Honey Harvester (1949) User Reviews

Appealing Donald Duck cartoon with "Buzz-Buzz" as adversary...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 30 March 2008]

HONEY HARVESTER gives Donald Duck ample opportunity to strut his stuff again against his adversarial bee friend--"Buzz-Buzz"--this time with the bee doing a "Whistle While You Work" routine as he enjoys himself in Donald's greenhouse gathering as much honey as he can.

The fun starts when Donald comes strutting into the greenhouse and discovers the bee at work. Naturally, he tries to outwit the little devil but is never able to stop him from getting his way. He does manage to use the cork trick again, but the bee only launches another attack with a bigger stinger. The story ends with Donald running for his life as the bee loses his temper once again.

Funny, but getting a little repetitive by this time. Clarence Nash supplies the Donald Duck voice.

Amusing but nothing extraordinary.

This film is another excellent example of . . .

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 8 May 2022]

. . . the sort of misinformation that generally characterizes Dizzy Nature films. A single bee is depicted here producing six to twelve quart jars of honey during the course of several minutes. This visualization is off by several magnitudes, as a single bee's production during such a time span would amount to a few molecules at best--a quantity so scant as to be invisible to the unaided human eye. This sort of prodigiously false, misleading and incredible untruth surely put America behind the Eight Ball when it came to eventual student success in STEM fields. As our U. S. Homeland falls further and further behind the rest of the civilized world in material goods, manufacturing, science and self-defense, you can blame this debacle mostly on Dizzy.

A Duck Tale With a Stinger

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 13 October 2002]

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

HONEY HARVESTER Donald discovers where Buzz-Buzz the bee has stored his secret, sticky horde...

This is an enjoyable little film, despite the fact that Disney used the same basic plot - Donald versus a tiny creature - many times. Buzz-Buzz appeared in seven Disney cartoons - much to Donald's intense discomfiture - from 1948 until 1952. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's 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.

Not much new, but still one of the better Donald vs. Buzz-Buzz shorts

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 25 March 2013]

The Donald Duck shorts partnered with Buzz-Buzz the bee are routine and somewhat unexceptional story-wise, but they are still very enjoyable, well-animated and the two characters generally work nicely together. I found Honey Harvester one of their better outings. The story is not much to write home about, it is well paced and plays well to Donald's personality but there also isn't anything that is original or new and the outcome is not all that surprising. Again though, as well as having that, there are still the many strengths that make Donald/Buzz-Buzz's collaborations worth the while. The animation is very well done, both the characters are very well-drawn especially Donald, the colours are vibrant and pretty to watch and the backgrounds are simple yet detailed. The music does a great job at adding much to Honey Harvester's action and fun, and not only that but it is very energetic and orchestrated endearingly. The gags again are not the most original(nor did I expect them to, come to think of it I don't think any of the gags are that original in Donald/Buzz-Buzz's collaborations together), but they are funny and appropriately timed, they didn't fall into the trap of being too repetitive to me. Donald is still the timeless character we know and love, he has a magnetic presence and is hilarious without even trying. It also helps that he has an adversary and situation that doesn't undermine his trademark personality in any way at all. Buzz-Buzz is both cute and antagonistic. Overall, colourful, entertaining and most of all fun. Unoriginal it may be but when it comes to ranking Donald and Buzz-Buzz's work together Honey Harvester is up there among the stronger ones. 9/10 Bethany Cox

More of the same Donald vs. Bee shorts.

[OllieSuave-007 · 4/10 · 17 May 2016]

This more of the same Donald Vs. Bee cartoon shorts, where Donald and the bee are at odds again. This time, Donald wants to take the honey the bee had been harvesting to use on his pancakes. However, the cocky and irritating little bee just wouldn't have it.

Not a lot of funny moments in this cartoon short - just a lot of back and forth duels between the two characters. At least, though, Donald didn't get too much of the brunt of bad luck, just a little sting, and the bee was left with an bad temper at the end.

In addition, I did like the "Whistle While You Work" tune that bee buzzes - reminds me of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Grade D