Donald Applecore

I've said before, I find the chipmunks two of the most tiresome of all the Disney characters. Donald has a fine apple orchard. He obviously has devoted great time, only to have a couple of rats (chipmunks) start to take what is not theirs. If they took what they needed it would be ok but they begin to strip trees and pile up all kinds of apples. Donald had every right to try to exterminate them.

This is an awfully familiar theme. Once again, Donald Duck is battling Chip 'n Dale and instead of the object of their war being acorns, it's apples--though why the chipmunks suddenly want apples is beyond me.

Donald has a far and is about to pick his apples when he discovers his old enemies, Chip 'n Dale in the trees...enjoying HIS apples! So he spends most of the film battling them--but in ways that seem awfully modern and a bit more contrived than their previous altercations. He uses, among other things, a helicopter like James Bonds' in "You Only Live Twice" as well as dynamite. The end of the film might just offend with its Asian joke and stereotype. It might also offend because it's basically a 1940s Donald Duck cartoon updated to include apples. Not bad--just not nearly Donald at his best.

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Donald's Delicious Apples is a thriving enterprise until Chip 'n' Dale begin to eat a large percentage of the produce.

DONALD APPLECORE is a fairly routine little Duck versus Chipmunks film - humorous, but all these characters have trudged this road before. The title refers to a rowdy old children's rhyme. Clarence "Ducky" Nash provides Donald with his 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.

I love these cartoons, and I have a soft spot for Donald Applecore still even now. It is admittedly routine from a story point of view, but the animation is vibrant and colourful and the music is typically energetic. The gags are also very clever, with the best being the Applecore exchange and the ticking egg gag faring the best, the whole chase action-like sequence is thrilling also. I personally wasn't offended by the end gag, though I can see why it can be seen as stereotypical, as in a way it is. I did think Chip 'n' Dale were very cute and funny, less antagonistic like they can be(see Squatter's Rights with Mickey and Pluto for instance), and Donald is a wonderfully short-tempered foil. Overall, a fun cartoon, noteworthy for two gags especially and the beautiful animation and music. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of the first cartoons I've watched as a kid that features both Donald and Chip N' Dale. Here, Donald takes on the role of an apple farmer and notices his fruits have been nibbled on by the chipmunks. Then, it's an all out battle between the duck and the rodents as Donald tries to protect his crop while the Chip N' Dale try to get away with another act of annoying poor Donald.

I've always thought that the cartoon features a little laid back feel of farm life and gives off a little childhood nostalgia - from the farm artillery Donald uses from his flying farm machine to the hilarious punchline, "Applecore, Baltimore, who's your friend?" that the characters use on each other.

Donald gets the brunt of most of the bad luck obviously, but it's still a pretty funny cartoon.

Grade B