The New Neighbor (1953)

The New Neighbor Review

The New Neighbor is a 1953 animated short film produced by Disney. It’s a very strong entry in the series.

After moving into his new house, Donald begins to have problems with his new neighbor, Pete, who turns out to be quite annoying. This is a return to form for the fledgling Donald Duck series during this era. It was refreshing to see Donald actually having a human rival for a change and Pete was excellent in the role of the angry neighbor. Donald is actually less memorable than Pete in this one, which was both the film’s strength and weakness.

The highlight of the flick comes toward the end when the entire town is watching them fight as if they are engaging in a spectator sport. The final gag isn’t the greatest, but the boxing bits uniformly worked and were so cleverly incorporated into this plot that otherwise would have become stale pretty quickly. The animation is stellar, the sound is great and the voice acting is excellent.

The New Neighbor has its flaws, but for the most part this is a stellar Donald Duck cartoon that makes great use of Pete as the villain and clever boxing gags in the third act.

My Rating – 4.1