Sunday, January 26, 2014

THE WISE LITTLE HEN (1934)

 RELEASE DATE: Saturday 9th June 1934


SYNOPSIS: Based on the children's fable "The Little Red Hen," this classic cartoon is most well known for having the very first appearance of a certain bad-tempered duck in a sailor suit! That's right, this was the origin of Donald Duck!

In the story, the hard-working hen (and in this version, her adorable brood of chicks) want to grow some corn to turn into bread. She asks some of the other farm animals for help (in this case, Peter Pig and Donald Duck) but they keep making up tales of stomach aches so they don't have to do any of the hard work. Of course, once all of the food is ready to be eaten, the hen tells them that only the people who HELPED prepare the food may eat it... and they go hungry.

IRVYNE: This  was released about a year after The Three Little Pigs. (It will be 80 years old in June! Wow!) It's the same kind of idea, taking a well known nursery-story and adding a few Disney twists, including setting it all to music.
 
 
PASCAL: I don't remember it being a pig and a duck in the original story, I thought it was some other farm animals. Like a dog and a cow, or something.


MALEFICENT: This cartoon was fantastic! We found out where Donald Duck comes from, and why he wears a sailor's uniform: because he lives on a ship!


HAKU: I want to know why Donald Duck became so famous and Peter Pig didn't!


SHENZI: Peter Pig doesn't speak very well. I couldn't understand him. He needs to enunciate!


HAKU: What, and Donald Duck DOES speak well...?? I think Peter Pig must have gone into rehab.


WENDY: The chickens were adorable in their little shoes, but I do wonder about the hen's policies on child labour!... I was also hoping that it wasn't chicken soup that they were eating at the end!


IRVYNE: What?? How could you even suggest that?? What a horrible thought! It was CORN soup! CORN!!


MALEFICENT: Disney food always looks delicious. I always feel hungry whenever I watch a Disney cartoon with food in it.


IRVYNE: So are we going to give this one the thumbs-up?


WENDY: Yes!


HAKU: I actually thought this one was better than The Three Little Pigs.


SHENZI: It had a nice moral for the kiddies.


PASCAL: Yeah, I liked that Donald and Peter realised they'd done the wrong thing and punished themselves... By kicking each other up the bum! There's a good lesson in that for children!


IRVYNE: Yes. Peter Pig and Donald Duck invented the world's first Fight Club... And the first rule of Fight Club is... You don't talk about Fight Club... because no one can understand what you're saying anyway!!



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