Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944)

Donald Duck and the Gorilla Review

Donald Duck and the Gorilla is a 1944 animated short film from the Donald Duck series. It is a very strange cartoon.

Ajax, the killer gorilla, had escaped from the zoo and haunts Donald and his nephews after sneaking into their home. This movie is pretty much a rehash of an early Mickey Mouse short called ‘The Gorilla Mystery’. Thus, it felt very much rehashed and uninteresting. The animation is stellar and the gorilla is quite memorable, but I don’t think that we needed a Donald Duck short with a gorilla.

The movie is oddly structured with long stretches of the gorilla chasing Donald and no nephews anywhere in sight. The nephews could have been totally discarded here and the film would have lost nothing. I did appreciate the visuals here, especially the horror atmosphere. But the movie lacked humor and strong pacing throughout.

Donald Duck and the Gorilla is very well animated and atmospheric, but quite strange in structure and narrative. It didn’t feel like a Donald Duck short.

My Rating – 3.4