January 18, 1952 – The Donald Duck Short Film Donald Applecore Premieres in Theaters
“Applecore! Baltimore! Who’s your friend? Me!”
On January 18, 1952, the Donald Duck short film Donald Applecore premiered in theaters. This short is one of several in which Chip and Dale are his main antagonists. The short was directed by Jack Hannah, with the story by Bill Berg and Nick George.
In this short, Donald is the owner of a prosperous apple farm called “Donald’s Delicious Apples.” As he is out one morning gathering apples, he notices that the side of one he’s pulled down is covered in bite marks. As he looks into his basket, he realizes that all of his apples are half eaten. As he cries in despair, he notices Chip walking down the side of the tree with an arm full of apple cores. Dale appears soon after, and they begin to use Donald’s gathering bucket for their discarded cores.
Donald stands on top of the apple silo after placing the apples Chip and Dale stole inside
Donald grabs Dale and demands an explanation, and Dale tells Donald to take his basket and follow him up the tree. Donald agrees, and soon finds he’s been tricked into collecting all of their apple cores. Seeing that the two are stealing more apples, he tries to stop them. He grabs some insect powder in his crop duster, and dusts his trees, only to find that the two have gas masks to prevent the effects of the powder. Donald tries another approach by stealing their apples without their noticing. Successful, Donald takes the stolen apples to the silo. As the chipmunks try to retrieve their apples, they accidently let all the apples in the silo loose, with Donald unfortunately on top of the pile.
Apples fly all over the farm, and Donald is at his breaking point. He creates a potent mixture in his crop duster and tries to target the pair. No matter where they hide, Donald fires a shot in their direction. One shot ends up in his chicken house, where one hen swallows the atomic mixture. The egg the hen lays afterward ends up exploding, sending Donald into a deep crater into the ground, all the way to China. Chip and Dale laugh at Donald’s misfortune.
disneydetail 