“Clown of the Jungle”

The Aracuan Bird (here Pinto Colvig) is probably based on the Aracuã, despite not looking anything like it. It is the speckled chachalaca, species Ortalis guttata. The calls are similar, and the local population does call the bird that. The speckled chachalaca (named in part for its call) is a bit under two feet long and is related to the turkey. It lives in the rain forest and is not considered to be at risk except in the broad sense of “oh, Gods, the world is on fire.” They are, however, nuisances to farmers, as they will ravage a garden quite quickly.

Donald is still in full Good Neighbor mode and is photographing birds in the rain forests of Brazil. There are a lot of them. However, it doesn’t matter, because the Aracuan Bird is there and in the way. Donald, being Donald, escalates. Boy does he escalate. We go down some pretty dark paths in this cartoon, and it isn’t the animation style.

For one thing, the Aracuan Bird, when he believes Donald doesn’t like him, threatens to kill himself. Repeatedly and violently. And Donald goes after him. Repeatedly and violently. They trim this part from some TV airings, because there’s bombs and guns and ropes and things, and while I am not an expert on weaponry, Donald seems to use a full-on machine gun on the bird. It’s alarming. I suppose there’s a lot of farmers who could sympathize, but it’s not the sort of thing you expect to see in a children’s cartoon.

There are a few good bits to this one, but it’s not as good as the shorts we’ve covered the last two weeks. About the only truly inventive bit is that Donald interacts with the closing iris. It’s not enormously funny; I think there’s one moment where I actually laughed. The whole thing is a rehash of things done better in Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. There’s only so much you can do with that bird.

I watch a lot of Disney, and in general, my reaction to a lot of the shorts is “it’s fine.” And that’s what I’m left with here. It’s fine. I’ve seen better, and I’ve seen worse, and that’s really all there is to it.