Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely brilliant

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

MADE DURING THE period when Donald Duck was arguably riding the highest crest of popularity and box office $ucce$$e$, this short is adequate in maintaining the roll. It does seem to be a sort of "marking time" installment; being built around what surely is a rather limited storyline, one joke approach and very limited supporting cast.OUR STORY OPENS at the "Bar-None" Dude Ranch as the special bus delivers yet another carload of "city slickers"; all of which are cookie cutter cuties of the feminine persuasion. All are endowed with that Disney special brand of charm and pulchritude; all except for one temperamental, urban bound duck.THE STORY HAS Don being the last one to disembark from the bus and the guy who has to settle for the "leftover" steed. The rent-a-mount has already displayed a keen desire to sit out the obligatory trip around the trail. His attitude is viewed in stark contrast to the other horses; who are quite demonstrative in making their enthusiasm immediately obvious.IN THE CASE of our own DD, he manages to antagonize the horse even further, even before attempting to mount the reluctant equine. Rather than being all decked out in dude fashion, dime store cowboy and "B" Western Movie fashion, Donald appears on the scene sporting an English style riding outfit and a short stirrup English Fox Hunt saddle. Talley ho! THE LAST PORTION of the cartoon is constructed around the horse's efforts to outsmart Mr. Duck and the horse's inclusion of a fiercely wild bull into the conflict; leading to Don's being made into a bull rider while riding off into the closing credits.WHILE NOT ONE of the best of the Disney Donald Duck series, it is nonetheless satisfying to the funny-bone and did us the service of exploring just what would be the Duck's methods of dealing with that ever-popular and growing American establishment of the Dude Ranch.

Donald Duck visits a dude ranch and attempts to ride on a horse who had just seen all the other horses been picked by some beautiful women.Donald gets the run-around and bad vibes from the horse in this cartoon, making failed attempts to get the animal to let Donald saddle him up. It's funny to see Donald's priceless expressions of frustration and desertion, and in the part where he mimics a woman's voice in coerce the horse.The horse on the other hand is pretty irritating as he rejects poor Donald. The facial expressions it makes are annoying. But, I guess it's all in good fun to watch as Donald almost always get stuck with all the bad luck.Grade B

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.Visiting the old Bar-None Ranch, Donald the DUDE DUCK has his hands full in just getting his assigned horse, Rover Boy #6, to give him a ride.The main enjoyment in this little film comes from watching Donald's growing impatience at not getting the horseback riding he's obviously paid for. The Disney artists used the rotoscope technique in portraying the human young ladies as they arrive at the Ranch. Although he gave a frisky performance, this would be Rover Boy's only appearance in a Disney cartoon. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplied Donald with his unique voice.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

Perhaps not among the very best Donald Duck cartoons (although, like all of Jack Hannah's efforts, it has some very funny moments), at least one thing about it is outstanding: when Donald approaches the horses, innocent, self-satisfied, looking like a prize pillock, he is wearing what is probably THE most hilarious facial expression of his entire career. The horses clearly think so, too.