Donald Duck and the Gorilla

Donald Duck and the Gorilla is a Donald Duck short adventure horror and monster film which was originally released in 1944.[1] It stars Donald Duck along with his three nephews; Huey, Dewey and Louie and Ajax, the killer gorilla. The 1930 Mickey Mouse cartoon The Gorilla Mystery has a similar plot involving a gorilla named Beppo who captures Minnie Mouse.

Donald Duck and the Gorilla
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJack King
Produced byWalt Disney
StarringClarence Nash
James MacDonald
Music byOliver Wallace
Animation byPaul Allen
Jack King
Joshua Meador
George Nicholas
Charles A. Nichols
Judge Whitaker
Marvin Woodward
Layouts byBill Herwig
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
March 31, 1944
Running time
6:57
LanguageEnglish

Plot

On a stormy night, Donald and his nephews overhear the radio announcer, Breckenridge, notify the listeners that a gorilla named Ajax has escaped from the city zoo. The nephews huddle in fright, and Donald laughs at them. As a prank, Donald frightens his nephews with gorilla hands to make it seem as if he is Ajax. The nephews view Donald from the keyhole and in order to get revenge on their uncle, they dress up in a gorilla suit and lay under Donald on the armchair (which Donald was sitting on to read a fairytale book), and take a bite out of Donald's lollipop while Donald is not noticing. Donald hears the crunching noise and discovers the mark left by the costume's sharp teeth in the lollipop and stares up at the fake gorilla, pale in fright, he runs away. The nephews pop up from inside the suit and laugh hysterically.

At the same time, the real Ajax appears in front of the window and breaks into the house. Ajax then lets out an enormous roar and the nephews run away, still wearing the suit. Donald, who was hiding in a vase beneath an umbrella, spots them and their disguised gorilla suit and angrily chases them. Ajax appears in front of them and the triplets escape, but Donald momentarily assumes that Ajax is the triplets in disguise and grabs Ajax by the face to remove the "disguise" before spotting them. When Donald realizes that Ajax is not the fake gorilla (after opening his mouth and calling for them), Ajax roars at him and Donald almost faints until Breckenridge says that he can master any wild animal by looking them straight in the eye. Donald stares into Ajax's eye; however, he sees his pupil forming a tombstone reading "Here lies a dead duck". As Ajax is about to eat Donald alive, Donald shoves an umbrella into Ajax's mouth and escapes.

Donald and his nephews are then shown quietly tiptoeing away to search for Ajax, but one of them accidentally spills some candle wax on Donald's behind and later burns Donald's back. Donald's head briefly turns into a boiling kettle, and he angrily drives the triplets away and gets his hand burnt on a doorknob due to unknowingly holding the candle's flame under it. Later, Donald searches for Ajax on his own, and unfortunately crosses paths with the gorilla, who was standing on his head, and Donald does not even realize his presence until his tail feathers hint him, and Ajax starts chasing Donald.

Ajax chases Donald through his house, causing a lot of havoc of the house, like scraping a column, crashing through the ceiling to the bedroom after Donald tricks Ajax into running up a ladder at the end of the stairs, and destroying wooden planks from a really long table. Ajax pushes the table to try to crush Donald and then tries to bite Donald's tail, but it pokes him in the eye. Amid all these things, with the help of Breckenridge, the nephews use tear gas in an attempt to stop Ajax, and it successfully subdues Ajax, but affects Donald as well. Tearing up, Ajax and Donald console one another and cry as the cartoon ends.

Cast

Home media

VHS

Laserdisc

  • Cartoon Classics : Scary Tales
  • Donald's Scary Tales
  • Halloween Haunts

DVD

VCD

  • Cartoon Classics: Birdbrain Donald (Malaysian Release)

Television

  • The Ink and Paint Club : #34 : Donald's Nephews

Technical specifications
  • Animation type : Standard
  • Sound mix : Mono
  • Aspect ratio : 1.37 : 1
  • Negative format : 35mm
  • Print format : 35mm
  • Cinematographic process : Spherical

See also

References
  1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 74–76. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
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