defies my ability to explain it in mere words. Believe me...it's really weird--like the Disney staff decided to try making a short after taking some LSD or something!

Donald is at home reading and listening to the radio. The stuff he's being bombarded with is pretty scary and suddenly the radio show and book start coming to life! Characters from a murder mystery come jumping out of his book and the radio provides lots of appropriate creepy music. It's crazy--and well worth seeing just because it is so atypical. About the only Donald film I've ever seen that comes close to this one in weirdness is "Der Fuehrer's Face". Yes, it's that weird--with very elastic characters, a pre-Jessica Rabbit sort of hot dame and a style that just seems so un-Disney. Well worth seeing.