Monthly Archives: December 2015

December 10, 1937 – The Donald Duck Short Film Donald’s Ostrich is Released to Theaters

“Hey, what’s the big idea?”

On December 10, 1937, the Donald Duck short film Donald’s Ostrich was released to theaters. It was directed by Jack King.

Donald is listening to a shrill radio opera while at work, and quickly changes the channel, finally finding something he can dance to. The train arrives, dumping its packages on the platform – and on Donald – and is surprised to find one containing an ostrich, which gives him a kiss. The ostrich comes with a label: her name is Hortense, and she must be fed and watered, with a post script warning that she eats anything. Hortense continues to flirt with Donald, though Donald will have nothing of it. When Donald crashes into a stack of milk jugs, Hortense is left to her own devices, and starts eating what she can find, including an accordion, an alarm clock, and some balloons. The mix of the contents gives her the hiccups, and she starts hiccuping into a hose, which gives Donald a cause for concern. He works on curing her hiccups by scaring her with a tuba, but it only causes her hiccups to worsen. Hortense then eats the radio, which is set to a murder mystery. Each hiccup she has causes the station to change, and she reacts with each broadcast. Donald attempts to extract the radio, but pulls out the accordion first. Hortense, reacting to a racing broadcast, crashes in the station, and Donald unfortunately comes down with a case of the hiccups after yelling at Hortense.