From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : When you see a short titled Cured Duck, you might thing you want to barbecue something. And by barbecue, I do not mean grilling. These are two different things. But regardless, you would not correct, because this short is about curing Donald Duck’s temper, which is an infinitely funnier premise.

Daisy lays down the law in this one – Donald must cure his temper or she will no longer tolerate him and will not go out with him. While it sounds extreme, it’s not based on the completely insane tirade that Donald goes on at her house. When he cannot open the window, he literally destroys everything in sight. I have a temper. I have been known to destroy things on occasion. But next to Donald’s destruction? I’m an amateur.

It really is a remarkable scene. Donald is tearing her home to shreds, but Daisy stands idly by and watches, with a cool detachment. Perhaps she sees her opportunity to reform Donald, but it still seems odd. Donald finds his center, however, when he runs into a newspaper ad that gives him the solution. He orders the crazy contraption and hilarity ensues.

This is a familiar formula for Donald, but with the added twist of having some stakes involved. After all, we’ve seen Donald interact with a narrator telling him to control himself through the radio, and we’ve seen him struggle with machines in shorts like Modern Inventions. The difference here is that there is a true reward at the end of the day, which raises the stakes.

Testing Donald’s temper is a dangerous game, but it works here both in the literal sense and the comedic one. He manages to get things under control, which is to be expected. The true test is when he returns to Daisy’s house and has trouble opening the window again. He still manages to keep it together.

I won’t reveal the fun ending to the short, except to say that the way the animators displayed anger in this one gets put to good use. It’s a short that trods familiar ground, but does so in a nice way. I didn’t feel cheated or that things were too repetitive. Cured Duck ended up being fun, but not outstanding.

From Ryan : I find this short to be one of the most humorous cartoons that Disney ever made. I enjoy the scene where Donald has trouble trying to open Daisy's window and ends up tearing her living room apart. To Donald's surprise, however, the window was just locked. Daisy says, "Shame on you. Temper, temper, temper. You don't see me losing my temper?" I also enjoy the part where Donald is taking insults from the machine to help him control his temper. The ending also gives me a good laugh. When Daisy walks out of her room with a silly-looking hat, Donald starts laughing. Daisy, who says she never loses her temper, starts smacking Donald with her purse and screaming like the dickens at him.

From Baruch Weiss : In this short Donald plays a cartoon teenager called KATIE KA-BOOM but does not say "I am not over reacting, I am a teenager!" Nor does he transform into a monster even though he does wreck Daisy's house. Anyway; great short. It teaches a lesson on how to control one's temper. Also there was something in this cartoon that you would see in a Warner Brothers cartoon. Donald drives through a garage and on top of it the garage said "ACME." I find that pretty strange since ACME can be found in only Warner Brother cartoons.

From Donald : The best Donald Duck cartoon and the funniest. Really typical Donald, as the story is centered around curing his temper, at Daisy's instruction. Great laugh, and Disney cartoons by far are the best, and have revolutionized cartoons in every way. The Disney shorts between 1928-1953 with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and the many other characters are the best ever produced cartoons and exceed most standards of cartoons today in detail. Disney movies are also a great enjoyment, especially the classics such as "The Love Bug", "The Apple Dumpling Gang", "The Shaggy D.A ", etc.

From Brother Duck : The scene of Donald losing his temper is perfect; the music is perfect. The scene could be used in anger management classes, methinks. I just laugh and laugh at it.

From Isidro : Pretty much Self-Control meets Modern Inventions. A cool, light-hearted cartoon with amusing and creative gags.

A curious detail on this one; the machine pulling out the buttons of Donald's shirt is ironic, because this is the last cartoon you can see Donald with them.

From Christian : A Walt Disney masterpiece. One thing I find really freaky in the short is that when Donald pulls the objects out of the wall, the holes are always the shape of the object. Usually that's done with the characters.

From J. P. Hope : There are two of my favorite parts of this short: one when Donald fails to open a window and destroys the entire house with Daisy seeing him on the warpath, and another one when Donald is startled by the look of Daisy's new hat and laughs at it and asks "where did you get that CRAZY hat?!" and provokes Daisy when she turns red and says "oh! you don't like my hat?!" and henpecks Donald with the broom as SHE goes on the warpath against Donald!

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Cured Duck

A Donald Duck Cartoon

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Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

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