The New Neighbor (1953)

As the new neighbor on the block, Donald Duck tries to be courteous to the inconsiderate slob living next door; but eventually a feud erupts, and the television news covers it like a sporting event.

Director:

Jack Hannah

Writers:

Nick George (story), Milt Schaffer (story)

Stars:

Billy Bletcher, Clarence Nash

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Billy Bletcher	...	Pete (voice) (uncredited)
Clarence Nash	...	Donald Duck (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

Donald moves into a new home, and discovers his new neighbor is a slob, a mooch, and has a dog that comes crashing through the fence and digging in Donald's garden. Eventually it escalates into a full-scale war, with crowds cheering and TV coverage.

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Plot Keywords:

neighbor | dog | new neighbor | duck | feud | 

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Genres:

Family | Comedy | Animation | Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 August 1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

El nuevo vecino

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

7 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: It has been man's constant labor to live in peace with his next door neighbor. And on the newcomer falls the chore of getting along with the man next door.
Donald Duck: [excited] Okay!

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Connections

References Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)

User Reviews

One of dozens and dozens of unregarded classics produced by Disney

Jack Hannah must be THE most underrated cartoon director of all time; in my estimation he is second only to Chuck Jones. In quality of output, that is. He MAY not have been as inherently talented as Tex Avery or even Friz Freleng (I must grit my teeth as I say this), but he had one inestimable advantage over them and all his other more highly regarded contemporaries: he worked for Disney, and so was allowed to direct the most rounded, passionate, comically inspired cartoon character of all time: Donald Duck.

Donald is not just, as popular belief would have it, someone who gets mad. He's someone with ungoverned, ungovernable passions, of which anger is just one: hunger, weariness, envy, spite, lust and love are some of the others. The humour comes (in part) from the fact that all along he thinks he's in control. And in fact, the resulting cartoons ARE more controlled. Donald does not break the laws of physics as often or as outrageously as Bugs Bunny does - he cannot pull a stick of dynamite out of nowhere just because it suits the plot - but when he DOES do the impossible, one feels the sheer force of his personality pushing him. It's like watching (and listening to) a jet as it crosses the sound barrier.

This cartoon proves my points as well as any other. It's one of Donald's and Hannah's very best. The 1950s could easily have been their finest decade together, if the economics of production hadn't cut Hannah's Disney career short in 1956. Very likely it WAS their finest decade even so. Even if "The New Neighbor" were the routine Donald outing you'd expect from reading a synopsis of the plot, which it isn't, the strength of Donald's character would be enough to make it funnier and more vibrant than the ritualised gaggery Warner Brothers was churning out at the time. -Except, that is, for the cartoons of Chuck Jones - another director who understood the value of building his humour on a strong foundation of character.