Officer Duck

Donald Duck stars as a police officer assigned to arrest Tiny Tom, who is none other than Pegleg Pete.

It was funny how the police dispatcher wakes up a sleeping Donald in his squad car and how Donald disguises himself as a baby to entice Tiny Tom and, eventually, lure him into arrest.

Great animation, great comedy, great slapstick action and great story. Donald gets the last laugh here, which is refreshing since he always get the bad luck. Clarence Nash once again does a nice job giving Donald Duck his classic persona and voice.

Grade A

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

OFFICER DUCK must disguise himself as a baby in order to capture the notorious criminal, Tiny Tom.

This is a wonderful little film, hilarious & with excellent animation. Released in 1939, it more than compensated for Disney's not having a feature length animated picture during Hollywood's Golden Year. Clarence "Ducky" Nash, supplying Donald's voice, once again demonstrates his valuable contribution to The Duck's success.

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.

This short is one of my favorite Donald vs. Pete cartoons, besides "Timber" and "Trombone Trouble." The story goes like this: The chief orders Donald, a police officer, to apprehend "Tiny Tom" (Pete). But Tiny Tom isn't as "tiny" as Donald thought, and the arrest didn't go so well. So Officer Duck uses strategy and disguises himself as a baby, and soon big, tough Tiny Tom becomes a nice guy. Isn't it funny? A cop and a crook play "baby and papa." I love the part when Donald hits Tom on the head with a pipe from the wall, and from the blow, the outline of Tom's face (from the side view) is indented on the pipe.

I remember watching this short on TV-the edited version. Of course, on TV, they didn't show how Tiny Tom lit a cigar with a plumber's torch and later shot the door with a machine gun. Overall, this, to me, is one of the best Donald Duck cartoons of 1939.

Well, not really. Donald plays the incompetent Officer 13 who cannot apprehend Tiny Tom, a wanted local criminal. In an effort to sneak himself into Tiny's dwelling Donald disguises himself as a baby, abandoned child of Tiny's pal trigger. Being the generous type (?) Tiny takes him in and, amidst lots of suspicion and almost exposures, Donald tries in vain to slap the shackles/cuffs/ball and chain on him. Trouble is, Tiny wants to play with him too much.

In the end Donald does manage to do the impossible and succeed at something by taking Tiny into custody (by default) but it's a funny cartoon with an unusually bleak-looking color pallet.

With the delightful pairing of Donald Duck and Pete, Officer Duck is an often hilarious and simply divine Silly Symphony gem. The animation is colourful and smooth, the music is very pleasant, and there are a ton of laughs, especially with Donald and his witty asides. There are many quotable lines too, and Donald himself, with the impeccable voicing of the one and only Clarence "Ducky" Nash, gives a very arresting performance. I was in tears of laughter when he disguises himself as a baby to fool the villain of the piece, Tiny Tom. Pete himself is marvellous as Tiny Tom, quite a dastardly villain, but a funny and charming one at the same time. If you come across this Silly Symphony, I strongly recommend you watch it. Tears and laughter are guaranteed. 10/10 Bethany Cox