From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : Donald Duck can get himself in some amazingly awkward situations. We have seen that and we know it to be true. I have to say though, that the situation of Golden Eggs may be the most out there situation I’ve ever seen.

After seeing that the price of eggs is up to $0.85/lb, Donald decides it’s his time to strike it rich by harvesting the eggs in what one presumes is his chicken coop. After all, Donald leaves his own house, steps into his own yard, and begins collecting the eggs. He even puts on a faster bit of music to speed up the egg production. So where’s the problem?

Somewhere in the middle of all this, a rooster shows up and boots Donald out of the coop. What? I get that the rooster is “in charge” of the hens, but isn’t Donald the owner of the coop? Shouldn’t he be able to kick the rooster out?

This is where the problem of having your lead character be an animal kick in. Donald, as a duck, is about the same size as the rooster, so it really seems he has no authority in this situation. Which leads to an inevitable silly solution of putting on a female rooster costume, of course.

That’s the entire plot of the short, really, is Donald’s attempt to get past the rooster and capture the eggs using this “female” trick. And it’s funny watching Donald try to maneuver himself closer to the eggs without alerting the rooster to his duplicity. There’s complications of course, such as the red rubber glove that refuses to stay on Donald’s head, or the caterpillar that crawls inside the glove.

In the end, though, it was really hard for me to get past the whole “this is Donald’s house” thing. I know, I should suspend disbelief and move on, but this was just such a stretch that it was hard to overcome. Outside of that, though, the short is quite good.

One thing I find interesting is that in the way this plays off the rising price of eggs, this is the first time that the effects of World War II are starting to creep into the shorts. It would not be until 1942 that rationing and the conservation of resources began in earnest, but prices for goods were starting to rise as the war intensified. Eventually, Disney would become much more embroiled in the war effort with propaganda shorts and more, but that’s in the future.

From David Gerstein at Ramapith : Interestingly, the Good Housekeeping adaptation of Golden Eggs clarified that Donald was trying to get his eggs "on the sly"; the coop and rooster belonged to a neighbor, apparently, thus his lack of authority over the bird.

Maybe that's how the cartoon was initially planned, too? But I can't say I know. I always had the "but it's Donald's house" problem with the finished film, too.

From Ross : This is definitely a classic Disney cartoon starring Donald Duck. First of all, this Disney cartoon has wonderful animation, it's very well-timed, and it's very funny. It has lots of slapstick humor similar to that of the Three Stooges. Anyway, about this Disney cartoon, Donald reads in the newspaper that the price of eggs has skyrocketed to 85 cents a dozen. Donald goes outside to the chicken house, and he grabs all the eggs, but a rooster won't let Donald near the eggs, so Donald disguises himself as a chicken so that he can get the eggs and become rich. I love this Donald Duck cartoon very much because of the scenes when the rooster falls in love with Donald's chicken disguise, the scene when the caterpillar crawls onto Donald's back, and the scene when Donald and the rooster are dancing to rumba music. This cartoon also has great music that you can dance to, and that's why I love this classic Disney cartoon.

From Andrew : A fun short. Donald apparently beat Bugs Bunny to cross-dressing by a few years at least. He looks disturbingly "authentic" in some scenes where he even has long eyelashes and dimpled cheeks.

From Julie Arsenault : Clarence Nash and Florence Gill had never sounded so good as in this Donald Duck cartoon. In this cartoon, Donald has read in the paper that the price of eggs sky-rocket to 85 cents a dozen (Liquid Gold); Sure it might not much today, but I it must a lot back then. So he decides to harvest eggs from the henhouse for profit; But not when a protective rooster's on watch; So he tries disguising himself as a hen.

I love this cartoon, it is one of my favorite Donald shorts from 1941. I love it when Donald flips the record from "Lazy Daze" music to "Hot Stuff" jitter-bug music to speed up production (with eggs 85 cents); And also when encounters the rooster :

"Oh Boy!"

*zips*

"Oh No!"

It is funny to see Donald as a hen, and it's amazing that Ducky Nash could cluck like a chicken in his Donald voice; Donald is the first duck to be masquerading in the guise of a chicken, because it was also done in a Daffy Duck cartoon "You were never Duckier" but in a different situation.

From Baruch Weiss : First of all, just because Donald's voice might make it hard to understand it sure is intelligible. In fact, it is not subtle to hear what he is saying in many of his shorts. Getting back to the cartoon, Donald seems to be out of character in that he is greedy rather then angry, but of course he has more to offer then just one emotion. I enjoyed the part where he goes into the chicken house and finds a record that reads "lazy daze." He then changes it to "hot stuff" so he can get more eggs faster.

Poster

The Golden Eggs

A Donald Duck Cartoon

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Germany

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Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

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