''Fire Chief'' is a 1940

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

cartoon starring Donald Duck and his nephews

Huey, Dewey, and Louie Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Multiple birth, triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and th ...

Plot

The cartoon shows Donald living as a firefighter along with his nephews. When the nephews get tired of Donald's

snoring Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. The sound may be soft or loud and unpleasant. Snoring during sleep may be a sign, or first alarm, of ob ...

, they sound the fire alarm to wake him up, but Donald instead thinks that there is a

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

so he rushes to get on the

fire truck A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an i ...

. He then comes back up to blow the

horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

to wake them up. Donald and his nephews march like soldiers, but Donald falls backwards, causing Huey to hit the other nephews, and they fall on Donald, which sounds like the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

Chimes. Later, Huey puts on coal in the fire truck but Donald puts the entire

bucket A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the ''bail''. A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, a ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

in the firetruck, causing the house to catch fire. They then try to put out the fire but Donald instead unknowingly puts the hose on the truck's

gasoline Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organi ...

tank. One of the nephews notices and tries to warn him, but Donald pays no heed. As a result, he causes the fire house and the fire truck to burn down completely and, to add insult to injury, Donald's hat burns down as well, resulting in its burnt frames becoming Donald's 'hair'. Defeated, Donald looks at the camera and says to the audience "You can't win. You just can't win."

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 ...

as Donald Duck and

Reception

The Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

'' called the short "fairly funny".

Home media

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

References

External links

* * {{Jack King 1940s Disney animated short films Donald Duck short films Films about firefighting 1940 animated films 1940 short films 1940 films Films with screenplays by Carl Barks Films directed by Jack King Films produced by Walt Disney 1940s English-language films