It takes a duck with no pants to show us that we are all capable of acting like a horse’s ass now and then.
Donald Duck does those horrible things decent people think of doing… but never do. I think that’s why this this duck been in more Disney cartoons than any other Disney character, he resonates. He is like us, or we know people like him, he is gloriously imperfect, and therefore embraced.
Sometimes Donald takes the path that is reprehensible, forbidden or unscrupulous, mostly unwittingly or out of sheer habit. External intervening forces must often rally to get Donald to “straighten up and fly right” and if he finally does get the moral of the story, it’s not always his idea. More often than not, he learns a lesson at his expense. He’s a braggart, sometimes a bully, a prankster whose jokes sometimes get out of hand and cause harm, yet he is still an optimist at heart who wants to be a good duck in this world. He also has a level of tenacity that is unparalleled, and he’s got that “fighting spirit” that gets him through setbacks, which means that if he can do it, we can do it!
Featuring the voice of June Foray as Witch Hazel, and Clarence Nash, who was the voice of Donald for 54 years, this Fall time fabulous cartoon from 1952 never gets old.