"A Donald Duck Cartoon"

Release Date November 26, 1943

Synopsis

Donald mans his listening post while his three nephews wait in readiness to attack the enemy. But chaos breaks out when the enemy turns out to be nothing more than a wandering bee.

Characters

Donald Duck

Huey, Dewey and Louie

Credits

Director : Jack King

Story

Jack Hannah

Carl Barks

Animation : Paul Allen

Cut Scenes

Some gun scenes have been cut out of this short.

Videos

Cartoon Classics : Limited Gold Editions 2 : An Officer and a Duck

Laserdiscs

United States

An Officer and a Duck

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : On the Front Lines

Disney Treasures : The Chronological Donald Duck Volume 2

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #31 : The Unseen Disney

The Ink and Paint Club : #51 : Triple Trouble

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.

Comments

From Jerry Edwards : When Donald Duck, a civilian war aircraft spotter, falls asleep at this post, his nephews trick him by launching a toy plane and toy parachutists. Donald also has misadventures when he thinks that a bee, as amplified by his listening device, is an enemy warship and ends up shooting his own listening post.

On the surface, this is just another typical Donald conflict with his nephews. But the war propaganda moral shines through - Donald should have been alert at his post at all times.

From Ryan : This time instead of Pete being the co-star, it's Huey, Dewey, and Louie. I enjoyed the part where the nephews play a trick on their uncle Donald by flying a toy plane into the sky that they put gingerbread figures in. When Donald wakes up and sees this, he prepares to fire, but then sees the gingerbread men (which he thinks are the enemy soldiers)parachuting out of the plane, he ducks down in a flower patch and surrenders. He then sees it's only a gingerbread man and sees his nephews shooting off guns. This scene is censored on the "Ink and Paint Club", but I saw it on the "Mickey Mouse Club" so I guess I should have taped it from that show rather than the "Ink and Paint Club (even though the "Mickey Mouse Club" version is black and white)."

From Baruch Weiss : This is the only wartime cartoon that has Donald's three nephews in it. It was ok, but again nothing to write home about.

Animation cels of Huey, Dewey and Louie in "Home Defense"
Courtesy of Van Eaton Galleries

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