''Commando Duck'' is a

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

anti-Japanese propaganda

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

starring

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

. It was released on June 2, 1944.

Plot

Donald Duck parachutes into the jungle of a remote

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

island to wipe out a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

undetected.Shull, Wilt (2004), p. 166Akita, Kenney (2013), p. 53 He loses most of his equipment in the process of landing and is nearly eaten by a pair of

crocodiles Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant memb ...

. He uses a rubber raft to travel down the river. He is located by Japanese

sniper A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...

s, including one disguised as a rock and one disguised as a slant-eyed and buck-toothed tree. He initially mistakes their bullets for mosquitoes and presses onwards. His raft is caught beneath a waterfall and starts inflating. He makes sure the raft hits nothing that would pop it. When he gets to the edge of a cliff, he sees the airfield. The raft has already exploded, causing water to turn into a waterfall. The water ends up

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing the entire airfield, destroying everything in its path including all of the aircraft. A montage of all the broken aircraft after the flood. Upon seeing the ruins of the airfield, a proud Donald declares his mission accomplished by sign a message quote: " Contacted enemy, washed out same".

Voice cast

Clarence Nash Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...

*Eddie Holden as Japanese Snipers

Analysis

Due to the short being made in World War II, when the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

was at war with the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

, the cartoon expresses blatant

anti-Japanese sentiment Anti-Japanese sentiment (also called Japanophobia, Nipponophobia and anti-Japanism) involves the hatred or fear of anything which is Japanese, be it its culture or its people. Its opposite is Japanophilia. Overview Anti-Japanese senti ...

which are now seen as racist. However, the focus of the short is mostly on Donald and his efforts in combat and less on the racial aspects of the enemy. This has allowed the short to be broadcast to modern audiences with most of the Japanese references removed. There are Japanese caricatures and depictions of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. There is also a reference to Japans emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

. The Japanese soldiers speak in stereotypical dialect and advocate firing the first shot at a man's back. The gag with the enemy soldier disguised as a tree can be traced back to ''

Shoulder Arms ''Shoulder Arms'' is Charlie Chaplin's second film for First National Pictures. Released in 1918, it is a silent comedy film set in France during World War I, the first of three films he made on the subject of war. It co-starred Edna Purviance ...

'' (1918). It was also used in '' A Lecture on Camouflage'' (1944).Shull, Wilt (2004), p. 193-194 It was later utilized by the Indians during their battle with the Lost Boys in the 1953 Disney animated feature ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

'' as well. Though earlier war-era shorts (e.g. '' Donald Gets Drafted'', ''

The Vanishing Private ''The Vanishing Private'' is a 1942 animated cartoon by the Walt Disney Studios, starring Donald Duck in the World War II years. Plot Donald Duck is doing some camouflage painting on a cannon with yellow, green, and red stripes and black do ...

'', etc.) depict Donald's experiences and training as a regular

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

draftee and

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine i ...

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

, the

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mission and Pacific Theater of Operations setting in this short are seemingly

6th Ranger Battalion The 6th Ranger Battalion was a United States Army Ranger Battalion which saw action in the Pacific during World War II. The battalion is best known for its role in the Raid at Cabanatuan in the Philippines in January 1945. 98th Field Artillery B ...

Paramarine The Paramarines (also known as Marine paratroopers) was a short-lived specialized combat unit of the United States Marine Corps, trained to be dropped from planes by parachute. Marine parachute training which began in New Jersey in October 19 ...

Marine Raider The Marine Raiders are special operations forces originally established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare. " Edson's" Raiders of 1st Marine Raider Battalion and " Carlson's" Rai ...

-inspired. This is the only film which depicts a regular Disney character engaging with the enemy at war.Leskosky (2011), p. 60

Home media

The short was released on May 18, 2004 on '' Walt Disney Treasures: Walt Disney on the Front Lines'' and on December 6, 2005 on '' Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Two: 1942-1946''.

Sources

* * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Commando Duck 1944 films 1944 animated films 1944 short films 1940s Disney animated short films Donald Duck short films Films set on islands World War II films made in wartime Films directed by Jack King Films produced by Walt Disney Films scored by Oliver Wallace Japan in non-Japanese culture Race-related controversies in animation Race-related controversies in film Disney controversies Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States Stereotypes of East Asian people Ethnic humour