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

The climax involving Donald Duck getting a haircut on his butt was submitted by Carl Barks, his first sale.

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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

"Rock-a-Bye Baby"
(uncredited)

User Reviews

Robots back then?

In this 9-minute cartoon, Donald enters a museum exhibiting the latest inventions, such as robot butlers, robot hitchhikers, robot nannies, robot barber chairs...basically all robot stuff. And still, 70 years later, we have no robots. Weird.

Anyway, Donald, being as irritable as he is, quickly becomes angered by the inventions and ends up getting slapped around and tormented in the usual ways. It serves him right for scamming himself into the museum for free. It's funny without being thigh-slappingly hilarious. And some of the robots will probably remind you of Bender and his pals from Futurama.