Beach Picnic (1939) User Reviews

Has some great animation and music as well as a good sequence, but Donald and Pluto don't quite gel...

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 28 August 2012]

That is a shame actually, because I thought they did very well in Donald and Pluto, despite the fact that Pluto was more dominant. The two sadly don't gel here, partly because they are rarely on screen together, and when they are it is not long enough, and partly because their personalities are too different. Donald works best when he is easily frustrated at things and people around him which apart from one scene was shown enough in Beach Picnic. Pluto is cute and energetic, and works best in contrast when he is curious, wants fun or is causing chaos. Again that side wasn't shown enough here. Another major problem is that what Donald and Pluto are given to do is not very funny. Donald's battle with the raft was a good idea to start with, but comes across as simplistic and unfunny, while him laughing at Pluto trials with the raft was rather cruel. I also thought it could have been developed more. Likewise the parts with Pluto being stuck in the fly paper are limply paced and get tiring fast. On a more positive side, one sequence does work and that was the one with the ants, not because it was funny as such, actually it was amusing but what made the sequence was how the ants invading the picnic were characterised with war drums and all and also the viewpoints of Donald and Pluto. Donald chasing the ants off is much more effective than what Pluto gets saddled with, which is elevated just when Donald has his comeuppance and gets stuck in the fly paper with him. The animation is lusciously coloured and fluid, and the music is beautiful and full of the usual characterful energy. Clarence Nash's voice acting is excellent. Overall, the animation and music are top notch and I liked the sequence with the ants, but the limp gags, Donald and Pluto's lacking chemistry and the fact that neither character are used to the best of their ability brought Beach Picnic down to a rather lukewarm experience for me. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Donald & Pluto at the beach

[utgard14 · 5/10 · 5 July 2015]

So-so Donald Duck short has Donald at the beach being his usual charming self picking on Pluto, who just wanted to sleep, by sending an inflatable horse over and messing with the poor dog. He stands there laughing like a jerk while Pluto fights with the horse. Pluto's struggles here are worth a chuckle or two but the start of the short is the weakest part. Then comes the 'picnic' part. Ants, dressing and acting like movie Indians, raid Donald's picnic lunch. Not sure why Donald needed so much food but it actually made me hungry just looking at it. Some really nice animation in this. Anyway, Donald sees the ants making off with his eats and, of course, goes ballistic. After screaming and carrying on, he sets up some sticky fly paper hoping to trap the ants. It doesn't take a psychic to guess that things don't go according to plan. I'm not a huge Donald Duck fan and shorts like this are why. The guy was just an angry jerk most of the time. Sometimes it is funny to see him get his comeuppance but here most of the humor falls flat. The animation is lovely and colorful. The music is very nice. It's worth a peek but not one of my favorites.

Donald Duck teams with Pluto for a day at the beach

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 14 August 2015]

Kudos to Turner Classics for offering up three early Disney cartoon shorts that many of us probably would never get a chance to see. "Beach Picnic" was the middle one of the trio, sandwiched in between 'Hawaiian Holiday' and 'It's the Simple Things'. In this one, Donald Duck becomes increasingly frustrated by an inflatable sea horse that behaves very characteristically like one of those over-sized inflatables we've all had trouble getting on and off of. He hands things off to Pluto who also has his share of misadventures with the darn thing. Then a horde of red ants plays havoc with Donald's picnic lunch, and with current movie fave "Ant-Man" currently in theaters, we're once again reminded that ants can lift and carry many times their own weight. I'm not sure what the motivation would have been to have the ants mimic Native American Indians, but this was an era way before the age of political correctness, and I doubt even today if many would be offended other than those who find fault with just about everything. The cartoon short closes out with Pluto battling an uncooperative sheet of flypaper, all of which Donald finds absolutely hilarious.

Beach Time

[Michael_Elliott · 15 July 2015]

Beach Picnic (1939)

** (out of 4)

Donald is on the beach trying to rid a rubber horse but he keeps getting thrown from it so when he sees Pluto sleeping he decides to have some fun and watch the dog fight it. Soon a group of ants (acting as Indians) show up to steal their food. BEACH PICNIC has some great animation and one good sequence but overall it's a pretty lackluster short from Disney. The one great sequence is when the ants start taking away the food because the music and the animation is just so good here. I think the weakest part of the film is the opening bits with the rubber horse as there's just really nothing too clever or funny going on here as we simply see Donald and Pluto fall around. Fans of the characters will probably want to watch this but the rest should look for a better film.

The Dizzy Nature gang contends that . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 10 December 2021]

. . . red ants have a lot in common with indigenous Americans during BEACH PICNIC. Are the rodent animators on the right track with their thinking, or are they barking up the wrong family tree? Well, the former group have long been admired for making treks with heavy burdens, and the latter cohort for crossing over on the erstwhile land bridge from Asia toting who knows how many totem poles, teepees, wigwams and elephant ears. Dizzy pictures the ants making off with the duck's lunch. When Foxwood was set up, the earliest settlers started slurping on Don Juan Tower's straw. Perhaps Dizzy Nature has a point here.

A day on the beach

[flaviomarcelo · 7/10 · 12 October 2022]

This is a very entertaining short film where we have Donald and Pluto doing their crazy things on the beach, at first it looks like the plot is more for the float, but as the minutes go by we see that new picturesque characters appear and it becomes more fun thing. Pluto gets the big applause as he takes on the little invaders and Donald trying to do the impossible to help him. What must be highlighted is in the Latin Spanish language it says a not so pleasant word. That for today's society it would be a bit strong, especially for children who would see it in any case. But in the end everything to the point and the plot well developed. 🐶🦆🐜

I hadn't realized that Donald could be so CRUEL!

[m-86730 · 6/10 · 1 February 2018]

This one is kinda ambiguous, Donald and Pluto appeared in this cartoon "Beach Picnic", But the pair of them isn't get along there, though the both had appeared in Donald and Pluto (1936), how in the world that they had to get together again?Humph! Donald was in a picnic at the beach, he spotted Pluto there and have fun teasing him (Pluto didn't do anything to him), ugh, how bad Donald were, also seen in the poster of the film. Then Donald spread the infinte flypaper and try to stick the ants, which happened to caused the curious Pluto to get stuck on it, and the moves like the film "Playful Pluto", and what's more, Donald laughed more hysterically, that could be hateful enough, and when Pluto unintentionally stuck Donald's buttock with him, Donald ranted at him to left him alone, spit out lots of abusive salivas and profanity, Pluto, understandably had enough, swung Donald away with the flypaper with one fierce blow, caused Donald to get completely stuck by the flypapers, and Pluto started to lick Donald like in Donald and Pluto (1936) too, and Donald get his comeuppance. This cartoon isn't really funny, but anyway, it's rather good.

A Duck Tale With Surf

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 28 March 2003]

The BEACH PICNIC for Donald & Pluto is frustrated by a rubber sea horse named Sylvester and a marauding tribe of Red Indian ants.

This is a very enjoyable little film which features great animation and lots of laughs. Watching the reactions of the Duck and the Pup as the complications pile up against them provides much of the humor. Clarence Nash once again excels as the voice of Donald.

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 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 childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

Not funny

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 4/10 · 3 August 2005]

In this cartoon Donald goes to the beach for some fun in the sun. He takes a giant inflatable horse (called Seabiscuit) with him to play with in the water. Everything seems fine until Donald decides to torment Pluto for some reason by blowing water and air into his face, or something. The cartoon lingers on this bit of unfunnyness for a few minutes before it goes to the typical 'picnic being stolen by ants' routine. Good God, man. How many times have I seen that in a cartoon?

Donald and Pluto try to take them on but lose to their own arrogance and stupidity. No, this cartoon is not really that funny at all and Donald surely deserves better than this. I don't rate Beach Picnic very highly I'm afraid.

This Donald Duck cartoon was cruel to Pluto the Dog and Donald at the beach.

[crosswalkx · 1/10 · 18 September 2019]

I have seen this Donald Duck cartoon and I didn't like it very much, Donald Duck lays out his food, goes swimming with his inflatable seahorse and then torments Pluto the dog with it. Meanwhile the native ants steals Donald's food and Donald gets flypaper out hoping to catch the ants but it fails and Pluto the dog gets stuck in it and then Donald Duck gets caught in it and gets thrown into the pile of flypaper and is trapped and covered in flypaper and it ends on a cliffhanger.

This wasn't a funny Donald Duck cartoon, I didn't like Donald tormenting Pluto the dog but I didn't like the ants as they got away as usual.

I didn't like the animal cruelty towards Pluto the dog when he got flypaper stuck on him and then on Donald Duck which was very painful to watch. I don't like cartoons where flypaper gets stuck on animals, I think this cartoon short should be banned for the flypaper cruelty.

This reminds me of Mickey's Fly Trap 1931 where Pluto had the exact situation with flypaper. There should be a sequel where Donald Duck gets rescued from the flypaper he's trapped in. I can't believe Walt Disney would depict animals like Pluto getting stuck in flypaper, I think that's very cruel to Pluto.

Overall skip this Donald Duck cartoon it's not funny, I would recommend Window Cleaners 1940 instead. Very disappointed in this cartoon. I'm surprised the Disney company would show cartoons with flypaper gags which aren't funny.

More bugs, more annoyance.

[OllieSuave-007 · 4/10 · 13 May 2018]

It's beach fun for Donald and Pluto. Them grappling with the inflatable horse was pretty funny, but, as usual, they fall victims to a bunch of bugs, in this case ants who steals their food. For once, I would like to see the annoying bugs actually getting beaten back by the Disney heroes.

Grade D

Beach bum.

[southdavid · 5/10 · 27 September 2022]

Another Disney short from the classic era, that I watched as it was next alphabetically on the Disney Plus short film channel. I've enjoyed quite a bit of this run through, but "Beach Panic" wasn't one of the stronger efforts.

Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) heads to the beach. He lays out his Picnic and then heads for a swim. He and Pluto (Lee Millar) frolic in the sea with his inflatable horse but meanwhile his Picnic is infiltrated and stolen by a colony of Ants. But Donald has come prepared and sets out some sticky flypaper to try and stop them from getting away.

It's not, I think, a case of time not being kind to the short, I recently watched "The Band Concert" which was genuinely charming and actually funny. The animation style of this the same and there is still, a timeless appeal to classic Disney animation. I really didn't find it funny though. The relationship between Donald and Pluto is ill defined, you'd assume that Pluto is his dog, but Donald seems to enjoy tormenting him. The interaction with the ants, which should perhaps have been the focus of the short, is mostly ignored in favour of just the flypaper business, which isn't that good.

I know there are better shorts that I'm going to come across in this section of Disney Plus, hopefully I won't see many more as disappointing as this one.