Duck Season!

05.19.09 - Our beloved duck celebrates his 75th anniversary next month. And we thought what better time to toast Donald with weekly showings of some quassic Donald shorts!

As Disney expert and major Donald Duck fan Jim Fanning wrote in the summer issue of Disney twenty-three, Donald Duck has "appeared in more films and features than any other Disney star — or as Donald considers them, the 'competition'" — and our favorite duck is "a comically complicated bundle of moods, emotions, and impulsive behavior. From the start, he was a force that could not be ignored."



"Even his actual 'birth date' — the day on which his anniversary is celebrated — has been entangled in some convolution," Jim notes. "For years, Donald's birthday was thought to be March 13, a date that inspired his '313' license plate, made famous in his enormously popular comic strips and comic books. Some publicity releases even claim that Donald celebrated every Friday the 13th as his special day — and indeed the number 13 has loomed large in Duck lore, a not-so-subtle indication that Donald is somewhat disaster-prone. But, of course, his birthday is officially June 9, 1934, the day Donald's on-screen squawk was first heard in the classic Silly Symphony The Wise Little Hen."

For the next month, remind yourself all over again what makes Donald such a timeless force of mayhem and comedy, as D23 presents five classic Donald shorts — pulled from the Disney vaults by archivists in the Walt Disney Archives. This week, archivist Becky Cline shares with us her favorite short, Chef Donald (1942).

"Chef Donald is one of my all-time favorite Donald Duck cartoon shorts, and I think it is one of the funniest," she says. "I'm addicted to the Food Network myself, and love to try new dishes, so I can truly empathize with the poor duck who is just attempting to make some delicious waffles for breakfast, but ends up with his house in ruins when he mistakes rubber cement for baking powder." The background music is fun, too, Becky says, "and the ending with poor Mother Mallard on the radio is hilarious. And of course, of all Donald's "enemies" — he himself is always his own worst one — as this particular cartoon hilariously shows!

Check back each week for another uproarious Donald short!

Watch Other Donald Duck Videos In Our "Duck Season" Series

Click here to see Truant Officer Donald.

Click here to see Donald's Snow Fight.

Click here to see Fire Chief.