Don's Fountain of Youth

Donald is taking his three nephews with him on vacation. However, once they arrive in Florida, the boys have no interest in anything other than reading comic books. So, Donald decides to teach them a lesson. He pretends that he drank from the Fountain of Youth and soon he begins acting like a baby. But this isn't enough and soon he places an alligator egg on the ground and the boys think he 'youthed' all the way back to his egg days! Unfortunately, the mother gator isn't thrilled with this plan...so what's next?

This is an enjoyable cartoon with a novel plot. However, it also sports some very poor animation--particularly the backgrounds. While it's not as bad an many late 50s cartoons with super-minimalistic art, it is an obvious step below the great animation the studio was doing just a few short years earlier. Still, second-tier Disney still ain't bad....and the cartoon is definitely funny.

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Donald tricks his Nephews into believing he's been magically reverted into an infant after discovering DON'S FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.

The always enjoyable Duck gives a humorous performance in an otherwise routine film. Clarence "Ducky" Nash provides 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 and the nephews are touring in Florida, but the youngsters have their noses stuck in a comic book. So when Donald comes across a pond with a sign noting that Ponce de Leon thought it was the fountain of youth, he convinces the ducklings that it is the fountain of youth and now he is a baby.... and then that he is an egg he has stolen from an alligator. Who wants her baby back.

The Donald Duck cartoons may have starred the fellow in the sailor suit, but everyone gets his or her time on screen and a good gag or three. Here, it's the alligator who gets the last laugh.

I'm a relatively new fan of good, old Donald Duck. After working at Disney World two years ago, I realized that he is by far my favorite cartoon character of all time. Therefore, I'm not much of a Donald aficionado as the guys who previously commented here, but this is a great Donald cartoon! His skirmish with the crocodile absolutely cracked me up, and the crocodile's line at the end is priceless. Plus, I enjoyed seeing the time period this cartoon takes place in, as Donald had to pour water in his old-timer car. My Dad has a 1928 Ford Model A so it's kind of neat to see something like that duplicated in a cartoon. Great cartoon, may not be a classic to some, but I enjoyed it a lot!

My IMDB rating: 9/10

What a clever idea. Donald, fed up with his nephew's lack of anything but reading comic books, decides to teach them a lesson. When he come upon a fountain that was mistaken for the fountain of youth. He convinces the boys that he is getting younger and younger, until he is an egg (which he steals from a female alligator). But eventually the alligator wants to get into the act. From here on it gets to be the same old chase thing.