April 10, 1942 – The Donald Duck Short Film, Donald’s Snow Fight, is Released to Theaters
“Snow, oh boy! I’m crazy about snow!”
On April 10, 1942, the Donald Duck short film, Donald’s Snow Fight, was released to theaters. Directed by Jack King, it stars Clarence Nash as the voice of Donald and the nephews. There are many clever gags in this short, including a couple that is seen kissing underneath a mound of snow, which is swept away when Donald rushes by.
It’s a wintery day in suburbia, and Donald Duck is excited that there’s snow on the ground. He peeks outside to see how much there is, his beak turning blue in the process. Seeing the ice build up on the tip of his beak does not deter him from running to grab his overcoat.
Donald merrily on his way to go sledding
Bundled up and ready for a snow day, Donald treks up a hill with his sled, singing “Jingle Bells” while jingling the icicles on his sled rope. When he reaches the top of the hill, he notices his nephews building a snowman right in the sled path. Donald decides this is the perfect moment to “have some fun,” and dive bombs into the nephews’ creation, sending snow flying everywhere. Donald cracks up with laughter and rolls around in the snow, and the nephews quickly come up with a plan for revenge.
Their first idea is to disguise a rock with another snowman, one that looks like Donald. They cry for Donald’s attention, and the duck takes the bait, flying full speed toward the “snowman.” Donald hits the rock so hard that all of the fur is shaken off his fur coat. Not to be beaten by his nephews, he chases them across the snow, only to be cut off by the nephews escaping into their elaborate snow fort, with the springs of the door bouncing Donald back into a tree where the built-up snow and icicles trap him.
Captain Donald plays a bowling game while his nephews play the part of the pins
Inside, the nephews think they’ve won, but Donald swears revenge. The next scene shows that Donald has built his own fort that looks like a boat on the ice-covered pond, and he declares war on the nephews. He shoots snowballs at the three with elaborate trick shots, covering them with snow and making them appear to be bowling pins. Donald then grabs a large ball of snow and, throwing it like a bowling ball, throws a strike. Not satisfied, Donald grabs another large mound of snow shaped like a bullet and starts dunking it into a bucket of water, turning it into a deadly ice bullet. He fires it over to the nephews’ fort, splitting their flagpole into three sections, which ends up knocking into the nephews.
“Do you surrender?” Donald asks, but the nephews refuse. They gather all the materials they have, including mousetraps and rope, and plant the mousetraps into snow sculptures shaped like rockets. They place all the rockets into a basket and let it fly from a catapult, and Donald is trapped by the mousetraps. They continue their attack with more snow cannons, even though Donald calls it “unconstitutional.”
The first set of coals and arrows spell the end for Donald Duck
Not done with their uncle yet, the nephews gather hot coals and fire them attached to arrows, melting part of Donald’s boat. The largest arrow causes the whole boat to melt, with poor Donald stuck on the top. He falls through a hole in the ice and is seen frozen at the top of the splash of water, and the nephews are seen performing a victory war dance around the ice.
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