Donald’s Off Day (1944)

Donald’s Off Day Review

Donald’s Off Day is a 1944 animated short film from the Donald Duck series. It is such a great cartoon.

When Donald’s plans to play golf on his day off are ruined by rain, he starts reading a medical book, which makes him think he may have the symptoms he reads about, and his nephews take advantage of his hypochondria to prank him. The resulting pranks lead to a lot of hilarity as the movie has some of the best gags in the history of this series. The final prank was a lot of fun and the nephews were positively mischievous and devious here.

But the highlight is obviously Donald himself. He is always at his best when he is being frustrated or panicking and this movie mined his hypochondriac nature deliciously well. The moment when he thinks he is blind and for a second opens his eyes and sees, but continues acting blind was just comedy gold. Donald’s facial expressions and acts of doom were so funny. The animation is strong, the dialogue is excellent and the movie is so well plotted and structured. I just wished that it was framed with a better first and final sequence as the thunderstorm sequence was unfunny and inferior to the rest of the film.

Donald’s Off Day is one of the best Donald Duck cartoons thanks to a phenomenal premise that mined Donald’s hypochondria so well, resulting in a lot of hilarity and perfectly executed gags.

My Rating – 4.3