Beach Picnic

Plot synopsis:
Donald Duck is at the beach singing happily, having a picnic. After preparing the food, he tried to ride on a rubber horse named Seabiscuit. He tried to ride on it, but it repeatedly bounced Donald off.
Donald then saw Pluto sleeping soundly and snoring loudly. Donald decided to make fun of Pluto. Since Pluto's mouth was open, the seawater washed into Pluto's mouth, causing Pluto to cough and woke him. Donald made the sound of Seabiscuit. Pluto wants to find out what caused the sound, but he soon gets frightened by the sound. Donald laughed hysterically.
Pluto then frantically tried to press Seabiscuit into the water, but it kept bouncing up and hit Pluto. Pluto then accidentally sucked Seabiscuit's gas, and he expanded as big as a balloon. He flew through the air and his buttock stuck in a pirate ship. Donald is not seen in the process.
The screen cuts to another scene. Some of the ants unfortunately saw the food, and then the numerous ants swarmed toward the picnic foods and carried them around. Donald saw the ants and frantically chased them away. Donald angrily ranted at those ants, and then he decided to put out infinite flypaper to let the ants stick on it to get rid of them.
An ant secretly carried away a piece of cake. Pluto saw it and gobbled up the cake and smelled the ant curiously while following the ant. Donald saw the ant and threw a flypaper to the ant. The ant wisely goes through the flypaper. But Pluto's nose gets stuck on it, and then the paw, the back, the side, the buttock (similar to the moves in Playful Pluto) with Pluto unsuccessfully removing the flypaper. Donald laughed hysterically, but his smile faded with Pluto accidentally letting the flypaper stick to him. Donald ranted angrily and struggled to free himself. Pluto then swung Donald frantically, and tossed Donald with the flypaper, and Donald rolled over the infinite flypaper and got stuck with all the flypaper, wrecking his hat and the picnic food. Donald looked shocked, and Pluto jumped onto him and licked Donald's face happily and Donald squawked angrily.
The film ended with Donald getting his comeuppance and his body completely gets wrapped by the flypaper. Donald squawked in rage, feeling suffocated, with Pluto happily licking him.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Not funny.
In this cartoon Donald goes to the beach for some fun in the sun.
He takes a giant inflatable horse (called Seabiscuit) with him to play with in the water.
Everything seems fine until Donald decides to torment Pluto for some reason by blowing water and air into his face, or something.
The cartoon lingers on this bit of unfunnyness for a few minutes before it goes to the typical 'picnic being stolen by ants' routine.
Good God, man.
How many times have I seen that in a cartoon?Donald and Pluto try to take them on but lose to their own arrogance and stupidity.
No, this cartoon is not really that funny at all and Donald surely deserves better than this.
I don't rate Beach Picnic very highly I'm afraid..
Beach Time.
Beach Picnic (1939) ** (out of 4)Donald is on the beach trying to rid a rubber horse but he keeps getting thrown from it so when he sees Pluto sleeping he decides to have some fun and watch the dog fight it.
Soon a group of ants (acting as Indians) show up to steal their food.
BEACH PICNIC has some great animation and one good sequence but overall it's a pretty lackluster short from Disney.
The one great sequence is when the ants start taking away the food because the music and the animation is just so good here.
I think the weakest part of the film is the opening bits with the rubber horse as there's just really nothing too clever or funny going on here as we simply see Donald and Pluto fall around.
Fans of the characters will probably want to watch this but the rest should look for a better film..
Donald & Pluto at the beach.
So-so Donald Duck short has Donald at the beach being his usual charming self picking on Pluto, who just wanted to sleep, by sending an inflatable horse over and messing with the poor dog.
He stands there laughing like a jerk while Pluto fights with the horse.
Pluto's struggles here are worth a chuckle or two but the start of the short is the weakest part.
Then comes the 'picnic' part.
Ants, dressing and acting like movie Indians, raid Donald's picnic lunch.
Not sure why Donald needed so much food but it actually made me hungry just looking at it.
Some really nice animation in this.
Anyway, Donald sees the ants making off with his eats and, of course, goes ballistic.
After screaming and carrying on, he sets up some sticky fly paper hoping to trap the ants.
It doesn't take a psychic to guess that things don't go according to plan.
I'm not a huge Donald Duck fan and shorts like this are why.
The guy was just an angry jerk most of the time.
Sometimes it is funny to see him get his comeuppance but here most of the humor falls flat.
The animation is lovely and colorful.
The music is very nice.
It's worth a peek but not one of my favorites..
More bugs, more annoyance..
It's beach fun for Donald and Pluto.
Them grappling with the inflatable horse was pretty funny, but, as usual, they fall victims to a bunch of bugs, in this case ants who steals their food.
For once, I would like to see the annoying bugs actually getting beaten back by the Disney heroes.Grade D.
I hadn't realized that Donald could be so CRUEL!.
This one is kinda ambiguous, Donald and Pluto appeared in this cartoon "Beach Picnic", But the pair of them isn't get along there, though the both had appeared in Donald and Pluto (1936), how in the world that they had to get together again?Humph!
Donald was in a picnic at the beach, he spotted Pluto there and have fun teasing him (Pluto didn't do anything to him), ugh, how bad Donald were, also seen in the poster of the film.
Then Donald spread the infinte flypaper and try to stick the ants, which happened to caused the curious Pluto to get stuck on it, and the moves like the film "Playful Pluto", and what's more, Donald laughed more hysterically, that could be hateful enough, and when Pluto unintentionally stuck Donald's buttock with him, Donald ranted at him to left him alone, spit out lots of abusive salivas and profanity, Pluto, understandably had enough, swung Donald away with the flypaper with one fierce blow, caused Donald to get completely stuck by the flypapers, and Pluto started to lick Donald like in Donald and Pluto (1936) too, and Donald get his comeuppance.
This cartoon isn't really funny, but anyway, it's rather good..
A Duck Tale With Surf.
The BEACH PICNIC for Donald & Pluto is frustrated by a rubber sea horse named Sylvester and a marauding tribe of Red Indian ants.This is a very enjoyable little film which features great animation and lots of laughs.
Watching the reactions of the Duck and the Pup as the complications pile up against them provides much of the humor.
Clarence Nash once again excels as the voice of Donald.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings.
As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle.
Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters.
Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe.
Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor.
When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality.
The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music.
The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable.
Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto.
All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films.
Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off..
Has some great animation and music as well as a good sequence, but Donald and Pluto don't quite gel....
That is a shame actually, because I thought they did very well in Donald and Pluto, despite the fact that Pluto was more dominant.
The two sadly don't gel here, partly because they are rarely on screen together, and when they are it is not long enough, and partly because their personalities are too different.
Donald works best when he is easily frustrated at things and people around him which apart from one scene was shown enough in Beach Picnic.
Pluto is cute and energetic, and works best in contrast when he is curious, wants fun or is causing chaos.
Again that side wasn't shown enough here.
Another major problem is that what Donald and Pluto are given to do is not very funny.
Donald's battle with the raft was a good idea to start with, but comes across as simplistic and unfunny, while him laughing at Pluto trials with the raft was rather cruel.
I also thought it could have been developed more.
Likewise the parts with Pluto being stuck in the fly paper are limply paced and get tiring fast.
On a more positive side, one sequence does work and that was the one with the ants, not because it was funny as such, actually it was amusing but what made the sequence was how the ants invading the picnic were characterised with war drums and all and also the viewpoints of Donald and Pluto.
Donald chasing the ants off is much more effective than what Pluto gets saddled with, which is elevated just when Donald has his comeuppance and gets stuck in the fly paper with him.
The animation is lusciously coloured and fluid, and the music is beautiful and full of the usual characterful energy.
Clarence Nash's voice acting is excellent.
Overall, the animation and music are top notch and I liked the sequence with the ants, but the limp gags, Donald and Pluto's lacking chemistry and the fact that neither character are used to the best of their ability brought Beach Picnic down to a rather lukewarm experience for me.
5/10 Bethany Cox. Donald Duck teams with Pluto for a day at the beach.
Kudos to Turner Classics for offering up three early Disney cartoon shorts that many of us probably would never get a chance to see.
"Beach Picnic" was the middle one of the trio, sandwiched in between 'Hawaiian Holiday' and 'It's the Simple Things'.
In this one, Donald Duck becomes increasingly frustrated by an inflatable sea horse that behaves very characteristically like one of those over-sized inflatables we've all had trouble getting on and off of.
He hands things off to Pluto who also has his share of misadventures with the darn thing.
Then a horde of red ants plays havoc with Donald's picnic lunch, and with current movie fave "Ant-Man" currently in theaters, we're once again reminded that ants can lift and carry many times their own weight.
I'm not sure what the motivation would have been to have the ants mimic Native American Indians, but this was an era way before the age of political correctness, and I doubt even today if many would be offended other than those who find fault with just about everything.
The cartoon short closes out with Pluto battling an uncooperative sheet of flypaper, all of which Donald finds absolutely hilarious.