The Litterbug (1961)

The Litterbug Review

The Litterbug is a 1961 animated short film produced by Disney. It’s a very dated, but charming film.

Donald and his nephews are litterbugs: they drop garbage everywhere they go until they are stopped by a policeman who makes them pick up everything they have dropped. This was the only Donald Duck short released in the sixties and the final movie until one was released very recently. And I honestly expected a lot more from it. Yes, it’s very charming. Yes, the animation is stellar. And yes, the score is lovely with the main tune being very catchy and fun.

But the flick itself felt awfully dated for the time due to its quaint narration and a premise that was too old-fashioned for its own sake. While the messaging is important of course, how they approached this issue was with a very childish tone that left no room to be appealing to adults themselves. Donald was memorable at first and how he was described was at times very amusing, but for the most part he wasn’t as funny as I’d like him to be and the other characters were too sidelined.

The Litterbug is a rather quaint Donald Duck short that is beautifully animated and scored, but awfully dated in its approach and narration.

My Rating – 3.6