''Tea for Two Hundred'' is a 1948 American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by

Jack Hannah John Frederick Hannah (January 5, 1913 – June 11, 1994) was an American animator, writer and director of animated shorts. Biography Hannah was born on January 5, 1913, in Nogales, Arizona. He moved to Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles in ...

. Part of the ''Donald Duck'' film series, the film was produced in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

Walt Disney Productions 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 ...

and released to theaters by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...

on December 24, 1948. The cartoon stars a picnicking

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 ...

who faces an army of ants trying to steal his food.

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 ...

stars as Donald while the ants were voiced by

Pinto Colvig Vance DeBar Colvig Sr. (September 11, 1892 – October 3, 1967), professionally Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, newspaper cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Co ...

. The film includes original music by

Oliver Wallace Oliver George Wallace (August 6, 1887 – September 15, 1963) was an English composer and conductor.''Home Front Heroes: A Biographical Dictionary of Americans During Wartime'', Volume 3, ed. Benjamin F. Shearer (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 200 ...

. ''Tea for Two Hundred'' was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

, but lost to ''

The Little Orphan ''The Little Orphan'' is a 1949 American one-reel animated cartoon and the 40th ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoon, released in theaters on April 30, 1949 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barb ...

'', an MGM Tom and Jerry film which shared one of 7 Oscars for the Tom and Jerry series. The title of the film is a reference to the song " Tea for Two." Animation from the short was later used in ''Uncle Donald's Ants'' (1952).

Plot

While camping in the mountains, Donald Duck sits down to eat a picnic. Soon a line of ants emerges from a nearby bush and marches past Donald, each carrying a grain harvested in the wild. Donald takes interest in the straggler, a small ant who seems to be carrying a bean several times his body weight. Donald begins to test the ant to see how much he can take. The ant, seemingly unaware of Donald, continues to march. Finally Donald balances several food items from his picnic on the ant, which the ant carries. But when Donald makes the ant walk a tight rope, Donald plucks the string causing the ant to fall into a large custard pie. The ant is angry with Donald at first, but when he tastes the

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

and sees all of Donald's food, he becomes elated. He enthusiastically runs back to the ant colony and tells the ants about all of Donald's food. The ants call the colony together using mushrooms as drums. Later, while Donald is sleeping against a tree next to his picnic basket, a small team of ants sneak up on him. They open the basket, but Donald, still asleep, instinctively puts his hand over the basket to keep the ants out. Then all of the ants fill in around Donald and pick him up. They carry him over to a cliff where they throw him off into the water and he squawks angrily and races back up the cliff just in time to see the ants are carrying food items out of his basket into their hole and tries to keep them from doing so. The ants huddle and make a plan then faces Donald, who gets ready, exclaiming "Oh, yeah?" as he does. The ants tackle Donald as if they play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. As he tries to grab his food directly from their hole, the ants pull off Donald's shirt as well. He then puts on a barrel to protect his modesty, and uses

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

to try destroying the anthill. However, the explosion of the dynamite causes a large part of the cliff to fall away, and Donald falls into the water a second time, screaming as he does. The ant colony congregates around a large cupcake. The little ant whom Donald had been harassing runs to the top and eats the cherry.

Voice cast

* Donald Duck:

* Ants:

Releases

*1948 – original theatrical release *1954 – ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

'', episode #1.4: "The Donald Duck Story" (TV) *1972 – ''

The Mouse Factory ''The Mouse Factory'' is an American syndicated television series produced by Walt Disney Productions and created by Ward Kimball, that ran from 1972 to 1973. It showed clips from various Disney cartoons and movies, hosted by celebrity guests (cre ...

'', episode #1: "Vacations" (TV) * – ''

Good Morning, Mickey! ''Good Morning, Mickey!'' is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It was first aired on April 18, 1983 when Disney Channel was launched. It was one of the Disney Channel's first original programs, a ...

'', episode #54 (TV) * – ''

Mickey's Mouse Tracks ''Mickey's Mouse Tracks'' is an American animated television series on The Disney Channel which ran from 1992 to 1995, and featured Disney cartoons and animated short films, dating from before the advent of The Disney Channel. A similar show was ...

'', episode #18 (TV)

Home media

The short was released on December 11, 2007 on '' Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Three: 1947-1950''. Additional releases include: *1985 – '' Cartoon Classics - Limited Gold Edition II: Donald's Bee Pictures'' (VHS) *1992 – '' Cartoon Classics - Special Edition: Happy Summer Days'' (VHS)

Notes

{{Donald Duck 1948 animated films 1948 films Donald Duck short films 1940s Disney animated short films Films directed by Jack Hannah Films produced by Walt Disney Animated films about insects Films scored by Oliver Wallace Picnic films Films about ants