Donald Duck: "The Plastics Inventor" (1944)

Via Rudy Rucker by way of Paul Di Filippo, this cartoon, in which Donald Duck bakes a plastic airplane. The trouble starts when Donald takes his plane for a spin and it starts to melt in the rain

[#1 posted by nanuq , March 2, 2009 5:39 PM]

I think I like this story better when it was about Daedalus and Icarus. At least Disney is wholehearted in their theft.

[#2 posted by djn , March 2, 2009 5:41 PM]

Hah, I remember seeing this sometime in the 90s. Dubbed to swedish, of course - which is how large chunks of Norway got their disney cartoons. :)

I also really like this one - there's something about the "plastic"-material in it that appeals to me. :)

[#3 posted by Sysiphus , March 2, 2009 5:43 PM]

did someone notice the sing on the back wall that says "buy war bonds"? of course its covered by a painting but thats what it says, I love to find subliminal mesages in old times cartoons ^^

[#4 posted by PolishQ , March 2, 2009 5:49 PM]

Reminds me of In The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak!

[#5 posted by Anonymous , March 2, 2009 6:05 PM]

How nostalgic! I remember watching this when I was around 5 or so in the 80s. I loved how he baked the gears like cookies. Thanks for sharing this :)

[#6 posted by jacques45 , March 2, 2009 6:15 PM]

I wonder if the plastic was "bakelite".... har har har

[#7 posted by shredcitizen , March 2, 2009 6:17 PM]

wow. thats probably one of the best donald duck cartoons ive ever seen. i dont remember watching this when i was a kid!

why does the plane melt in water and not while achieving comet like speeds and being engulfed in comet flames?

[#8 posted by Anonymous , March 2, 2009 6:18 PM]

What a wonderful trip down memory lane.

On Sunday mornings, about 3 or 4 times a year, there were cartoons and films at my elementary schools gym.

Thanks guys!

[#9 posted by Idle Tuesday , March 2, 2009 6:26 PM]

Thank you! I haven't seen that before. Are all these classics on YouTube? It would be great if they were.

[#10 posted by lionelbrits , March 2, 2009 6:29 PM]

@Sysiphus: I think An American Tail is somehow anti-communist propaganda, but I haven't gotten around to watching it as an adult to make sure =)

[#11 posted by Alex_M , March 2, 2009 6:33 PM]

Wow! So cool. I might've seen this one as a kid.

But it's even cooler now that I'm all grown up with polymer chemist friends that I can share it with! :D

[#12 posted by buddy66 , March 2, 2009 7:12 PM]

Plastics was the miracle material. Civilians didn't know exactly what it was in 1943. The same with penicillin and jet propulsion. I remember at 14 trying to explain how the Hiroshima bomb worked to the men at the sign shop where I apprenticed. (Of course I knew EVERYTHING about nuclear fission from the Willie Ley articles in '' S & S's Astounding Science Fiction.'' (( I also drove them into gales of laughter by telling them we would walk on the moon in 25 years or less)).) Kids no doubt had similar experiences 20 years ago trying to explain computers and the internet to my generation.

So it goes.

[#13 posted by gobo , March 2, 2009 7:27 PM]

Ahhh, I haven't seen this since the Disney Channel used to actually show classic Disney cartoons every day on "Donald Duck Presents". Thanks.

[#14 posted by mongo , March 2, 2009 7:41 PM]

Great! Ub Iwerks was a genius.

[#15 posted by cleverindie , March 2, 2009 7:47 PM]

Someone left the plane out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again...

[#16 posted by Duffong , March 2, 2009 7:56 PM]

Too bad for us that plastics aren't water soluble after all.

[#17 posted by Anonymous , March 2, 2009 8:00 PM]

I find the radio plastics inventor's omnipotence intensely disturbing.... especially since he's so cheerful about all that destruction. Particularly when he's warning Donald about the various parts of his plane... chilling.

On the other hand, old cartoons are really charming. I loved it.

[#18 posted by Bob , March 2, 2009 8:34 PM]

So, Alex: What kinda polymer would that be? Heat resistant but water soluble?

[#19 posted by El Mariachi , March 2, 2009 8:41 PM]

Why is Donald so concerned with the plane falling apart? He's a duck. Ducks can fly.

[#20 posted by ridl , March 2, 2009 8:49 PM]

The omniscient and happily sadistic Disney radio announcer has always given me the heebies too. I don't remember him torturing Donald much, he always seemed to like fucking with Goofy most. Disney training us for Orwell's screens, or just convenient plot device?

[#21 posted by LostMachine , March 2, 2009 9:07 PM]

Thanks for the Video. The cartoons where they made stuff were always my favorite. This one I remember well.

[#22 posted by Vanguard3000 , March 2, 2009 9:29 PM]

Of course Donald can't fly; not without all those heavy, rain-soaked clothes on!

[#23 posted by Darryl , March 2, 2009 9:36 PM]

Nice work -- expect this to be taken down by the morning.

[#24 posted by Alex_M , March 2, 2009 9:44 PM]

Bob @ #18: Hmm, heat resistant but water soluble.. and made in a kitchen!

I'm gonna go with a glass phase of starch for that one :)

[#25 posted by nixiebunny , March 2, 2009 9:45 PM]

That was a bit surreal for Disney.

[#26 posted by djn , March 2, 2009 9:48 PM]

Oh, I don't know - for early Disney, this is almost modest.

[#27 posted by Anonymous , March 2, 2009 10:44 PM]

Did donald start tripping balls at the very beginning, or just when his plane started to melt. Either way, someone was tripping balls.

[#28 posted by Anonymous , March 2, 2009 10:58 PM]

that is really interesting; at that time, there were not many plastics beyond bakelite, but there were a lot of shiny papeir mache processes aping the process of the new materials of protoplastics coming into being. A radio might be the sturdier stuff, but a lot of toys, 3d advertising displays, doll faces, trying to replicate the smooth shininess of same, were actually rather fragile varnished paper, which didn't mix too well with water at all.

So is the cartoon tapping into that aspect of materials science kids were probably most familiar with, stuff that looked like plastic, but really was not meant to ever come in touch with water?

[#29 posted by Bill , March 3, 2009 1:16 AM]

This is good but my favorite is still Donald Duck: "The Meth Lab".

[#30 posted by Ratdog , March 3, 2009 2:03 AM]

This cartoon reminds me of a bad dream I had a while ago...

[#31 posted by gobo , March 3, 2009 3:57 AM]

The other aspect of this cartoon that always fascinated me was the intro, where Donald makes his plastic vat out of a pile of old garbage. Did people in 1944 believe that plastic was what you get if you melt all your trash and junk together? It must have seemed magical.

[#32 posted by joncro , March 3, 2009 6:31 AM]

This is on the DVD set 'Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Volume Two (1942 - 1946) (1942)', which keeps my 5 year old son giggling and making Donald Duck voices for hours.

I am trying to limit his animation viewing to material produced before 1970 only.

[#33 posted by knodi , March 3, 2009 8:29 AM]

Joncro @32 - you reminded me of this:
http://wondermark.com/490/

I feel the same way, but I didn't realize the slight hypocrisy in my position until I read that comic strip. Sad that I learned something important about myself from an internet comic. *sigh*

[#34 posted by buddy66 , March 3, 2009 8:44 AM]

I remember buying two sixpaks of beer in 1949 and being told I could BURN the bottles. That's right, burn them. They looked and felt like bottles...

What was that stuff?

[#35 posted by malex , March 3, 2009 10:53 AM]

For all the magical properties plastics were assumed to have, this cartoon could updated, almost without alteration, to be about Nanotech Desktop Fabrication.

[#36 posted by gATO , March 3, 2009 11:19 AM]

Wonderful, made my day! thanks! :D

[#37 posted by TroofSeeker , March 3, 2009 4:52 PM]

So much of my refuse is re-cyclable... hmmm...
I'm gonna go try that!