Spare the Rod

As a great fan of Disney and Donald Duck I thought I'd check out Spare the Rod, not knowing anything about what I'd expect. The cartoon is pretty good, but it really isn't one of Donald's best. Donald himself is not the problem, he is just great doing what he does best which is being temperamental and getting easily frustrated. Huey, Duey and Louie are cute and rascally as they always were. The animation still looks beautiful and crisp, and the music, which has always played a bit part in the Disney(and Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry cartoons as well) shorts, is typically energetic, enhancing the action and ensuring that the pace doesn't flag. And generally flag it does not. The gags are clever and fun too, and the voice of psychology was interesting and very funny. On the other hand, the cannibals are blatant racial stereotypes, by all means this is not the only Disney cartoon to have this, though they were made about 10 to 15 years earlier, but Spare the Rod is one of the worst cases for it. The premise is also a little weak for my tastes, I never did buy that Donald genuinely thought that it was his nephews as the cannibals seeing how authentic the costumes actually looked. All in all interesting but could have been more for me. If you do intend to see it, I suggest you avoid the censored version, which butchers the short beyond recognition that less than half of it is still intact, considering the subject matter of Spare the Rod there was no point. 7/10 Bethany Cox