I've known for a while now that, hands down, my absolute favorite Donald Duck cartoon has to be Duck Pimples (1945). I don't know if you knew this, but I am a lifelong fan of Donald Duck. He is my favorite Disney character. Still is. I own just about all of his cartoons on DVD, and there is quite a lot there. But I only gave my heart to one.
Duck Pimples does not take long to do what it sets out to do. The opening is simple. Donald is just listening to some radio dramas, but no matter what channel he picks, they all seem to be horror- or thriller-based. People being murdered mostly.
Shortly after this opening is portrayed, the cartoon gets more and more surreal with every second. The things happening in the dramas begin to take physical form. There is no explanation why this is happening, and I think the cartoon really benefits from this. I never really wanted to know why fantasy was bleeding into reality. It was just so much fun to see it happen.
In many ways, this episode feels like what it would be like if David Lynch made a Donald Duck cartoon with Tex Avery as the animator. Neither of those people actually worked on this, but that's just how I feel. And I suppose one could just call the entire cartoon a dream or the product of his overworked imagination, but there is nothing in the cartoon that suggest either of these are true.
At no point is Donald Duck shown going to sleep or waking up. A creepy voice at the end seems to suggest that it may be his imagination, and Donald tries his hardest to believe that. It's clear, however, that he's only attempting to rationalize it away as he slowly goes insane. And insanity seems to be the main point of this cartoon. If I were to judge Donald entirely by his actions and adventures in this cartoon, I would think that maybe he really was losing his mind and suffering the pangs of his own hallucinations.
But then maybe he didn't go insane. Maybe he was being plagued by demonic forces that wanted to vex him with these insane visions to the point where he really does lose his mind. Whatever the case, it is clear that Donald went through something, and after about eight minutes of some of the best sight gags I have ever seen in a cartoon, I'd say it was worth the trip.
Check out Duck Pimples any way you can. It's worth your time and effort and will only kill eight minutes. It is and always will be my favorite Donald Duck cartoon.
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It was fun in a way that scrambled your brains. I remember seeing it DECADES ago, and never forgot it. No, Donald did not fall asleep. His imagination and that of the author of the one book, simply became real, as if imagination has a powerful effect on reality itself.
ReplyDeleteSo much fun! And things just got progressively crazier with every second. It never stopped until the end.
DeleteOh yea I remember this one. Really fun in it's execution, very Lynchian. Poor Donald was the victim of his own wild imagination haha.
ReplyDeleteYeah and it had a sexy woman in it too. She was just as wacky as everything else. I loved it when she crawled into the back of the detective's coat.
DeleteWhen reality does not fit our conceptions, it can be a jarring experience. We tend to rely on what we know, even though our knowledge is limited. People go insane, because they cannot deal with the real world not being what was expected.
ReplyDeleteOpening your mind actually makes you more sane.
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