Release Date January 15, 1954

Running time 3:32 (edited version)

Synopsis

Donald has the same old problem dealing with his three troublesome nephews, and is torn between using psychology or losing his temper.

Characters

Donald Duck

Huey, Dewey and Louie

Credits

Director : Jack Hannah

Animation

Volus Jones

George Kreisl

Bill Justice

Bob Carlson

Effects Animation : Dan MacManus

Story

Roy Williams

Nick George

Layout : Yale Gracey

Background : Ray Huffine

Music : Oliver Wallace

Cut Scenes

A group of pygmies were featured who Donald follows around thinking they are his nephews. All scenes with these pygmies have been cut out.

Videos

Germany

Alle Enten Fertig Los

France

Donald Se Fache!

Italy

Vita da Paperi

Laserdiscs

Japan

Goin' Quackers

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #30 : 50's Donald

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 : Although this is a generally entertaining Donald versus his nephews short, there are some extras that make this a very unusual short. The most obvious, for those few who have seen the uncensored original, is the seriously blatant racial caricatures of the African cannibals. 1954 was very late for cartoons to still be containing such black stereotypes. Another unusual part is the small "child psychologist" duck who appears near Donald's head and advises him to use "child psychology" in dealing with his nephews. The cartoon starts with Donald using his typical strong arm tactics to try to get his nephews to do their chores - they keep sneaking off to play games, like "Indians on the warpath." The "child psychologist" convinces Donald to join in the games, using the game to get the nephews to do their chores. Complicating matters are the cannibals, who have escaped from a circus. They spot Donald and think he would make great duck stew. Donald mistakes the cannibals as his nephews playing games and plays along until one of the cannibals bites Donald to "taste" him. Donald loses his temper and takes the cannibal out to the woodshed. The cannibals take off and Donald, seeing his nephews, angrily chases them back to doing their chores. Donald then takes the "child pyschologist" to the woodpile.

Disney completely botches the censored version of this short - deleting all scenes of the cannibals and making the short impossible to follow. Instead of reducing a 6 minute short (not counting credits) to a 2.5 minute disaster - Disney should have just not shown the short at all if they wanted to censor it.

The entire short depends on the weak premise that Donald mistakes the cannibals as his nephews as disguise - very weak.

I rate the overall original short a "6" but the censored version is a "1".

From Ryan : Most people who have seen this cartoon probably have no idea that it is edited. I certainly didn't (but did realize it was unusually short for your average cartoon short) until reading the info on this website. Seeing how I have never seen the full uncensored version, I can't really say much about it. I do agree with the previous comments on this page that if Disney couldn't show the pygmy cannibal scenes, then they shouldn't have shown this short at all. That would have been a lot better than editing it into a 3 minute cartoon that doesn't make much sense (how the heck did Donald wind up in that pot on the fire). I do, however, find the child psychology duck to be funny.

From Candy : I have never seen the unedited version of this cartoon. Not knowing it was edited, it never bothered me that it seemed especially short. I don't know how one would go about finding it in its original form. I remember seeing it in an episode of Walt Disney Presents, when it was in black and white and Walt introduced the show. This was back when the Disney Channel used to play all the old Disney shows. So this cartoon has been censored as far back as the original Disney TV show...or so it seems that way.

What I thought was interesting about the cartoon was the psychology-vs.-discipline scenario. Other cartoons from the same pperiod also depicted this kind of thing. I always got the impression that the cartoon makers, Disney included, were making fun of the idea of child psychology. They all grew up with corporal punishment and it was a normal, accepted thing at the time. They seemed to be saying that using psychology on kids was a waste of time and that the only way to get them to behave was to spank them. Even the title of the cartoon was a take-off on the old expression, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." In these kinds of cartoons, child psychology always lost to corporal punishment. This kind of cartoon would never be made today. It depicted racial stereotypes that had to be cut out and it seemed to endorse spanking.

From Rich : I am lucky enough to have an uncensored version of this, and it is artistically clever if unfortunately racist, although when I was younger I used to wonder why "man eating cannibals" were so interested in Donald (duck)! It will be interesting to see if this gets a special Leonard Maltin intro on the forthcoming DVD, or if it will be suppressed like the Song of the South animations.

I have seen "Spare the Rod" and would like to
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