Lighthouse Keeping (1946) User Reviews

Nice, nothing more

[rbverhoef · 6/10 · 20 October 2004]

'Lighthouse Keeping' stars Donald Duck as a... lighthouse keeper. He is trying to read but the light in the lighthouse is spinning around so that plan does not really work out. To fill his time he starts annoying an pelican by shining the light on the animal. Of course the pelican is not happy and he tries to turn off the light. The battle between Donald and the pelican has started.

This average Disney cartoon has some nice moments but it is not that great. It is watchable and worth watching once. The music is something that makes the cartoon better; it fits the action perfectly. The ending is good as well, better than the cartoon deserves.

Donald battles someone almost as ill-tempered as he is in this average short

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 27 April 2002]

Nothing all that memorable or fascinating in this one, which is a by-the-numbers effort from Disney. Well animated, to be sure, but as for plot and action, it's in the "been there, seen that" category and doesn't really bring much to the table. Worth seeing once, but not terribly good, bad or indifferent-it simply is, which is kind of sad, in a way.

Donald Duck's worst headache?

[Atreyu_II · 8/10 · 23 February 2008]

"Lighthouse Keeping" isn't exactly awesome or terrific. It is a reasonable cartoon with Donald Duck, but this time the temperamental duck's headache isn't Chip or Dale (the two chipmunks) and not even his nephews or his greedy uncle Scrooge. This time Donald Duck is a lighthouse keeper and he's having a bad time with a stubborn and determined pelican and... well, this leads to some feuds.

It's difficult to classify this animated short: it isn't really comedy, drama, dark, suspense, thriller, adventure, action... it just doesn't seem to fit in any category in particular except animation.

This is included as an extra on "Pete's Dragon" DVD and I can see why: because there is a lighthouse on this short too, just like in the movie. So by here we have similarities.

This short isn't bad on artwork, neither special or extraordinary, just ordinary when it comes to that stuff.

Not a bad Donald cartoon.

[OllieSuave-007 · 7/10 · 18 April 2017]

In this Donald Duck cartoon, the Donald is a keeper of a lighthouse. Upon seeing a pelican sleeping outside the tower, Donald decides to have a little fun and shines the light on the bird. After moving its nest a few times, the bird caught onto Donald's scheme and does battle with him. What results is plenty of back and forth between the characters, with Donald insisting the lighthouse stays lit while the pelican keeps blowing out the fire.

The funniest scene I thought was when Donald attempts to read a book quickly as the lighthouse's light circles by. The rest of the cartoon was pretty predictable with the excessive back and forth between the two characters, but at least Donald didn't get the brunt of all the bad luck.

Grade B-

The lighthouse, the pelican and Donald...

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 19 February 2013]

While not one of my favourites, Lighthouse Keeping is still a very enjoyable Disney short with Donald in the lead. The pelican blowing the light out only for it to be re-lit again by Donald does get repetitive and tiresome after a while. However, the animation is good, some of the lack of fluidity stops it from being great but the lovely colours elevate it. The music is a real highlight, it sounds beautiful and is full of infectious energy. The story is somewhat routine but fun and snappily paced, and the gags are very clever and often hilarious. Even the briefest of gags make an impact, like Donald reading when hooked to the light-turning wheel. But the highlight of Lighthouse Keeping is Donald thinking that the pelican's beak is a box so he hides in it, it is great stuff and the best animation of the short is here. Donald is a great leading character that works wonders within the story, which accommodates his trademark personality nicely. And the pelican is a perfect match for him, even when wanting sleep he is really quite crafty and resourceful. Clarence Nash does a fine job voicing Donald. All in all, lots of fun without being one of the pinnacles of Disney. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A Duck Tale With Pelican

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 9 December 2002]

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Instead of tending to his LIGHTHOUSE KEEPING, Donald makes the big mistake of annoying a nearby Pelican who's trying to sleep.

The Duck meets a bird who's quite capable of fighting back in this otherwise routine little film. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's squeaky 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.

During another in a series of . . .

[pixrox1 · 5/10 · 13 April 2022]

. . . deplorable Dizzy Nature films, pretend human Don Duck torments, harasses and tortures an endangered pelican for no good reason. "Ain't I the Devil?" Don taunts the camera as he begins his onslaught. The Society for the Prevention of Ravaging Mother Nature estimates that such widely-viewed malicious incitement films have instigated more than half of the widespread acts of environmental vandalism perpetrated by weak-minded members of the U. S. Public too vulnerable to psychotic suggestions. The simplest solution to this burgeoning threat is to suppress, ban and destroy ALL Dizzy films.