Donald's Happy Birthday (1949)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Jack Hannah

Writers:

Nick George (story) &
Bill Berg (story)

Release Date:

11 February 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

A birthday present of cigars goes awry when Donald thinks his nephews are planning to take up smoking.

Plot Keywords:

Cigar | Birthday | Huey Dewey And Louie | Underage Smoking | Duck

Cast

Clarence Nash

...

Donald Duck (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

Movie Connections:

Edited into "Disneyland: Kids Is Kids (#8.11)" (1961)

Another Dustup With The Ducks

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

In order to ensure DONALD'S HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Huey, Dewey & Louie must first scheme a way to get the money to buy a gift.

This is very much a routine Donald versus the Nephews cartoon, but it's pleasant enough. It is in this film that we learn that Donald's birthday is March 13th. Notice that Louie's name is misspelled `Luey' on the birthday card. Clarence Nash provided the voices for the entire Duck clan.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 storm of naysayers, 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.