Classic Shorts Showcase: Soup's On

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we are looking at a short that I've heard  that some people like to watch on Thanksgiving, even though it is not set on Thanksgiving,  Join me as we look at the Donald Duck short, Soup's On.




The Plot

Donald and his nephews are on vacation in a log cabin and Donald has made a nice turkey dinner and calls the boys to the table for dinner. The boys had been playing outside in the mud and come to the table all dirty.  Donald sees this and sends them upstairs to wash up but being the little troublemakers that they are, they don't completely wash up as their hands (wings?) are still dirty.

The boys go up to their room without supper and  get the idea to trick Uncle Donald by fake crying and he decides to come up to check on the boys, only to have his hand caught in a mouse trap while the boys try to steal the dinner.

Things take an odd turn as the chase between  Uncle and nephews leads outside the cabin and the boys trick Donald into thinking that he's an angel and has passed.  And this is after Donald falls a cliff and nearly has a boulder crush him. Geeze, these three were brats in the early days.  Okay, that's a bit extreme.  They have their tearful goodbye by Huey gives Donald a harp and they place a pillow with Donald's shirt and brooms on the ground underneath a rock to make it look like Donald had died.

After the boys use the mechanism they built to trick Donald into thinking  he was an angel and hoist it up into the sky. Donald accepts his fate and tries to fly to Heaven to show that he is ready to move on. Only to crash and have the table fall on him and his halo break. Donald catches on and goes back to the cabin seeing the boys eating and there turns into the devil.   And the short ends where it began with another chase.  All in all, this short isn't bad. It's a little weird with the angel thing. It is another typical Donald Vs. nephews short but this does seem to take it to an extreme with this being one of cruelest things that I've seen Huey, Dewey, & Louie due to Donald.   And  it again shows  that in the early days like their first appearance, they were brats.



Characters


Huey, Dewey, & Louie voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash

It appears in the earlier shorts featuring these three, they really didn't have any likable character traits. Their sole purpose was to make life miserable for Uncle Donald at every turn and that's it.   Also,  their personalities weren't well defined yet in this short. And as you can see here, they are all wearing red,   you can't tell them apart. Unlike in later shorts, where the roles would be reversed and it seemed that Donald was picking on his nephews,  in these early shorts, they boys are the ones causing the torment and agony.




Donald voiced by Clarence "Ducky" Nash

I find myself in a position, I never thought possible when I watch these early Donald vs. nephews shorts in that I actually feel sorry for Donald as  he is just trying to be paternal figure but the boys are causing him to snap.   Something interesting to note here is that Donald's Nephews (the first short featuring Huey, Dewey, & Louie) came out in 1938 and this short came 10 years later.  By 1948,  Huey, Dewey, & Louie had still not been well established and were just tormentors for Uncle Donald.



My Final Thoughts 


This short is alright.  Nothing special.  It's fun but it does take a rather odd turn with the boys tricking Donald into thinking that he has died. And watching these early Donald vs. nephews shorts,  you understand why Donald snaps at his nephews.  They're brats and they deserve whatever Donald is going to do to them.  Peace!