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Donald Duck's 50th Birthday

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Donald Duck's 50th Birthday is a television special broadcast on November 13, 1984 on CBS. As the title suggests, it was produced for Donald Duck's 50th anniversary.

Donald is shown in both animated and costumed form, interacting with emcee Dick Van Dyke and other cast members. The film not only shows Donald's life, but also depicts an extensive international tour that Donald went on in 1984 as well as showing various celebrities of the day wishing Donald happy birthday. The tour culminates in a parade in Donald's honor at Disneyland. It was rebroadcast on Disney Channel Europe on November 13, 2004 to celebrate its 20th anniversary as well as the 70th Anniversary of Donald Duck at the end. It has the sign saying "Walt Disney 1901-1966 Clarence Nash 1904-1985".

Features[]

  • Star Wars characters R2-D2 and C-3PO explain that clarity of speech are qualities that are vital to future languages and that those who do not possess such qualities are doomed. They then add that there exceptions to that rule, case in point, Donald's famed speech impediment, created by Clarence Nash, which they claim they know very well. C-3PO closes out this scene by saying, "Happy birthday, Mr. Duck and Mr. Nash."
  • Acclaimed artist Andy Warhol is shown finishing and hanging, The New Spirit a painting that was created for Donald's golden jubilee.
  • There are quite a few scenes with Walt Disney, one with Donald hiding under Disney's desk blotter despite the pleas of Disney to meet the people that had come to see him (from the Disneyland episode "The Plausible Impossible"), another with Donald demonstrating the techniques of animation and sound effects and a third with Donald as a puppet with Disney was receiving a Master of Arts (the joke being that it was Donald who received the degree).
  • The theme of The Mickey Mouse Club is shown with Disney characters to illustrate Donald's innate jealousy to Mickey Mouse having his own TV show. Dick Van Dyke states that Donald "never let anyone forget it".
  • Having appeared in over 75 countries, Donald's international appeal is shown, with his golden jubilee being celebrated throughout the world. He is also prominently featured on different mail stamps of different nations, and his cartoons have been translated into eight languages, including Spanish, French, Swedish and Japanese (clips are shown of these foreign dubs). Dick Van Dyke quotes Walt Disney as saying that "Donald is international because no one can understand him in any language."
  • There is a film clip with Daisy Duck baking a cake for Donald featuring the 1980 Donald Duck song Going Quackers with various Donald Duck and other Disney character toys doing a dance number using stop motion animation as well as reverse acting.

1984 birthday tour[]

In 1984 Donald Duck (in costumed form) went on an international tour through Europe, Japan, and parts of the United States. Some of these stops on his tour actual stage performances attended by other (costumed) Disney characters. His arrival at airports (on his own plane depicting him in flight on the tailfin) was met with colossal crowds that kept getting bigger. There were also several parades for Donald, and not just at the Disney theme parks. In one, he sat in a staff car in his military uniform and was promoted to the rank of sergeant. This was also when he was discharged from the US Army. He is also shown having his footprints cast in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in May 1984.

In the special, Donald's tour is shown with music as well as dialogue, assumedly added later by Clarence Nash.

Cast[]

Also featured is Walt Disney in several clips (Disney himself having died in 1966).

Featured clips[]

Soundtrack[]

The original version of "Happy, Happy Birthday to You" was released on the Splashdance LP and cassette. Splashdance has since been rereleased on compact disc.

Trivia[]

  • This special uses Hanna-Barbera sound effects in the "Happy, Happy Birthday to You" song with clips from the classic Donald Duck shorts and the Disney Channel bumpers with Donald opening a gift.
  • This was the last time that Donald was voiced by Clarence Nash.
  • Like most CBS specials of the era, this special ends with a "Read More About It" segment, which talks about books recommended by the Library of Congress. In this case, Clarence Nash recommends two such books, both on Donald: "Disney Animation" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and "Walt Disney: An American Original" by Bob Thomas.

Gallery[]

External links[]

Wikipedia
Wikipedia
 This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Donald Duck's 50th Birthday. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
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