- Donald's Ostrich
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Donald's Ostrich Donald Duck series 
Theatrical release posterDirected by Jack King Produced by Walt Disney Story by Carl Barks Voices by Elvia Allman
Billy Bletcher
Clarence Nash
Pinto ColvigMusic by Oliver Wallace Animation by Jack Hannah
Paul Allen
Johnny Cannon[1]Studio Walt Disney Productions Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Release date(s) 10 December 1937 Color process Technicolor Country United States Language English Preceded by Modern Inventions Followed by Self Control (1938) Donald's Ostrich is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on December 10, 1937 by RKO Radio Pictures. It was the third film in the Donald Duck series of short films, although billed at the time as a Mickey Mouse cartoon. It was the first of the series to be released by RKO.[2]
Donald's Ostrich was directed by Jack King and features the voices of Clarence Nash as Donald Duck, Pinto Colvig as Hortense the Ostrich (hiccups), and Elvia Allman and Billy Bletcher as radio voices.
Contents
Synopsis
Donald is working along as a custodian at a whistle stop train station and is responsible for loading and unloading luggage. A train passes the station and dumps a large pile of luggage on Donald without stoping. Donald finds that one of the crates contains a live ostrich and tied around the ostrich's neck he finds the following note: "My name is HORTENSE[.] Please see that I am fed and watered. P.S. I eat anything!"
Hortense begins to eat anything she can find at the station starting with the message. She then eats a concertina, a wind up alarm clock, and several balloons. This causes Hortense to have hiccups which Donald tries to cure by scaring her.
Finally Hortense swallows Donald's radio and her body begins to react to what is playing on the radio. Donald realizes Hortense has swallowed the radio and grabs a pair of forceps to pull it out. But when Hortense starts to react to a broadcast car race Donald is unable to control her. Hortense finally crashes through a door which at last knocks the radio out of her, but also gives Donald the hiccups also.
Hortense
While Donald's Ostrich was the first and only time that Hortense the Ostrich appeared in animation, she later appeared as a comic book character as Donald's pet. Her first comic appearance was in the first publication of the Donald Duck Annual in 1938.[3]
Releases
Notes
- ^ Donald's Ostrich at The Encyclopedia of Animated Disney Shorts
- ^ Donald's Ostrich at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Hortense the Ostrich at Comic Vine Forums
Categories: English-language films | Donald Duck short films | Disney animated short films, 1930s | 1937 films | Disney stubs
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