Window Cleaners (1940)
Window Cleaners Review
Window Cleaners is a 1940 animated short film from the Donald Duck series. It is a pretty weak short.
Donald and Pluto are cleaning windows in a skyscraper where they end up in trouble with a bee. This is one of those Donald and Pluto cartoons that are simply not as exciting as others in the series. Pluto himself was actually quite sidelined here, which made his inclusion even more unnecessary.
While the animation is stellar and Disney obviously did these high altitude settings superbly, the short is problematic due to the feeling of déjà vu that it produces. We’ve seen so many cartoons set in a skyscraper before, so this one felt tired and repetitive. It looked gorgeous and Donald was as endearing as ever, but the plot was slight and the lack of humor troublesome.
I actually did like Window Cleaners, it was funny when Donald Duck wearing a blue shirt and hat but no pants and shoes was hosted up singing a song but his hat and tail feathers were cut by shears ruining his hat and exposing Donald’s bare tail, yet in the next shot his tail feathers suddenly grow back and has a new hat replacement. Then Pluto gets distracted by a flea and causes the roped platform to fall and Donald falls right through and lands on a horse statue.
Then in the next shot, Donald Duck throws water on the window and cleans a window, but when he tries get a bucket a pipe blocks his way and he struggles to wake up Pluto the dog who’s asleep, I liked the part where Donald Duck puffed up like a balloon to yell at him only to backfire on him. Then throws a window brush down the drain at Pluto who quickly puffs his nose at the crane only to get a bucket full of nuts and bolt and he throws it on the window breaking it before Donald Duck pulls a window in embarrassment.
Then in the third shot which is my favorite part, Donald Duck torments a bee with water on the tulip with the bee in it only to have the bee get revenge on him and then attacks Donald Duck and Donald quickly reacts with an sudden empty bucket to defend himself but runs right on the building pole and tries to crush the bee only to fail and fall on the roped platform. The bee dives at Donald Duck and then Donald tries to swing at the bee with a mop only for the mop to get Donald caught on the roped platform tied up tightly around his shirt and when it stops Donald is trapped with his hands and feet on the platform but his exposed rear end and shows his butt cheeks sticks out and the bee gets an idea to sting Donald’s exposed feathery rear end. It was funny when Donald’s tail turned into a hand warning the bee but the bee ignores it and tries to sting his rear end and Donald blows rear hard it turns both of their faces green and blue and the bee lands on the platform.
Then the bee struggles to get up and then points the stinger right into Donald’s rear end and he gets unraveled from the roped platform and he dives head first into a drainpipe to have his head come out of the bottom drain and yells at Pluto to get him out but shoves his foot in Donald’s face back in the drainpipe and it ends on a cliffhanger.
It’s too bad there was no sequel of if Donald Duck ever got out of the drainpipe or if Pete or someone scared off Pluto and freed him from the drainpipe and had him fired for window vandalism. I would like to make a fan made Donald Duck cartoon sequel and then maybe he could try to get revenge on the bee for his job loss but only to have the bee sting Donald’s rear end again.
Glad you enjoy this film. Thanks for the comment, I really appreciate it! 😊