Virgil Partch, who signed his name 'ViP', was a magazine and newspaper cartoonist noted for his clean uncluttered linework and weirdly surrealistic humour. Although ViP was definitely an original, his subject matter is similar to that of Gahan Wilson, Arnold Roth and the great Basil Wolverton. The very first issue of Playboy magazine had two illustrations on its cover: a photo of Marilyn Monroe, and a drawing by ViP, with a caption stating that more ViP cartoons were inside. If it's good enough for Playboy, it's good enough for me.
Oddly, the short Disney cartoon 'Duck Pimples' seems to be Virgil Partch's one and only foray into film animation ... odd, because it's a complete success which should have brought Partch similar job assignments. The credits of 'Duck Pimples' list Partch only as scriptwriter, but the characters in this cartoon (except for Donald Duck) show the clear influence of Partch's linework, and they don't resemble other Disney characters from this period. I'm positive that Partch must have drawn the model sheets for these characters, and he may well have drawn key poses for the characters as well. This is a fun cartoon that the whole family will enjoy: it has Disney's high production values, yet (despite the presence of Donald Duck) it isn't a typical Disney cartoon.
The title 'Duck Pimples' is awkward: the opening title card bears the title 'Goose Pimples', with 'Goose' crossed out and 'Duck' written underneath. Either way, the title doesn't make much sense, because this cartoon doesn't have a scary theme. At the beginning, Donald Duck is alone in his house on a dark night, reading a spooky story. There's one very clever visual device, as Donald's armchair gradually morphs into a green monster underneath his body. Even small children will recognise that this is a symptom of Donald's imagination, not an actual event. But after this clever image, the cartoon veers away from scary themes into the wild surrealism typical of Partch's magazine cartoons. Even the story in Donald's book moves away from scary themes into whodunnit territory.
The characters in Donald's story leap out of the book and start haranguing him. Among these is a police detective with an Irish brogue, his voice supplied (uncredited) by silent-film comedian and longtime voice artist Billy Bletcher. Also present is Pauline, a sexy female cartoon character who seems to be a prototype for Jessica Rabbit.
The action is weird and fast-paced, more typical of Bob Clampett at Warners during this same period than anything Disney was doing at this time. But the violence in 'Duck Pimples' is negligible (which was seldom true of Clampett), and the whole film is delightful except for a very weak final gag. I'll rate 'Duck Pimples' 9 out of 10.
