Donald Duck is a great character. His crazy voice is classic, he has a waffer thin temper and he also has a real mean, selfish streak to him that I love in a character. That's what maks Bloo out of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends so fun to watch and the same thing is definitely there in Donald. Sure he's a good guy and he does the right thing in the end or learns his lesson, but he can also be self centred and a total dick to everyone else along the way and that is very fun to watch.
In his first screen appearance in 'The Wise Little Hen' he didn't start out as the mental case we know him as know, although the selfish part of his character is there. He's just a lazy guy. It's interesting that the other characters of the hen and Peter Pig have the same, hard to decipher, animalistic voice that Donald has. It makes the dialoge really hard to understand so you can see why they didn't carry this on as a general theme with other characters, otherwise Disney cartoons would need subtitles. Also, that voice is something that really makes Donald stand out from the rest of the Disney pack. This is a sweet little fable-like cartoon but Donald's next role would be a whole new ball game.
So after 'The Wise Little Hen' Donald is introduced into the world of Mickey Mouse in 'Orphan's Benefit' and history is made. Here we see Donald's insane temper for the first time and it is GREAT! He spends the cartoon threatening to punch a group of orphans and at the end even has a brick behind his back, ready to bust some heads. The guy is out to batter orphans! That is pretty extreem, but awesome.
Aside from Donal meeting Mickey for the first time this cartoon is also notable for featuring Goofy for the first time as Goofy (previously he had been popping up as the character Dippy Dawg in varying forms). This cartoon was also re-made 7 years later using the same sound but in colour with updated character designs. Both look lovely but the black and white original really does it for me.
'Polar Trappers' is another great example of Donald being a bad ass. In this we see Donald is so fed up of eating beans that he plots to kill off a load of penguin for food, and seeing as he's a duck that seems very wrong. It's great seeing a beloved childrens cartoon character swinging axes and penguins and making baby penguins cry. That's what kids TV is all about. Good work Donald.
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