Welcome back to Classic Shorts Showcase. Join me today as I take a look at the short that was the debut of the lovable duck named Donald. Today's short is The Wise Little Hen.
The Plot
The plot of this short is rather simple in that, the Hen is looking for help from her friends to help take care of her corn. Each time, she goes and ask them for help though, they back out pretending to be sick. At the end of the day, they didn't get anything because they decided not to help.
Narration
Narrator - Unlisted
The narration for this short was on the side of almost becoming annoying. I don't know if it were more than one person but it sure sounded like it because instead of the traditional narration that I have become accustomed to, it was done in a sing song voice style. While it didn't feel unneeded, I just think that going about in a different vocal style would've made it less annoying.
Characters
Now we come to the characters. There are only 3 important characters but like most of my other reviews, I'll break this down into main and supporting.
Main Character
The Wise Little Hen voiced by Florence Gill
The main character of this short, she was all right. She proved to be rather smart and caught onto Donald and Peter Pig's lies mighty fast. She realized that they were being lazy. Now just like with the narration, whenever the Hen talked, it was done in singing style. I learned that hens don't make very good singers. I don't know what it was but again I couldn't get over her voice. It was rather grating to listen to but she was a good character all the same. Granted, I don't think she had the most annoying voice in this short and surprisingly it wasn't Donald either.
Peter Pig voiced by Pinto Colvig
This character and Donald actually seemed to be the same exact character in this short. They both wanted to get out of doing any work by pretending that they were sick. Other than being a pig while Donald was and is a duck, there is no clear character traits to tell these characters apart. Save for this voice. Oh, I could not stand that voice. Yes, I know Pinto Colvig was the voice of Goofy and luckily he doesn't sound like Goofy here save for one moment. Therefore I rarely thought of him as Goofy but I would rather have Goofy's voice than the one I was stuck with. I get that he is a pig and they wanted him to sound like a pig but when each word sounds like oink, that is just grating. I seriously wanted to plug my ears each time I heard him talk because I couldn't stand that voice.
Donald Duck voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash
You know this is odd thing to say but out of all the voices in this short, Donald's was the least annoying. Again though as I said when talking about Peter Pig, there was nothing that made him unique from Peter. They both had the same goal as not wanting to help the Hen but it would have been nice if Donald had tried something other pretending he too had a stomach ache which was done not once but three times. Not even Donald's famous temper was showcased here. I understand that this was his debut short and that part of his character may not have been developed yet but there needed to be something to set him apart from Peter Pig. Because as it stands, those two characters are interchangeable in this short. Heck, you could take out Peter or Donald and it would be the same exact story. Nothing would be lost but on the same token, nothing would be gained.
My Final Thoughts
The story of this short is okay but the supporting characters felt underdeveloped. The narration was awful but at the end of the day, I don't think this is the worst short that I have watched. No that title still belongs to Ben and Me. This short is more like The Reluctant Dragon in that while there were aspects of it that I didn't care for, I was able to enjoy the short for the most part. It was also nice seeing the debut short of Donald Duck. That to me alone made it worth watching this short. I certainly wouldn't call it one of the best shorts that I have reviewed but it's nowhere near the worst. It's more in the middle. With this short, you have to take the good with the bad. Yes, the voices did bug me but I'm willing to overlook that because I was entertained.
Join me next time when I take look at...
Little Hiawatha
The Plot
The plot of this short is rather simple in that, the Hen is looking for help from her friends to help take care of her corn. Each time, she goes and ask them for help though, they back out pretending to be sick. At the end of the day, they didn't get anything because they decided not to help.
Narration
Narrator - Unlisted
The narration for this short was on the side of almost becoming annoying. I don't know if it were more than one person but it sure sounded like it because instead of the traditional narration that I have become accustomed to, it was done in a sing song voice style. While it didn't feel unneeded, I just think that going about in a different vocal style would've made it less annoying.
Characters
Now we come to the characters. There are only 3 important characters but like most of my other reviews, I'll break this down into main and supporting.
Main Character
The Wise Little Hen voiced by Florence Gill
The main character of this short, she was all right. She proved to be rather smart and caught onto Donald and Peter Pig's lies mighty fast. She realized that they were being lazy. Now just like with the narration, whenever the Hen talked, it was done in singing style. I learned that hens don't make very good singers. I don't know what it was but again I couldn't get over her voice. It was rather grating to listen to but she was a good character all the same. Granted, I don't think she had the most annoying voice in this short and surprisingly it wasn't Donald either.
Peter Pig voiced by Pinto Colvig
This character and Donald actually seemed to be the same exact character in this short. They both wanted to get out of doing any work by pretending that they were sick. Other than being a pig while Donald was and is a duck, there is no clear character traits to tell these characters apart. Save for this voice. Oh, I could not stand that voice. Yes, I know Pinto Colvig was the voice of Goofy and luckily he doesn't sound like Goofy here save for one moment. Therefore I rarely thought of him as Goofy but I would rather have Goofy's voice than the one I was stuck with. I get that he is a pig and they wanted him to sound like a pig but when each word sounds like oink, that is just grating. I seriously wanted to plug my ears each time I heard him talk because I couldn't stand that voice.
Donald Duck voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash
You know this is odd thing to say but out of all the voices in this short, Donald's was the least annoying. Again though as I said when talking about Peter Pig, there was nothing that made him unique from Peter. They both had the same goal as not wanting to help the Hen but it would have been nice if Donald had tried something other pretending he too had a stomach ache which was done not once but three times. Not even Donald's famous temper was showcased here. I understand that this was his debut short and that part of his character may not have been developed yet but there needed to be something to set him apart from Peter Pig. Because as it stands, those two characters are interchangeable in this short. Heck, you could take out Peter or Donald and it would be the same exact story. Nothing would be lost but on the same token, nothing would be gained.
My Final Thoughts
The story of this short is okay but the supporting characters felt underdeveloped. The narration was awful but at the end of the day, I don't think this is the worst short that I have watched. No that title still belongs to Ben and Me. This short is more like The Reluctant Dragon in that while there were aspects of it that I didn't care for, I was able to enjoy the short for the most part. It was also nice seeing the debut short of Donald Duck. That to me alone made it worth watching this short. I certainly wouldn't call it one of the best shorts that I have reviewed but it's nowhere near the worst. It's more in the middle. With this short, you have to take the good with the bad. Yes, the voices did bug me but I'm willing to overlook that because I was entertained.
Join me next time when I take look at...
Little Hiawatha
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