Commando Duck

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.

This is one of the few Disney shorts to show one of our beloved characters fighting the enemy in combat.

Donald is given a mission to face the enemy and destroy the Japanese airbase on a tropical island.

In order to do this he must travel by river and be on the look out for Crocodiles and Japanese Snippers This task is very risky for a soldier to do specially for Donald.

This here is yet another great WW2 Donald Duck short.

Please that this is one of the many Disney shorts banned due to it having Japanese as the enemy and making them look very gullible and sneaky. So those who are Japanese might find this short offensive.

You're able to see it off of the Disney Treasures Front Line Box Set.

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.

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.

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.