Modern Inventions (1937)

Donald Duck visits a museum of modern inventions; among the inventions he struggles with: a robot butler who keeps taking his hat; a package wrapping machine; a robot nursemaid; an automated barber chair.

Director:

Jack King

Writer:

Carl Barks

Stars:

Billy Bletcher, Cliff Edwards, Clarence Nash

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Billy Bletcher	...	Robot Butler (voice) (uncredited)
Cliff Edwards	...	Robot Barber Chair (voice) (uncredited)
Clarence Nash	...	Donald Duck (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

Donald Duck goes to a museum of modern inventions. After getting in without paying, he meets a robot butler who takes Donald's hat every time he sees him. Donald is very annoyed by this and magically fixes himself a new hat every time this happens and strolls on. Ignoring the sign not to touch it, Donald starts playing with a wrapping machine and ends up being wrapped himself. He also encounters and tries out a robot nursemaid and a fully automatic barber chair. They both don't do him much good.

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Plot Keywords:

robot | hat | invention | robot butler | butler | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Animation | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 May 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Wunder der Technik

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

9 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was released as a Mickey Mouse cartoon, although Mickey doesn't appear in the final film at all.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Donald Duck: Museum of Modern Marvels. Well, well, well. Ha! Well, I'll go in.

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Connections

Edited into Down and Out with Donald Duck (1987)

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Soundtracks

"London Bridge Is Falling Down"
(uncredited)

User Reviews

Inventive Donald Duck cartoon

I really liked this cartoon, it is inventive and very funny. The animation is nice and colourful, though the character animation of the robots was a little stiff. And the cartoon does start off a little slow. The music is top notch, very playful and pleasant. Donald is as cantankerous as ever, especially when voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash, who captures the character perfectly.

On the whole, the cartoon is very funny, from the ongoing joke about the robot(voiced by Billy Bletcher, original voice of Pete) taking Donald's hats, to the part when Donald disguises himself as a baby and gets more than he bargained for. Modern Inventions is an inventive and fun cartoon, and for fans of the cantankerous quack, this is definitely worth the watch. 8/10 Bethany Cox