It’s says something for creativity when people manage to take
the mundane act of changing a tire and turn it into something hilarious.
I love this short for managing to get Donald tangled up in
so many things from the jack to the tire itself. I also love how it builds certain gags. Like when Donald’s hat gets caught on the jack as
it goes through the hood of the car and he grabs it and smashes it on his head
with a familiar clang. Then it's revealed
he took the hood ornament too and it was under his cap. Then he gets mad, his face goes red, and the
ornament acts as a thermometer. Even
taking the ornament off is a gag as Donald twists it off his head giving his
feathers a swirled look.
The title card is really nice here and I like the line of Donald
complaining about the rubber shortage as the reason why the inside ring of his
tire looks like a patchwork quilt. He
isn’t being lazy or too cheap to get a new one he simply can’t and has to make
do. I would say the line dates this
short, but the style of the car and the colour palette of the short is already
doing that so never mind. Also I thinks
it’s fine for films to comment on the times they are made in and we’ll get into
more of that when I get to the wartime shorts.
I have to say the only part about this short I don’t like is
the tire patch gag where it keeps getting stuck to various parts of Donald,
only because it reminds me of the Pluto and the fly paper gag from a much older short and
this is basically the same thing.
The final gag of all four tires going flat and Donald just
giving up and driving away is great and the inflation and deflation of the tire
gives the sound crew a chance to work their skills in wonderful ways.
In my mind this is a great short that takes a boring task and makes it
funny through physical humour, sound, and Donald’s facial expressions.
No comments:
Post a Comment