The Hockey Champ (1939)
The Hockey Champ Review
The Hockey Champ is a 1939 animated short film from the Donald Duck series. It is a very strong flick.
Donald is skating, but when his nephews arrive, he goes on to beat them at hockey. Eventually, the nephews, frustrated by his cockiness, turn against him and begin torturing him through a series of inventive gags that were superbly executed. This is easily the briskest and most modern of these early Donald shorts. Yes, it has a familiar sports premise and the beginning is smaller in scale, focusing too much on classical music, but it quickly erupted into thrilling action set pieces that were so much fun to watch.
The nephews are truly devious here while poor Donald becomes angrier and angrier, which leads to hilarious results. The highlights are all the clever gags beneath the snow, especially those that made Donald have a snow beard, or a snow devil look etc. The waterfall scene was also stellar. The animation is absolutely gorgeous here as the movie made great use of its beautiful icy setting to create something both fun and charming.
