Il Drago E I Paladini

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

Chip 'n' Dale mistake Donald's steam shovel for a fearsome medieval monster - and fight back accordingly.

DRAGON AROUND is an enjoyable little film, but both the plot and the animation are quite routine. Clarence Nash provides Donald with his unique voice.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

Dragon Around is not among my absolute favourites of Chip 'n' Dale/Donald Duck's, but I still love it. The story isn't the most exceptional one ever, but it is still crisply paced and fun, with great humour and very well-timed sight gags. The animation is as lush and beautiful as can be, and the music is always energetic in their cartoons, and Dragon Around is no exception. Chip 'n' Dale are cute and antagonistic, with Chip no nonsense and Dale goofier, and Donald with his cantankerous personality is just as funny and takes the laughs well.

Overall, a rousing, fun, beautifully animated and energetically scored cartoon, with all characters on top form. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Dale is reading a Fairy Tale book and pretends to slay a dragon. Around the corner he sees a shadow of what looks to be a dragon. He is frightened and runs to Chip who ends up seeing the dragon shadow. It turns out this dragon is Donald Duck on a piece of machinery. Donald's job is to build a road though the forest but Chip and Dale has other plans for him.

Cute animation.

7/10.