Donald's Snow Fight

Donald's Snow Fight
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJack King
Story byCarl Barks
Harry Reeves
Produced byWalt Disney
StarringClarence Nash
Music byOliver Wallace
Animation byLee J. Ames
Jim Armstrong
Walt Clinton
Jack Hannah
Hal King
Ed Love
Lee Morehouse
Ray Patin
Retta Scott
Don Towsley
Judge Whitaker
Layouts byBill Herwig
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • April 10, 1942 (1942-04-10)
Running time
7 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Donald's Snow Fight is an animated short film featuring classic cartoon character Donald Duck in a snowball fight with his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie.[1] It was released in 1942 by Walt Disney Productions.[2]

Plot

Donald looks outside his house one day and is joyed to see snow on the ground. Putting on his overcoat, he goes out to play with a sled on a nearby hill while singing "Jingle Bells". As Donald reaches the top of the hill, he notices his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, at the bottom, building a snowman at the bottom. Donald slides down the hill on his sled, plowing through his nephews' snowman and laughing at them afterwards, prompting them to plot revenge.

Later, the nephews craft a snowman loosely resembling Donald around a boulder, label it "Uncle Donald", and provoke their uncle into going after it. Donald furiously attempts to crash through the new snowman, only to collide with the hidden boulder underneath it, destroying his sled and overcoat. In response, Donald declares a snow war on his nephews.

Donald launches the first strike, pelting his nephews with snowballs and turning them into bowling pins, before literally bowling them over with a larger snowball. He then crafts an ice missile by freezing a bullet-shaped clump of snow in water, and launches it towards his nephews' flagpole, splitting it into three pieces which trap his nephews on the ground and repeatedly spank them.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie refuse to surrender, and unleash a counter-attack, launching a volley of mouse trap-filled snow bombs at Donald. After getting pelted and covered in mouse traps, Donald throws a temper tantrum, and gets knocked backwards by a large snowball to his face. Donald's nephews then deliver the finishing blow by firing flaming arrows at their uncle's snow battleship, melting it and sending Donald into the frozen lake below, where he is subsequently frozen in place above the ensuing splash. The triplets celebrate their victory with a stereotypical Native American dance around Donald (this last shot was often cut when it aired on television).

Voice cast

Home media

The short was released on December 6, 2005 on Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Two: 1942-1946.[3]

References

  1. ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 90. ISBN 9781476672939.
  2. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 74-76. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. ^ "The Chronological Donald Volume 2 DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved 13 February 2021.