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Monday, February 8, 2016

Short Subject: Out of Scale (1951)



All aboard for fun!



That’s what this short is for me a lot of fun.  It’s great seeing the animators making a short about a hobby they clearly enjoyed themselves.  I love the low angled shots in the beginning that make it look like Donald is on a full sized train before the reveal that it’s a miniature.  I love that the score is a musical rendition of ‘I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.’ 

Most off all I love that no one in this short is mean spirited.  Sure Donald moved Chip and Dale’s tree, but it wasn’t to hurt them in any way it was just that it wasn’t to scale with his model train set up.  Judging by the fact that he dug around it and put it on his train he was probably just going to move it somewhere else in the yard.  How he was able to lift something that big well it’s cartoon logic and not to be questioned.  Chip and Dale still have a good reason to want to get back at Donald, but that basically ends up being just them trying to put the tree back.  All Donald does in response is squirt oil at them and chase them further into the model town and then getting carried away playing with them, because they are to scale of the house they hid in.  

And much to my surprise we don’t end the short with Donald in the ruins of his train set up or anything like that this time both sides get what they want when Chip and Dale put a giant redwood sign on the tree and Donald agrees it can stay and goes back to conducting his train.  They still have their home and he still has his toy, everyone wins and it’s so nice to see a happy ending for all.     

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