Duck Pimples (1945)

Best movie of this year hands down!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Such a frustrating disappointment

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

"Duck Pimples" is an American 8-minute cartoon from 1945, so this one is already over 70 years old, actually soon 75 depending on when you read this review. The names of the director and the voice actors (most of them) quickly make clear that here we have another Disney color cartoon from the Golden Age of Animation near the end of WWII. The writers names are different though and you don't really associate them with Disney cartoons. Anyway, this may actually be among the key reasons why this did not really feel like a Donald cartoon anymore the longer it went. I would not have thought that the part of Donald making it himself cosy early on was already the best this film had to offer and it really wasn't great. The book seller guy was still okay too, but everything afterward was fairly weak including the entire crime mystery aspect and the characters related to it. Perhaps it would have worked better as a live action film I don't know. Usually if the supporting characters weren't that great in these old Disney cartoons, they at least had a way of making Donald look better, but he disappears in here for long moments really. All in all, not a good or funny watch by any means and this one lost itself in trying to be too different, smart and game-changing. Don't watch.

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.

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.

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