''A Good Time for a Dime'' is a 1941 Disney short film in which

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 ...

watches a risqué Daisy perform the " Dance of the Seven Veils" in a Mutoscope at a

penny arcade ''Penny Arcade'' is a webcomic focused on video games and video game culture, written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik. The comic debuted in 1998 on the website ''loonygames.com''. Since then, Holkins and Krahulik have establish ...

nickelodeon peep show. Donald also struggles with a crane drop machine and a miniature airplane ride.

Plot

Inside a

, Donald sees several Mutoscopes, each charging a penny. Most are family friendly, such as "Busy Life of a Bee" or "Scenic View of Niagara Falls", which Donald dismisses, until a more risque-sounding "Dance of the Seven Veils" catches his eye. The pictures show dances of a Daisy Duck looking dancer dropping veils in succession until Donald's viewing is rudely interrupted by a black out, which lights back up only to see the ultimate "The End" slide. Next Donald tries out a

crane machine A claw crane, claw machine, toy crane, or skill crane is a type of arcade game known as a merchandiser, commonly found in video arcades, supermarkets, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, and bowling alleys. Machine components A claw c ...

to win a camera, but he finishes empty handed when he sneezes all the prizes back in the crane machine. Finally, Donald pays a nickel to use a coin-operated airplane ride, but his ride is very short. Donald angrily grabs the throttle and uses it to start up the propeller blades to get himself a free ride. However, as he had removed the control stick, the plane goes out of control. Donald gets thrown out of the ride and stays afloat by flapping his arms, briefly behaving like a real world duck in flight. Donald risks getting caught in the propeller, but the ride bucks and Donald is reinserted into the cockpit. The ride then returns safely to the ground, although this has made Donald quite airsick. With that, Donald leaves the arcade, stumbling and groaning to himself.

Voice cast

* Clarence Nash as Donald Duck

Reception

Concerning the "somewhat orientalized Daisy", the ''Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters'' says that her appearance is "a brief and anonymous one; it is also her sexiest." However, it has been criticized as "unproblematically epresentingall of the Western stereotypes about the harem. ''A Good Time for a Dime'' manufactures the harem as a setting separate from any social phenomena and full of obliging women happily catering to male sexual fantasies." '' The Film Daily'' called the short a "dandy cartoon", saying that "Donald Duck is back with a plenitude of hearty laughs for audiences in this short." '' Motion Picture Herald'' said that ''A Good Time for a Dime'' is "an excellent Donald Duck color cartoon that pleased everyone", and "one of Disney's funniest".

Home media

The short was released on May 18, 2004, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume One: 1934-1941''.

References

External links

* 1940s Disney animated short films Donald Duck short films 1941 films 1941 animated films Films directed by Dick Lundy Films produced by Walt Disney Films scored by Leigh Harline {{Disney-animation-film-stub