The Flying Jalopy (1943)

The Flying Jalopy Review

The Flying Jalopy is a 1943 animated short film from the Donald Duck series. It is a pretty good cartoon.

As Donald looks at the “used” planes for sale by Ben Buzzard, he takes one of the wrecked planes out for a test drive. But Buzzard has a plan to kill Donald and get money out of him. This movie is actually quite unique in the Donald Duck canon for better and for worse. Donald’s cartoons are at their best when they focus on his frustrations and annoyances, so this one not doing that was unfortunate and it resulted in Donald being forgettable himself.

But the movie is very interesting in this Ben Buzzard character who felt awfully reminiscent to the Buzz Buzzard creation in the Woody Woodpecker series. The movie also has that tone and approach of the aforementioned movies, so it was odd seeing that scenario of a character wanting to kill our protagonist in a Disney short. But it worked because the villain was so much fun, the animation was gorgeous and the humor was pretty solid. The ending is outstanding.

The Flying Jalopy is an odd short in this series that is too different, but undeniably very entertaining and well made.

My Rating – 4