The New Neighbor
| The New Neighbor | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jack Hannah |
| Story by | Nick George Milt Schaffer |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Starring | Clarence Nash Billy Bletcher |
| Music by | Edward Plumb |
| Animation by | Edwin Aardal Al Coe George Kreisl Volus Jones Dan MacManus (effects) |
| Layouts by | Yale Gracey |
| Backgrounds by | Thelma Witmer |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The New Neighbor is a 1953 American animated short film directed by Jack Hannah and produced by Walt Disney, featuring Donald Duck.[1] In the short film, Donald moves to a new place and gets along with his new next-door neighbor, Pete.
Plot[edit]
Donald has recently moved into a new house and neighborhood. Donald observes his neighbor Pete walking outside to illegally dump garbage into Donald's yard, followed by Pete's dog Muncey breaking through the fence to dig up Donald's garden. Pete notices Donald, and comes over to introduce himself. Upon entering Donald's house, Pete makes a modest request to take some ice cubes, which Donald happily obliges. However while the fridge door is open, Pete performs a full scale raid, leaving with the fridge's entire contents in a shopping cart. This is then followed by Muncey showing up to take all of Donald's plates and dishes. When Pete appears at the door again, Donald is ready to tell him off, but is quickly disarmed by what appears to be Pete's gracious offer of a bowl of homemade green porridge. After tasting the porridge, Pete indicates to Muncey that it can't be that bad if Donald ate it, causing Donald to hastily spit it out.
With Spring arriving, the neighborhood's focus turns to their yards. Donald comes out with his wheelbarrow and tools, but before he can even start using them, Pete forcibly takes each one as Donald picks it up (fork, trowel, sprayer, pruners, clippers). When a sudden thunderstorm breaks out, both neighbors run for cover, but Pete reminds Donald that all of his tools are sitting out in what has become a mud puddle. This forces Donald to run out in the rain to save the tools from being ruined, while Pete sits inside warm and dry.
On a later spring day, Pete is trimming his tree, and the wind blows all of the leaves and branches onto Donald's lawn. Pete mockingly says to Donald, "Better rake 'em up quick! They'll ruin your lawn!" and laughs. Donald scrambles to rake up all the debris and places them into his incinerator. Upon noticing Pete's laundry on a nearby drying line, Donald sees an opportunity for revenge. Burning the leaves, Donald directs the smoke towards Pete's laundry, and taunts Pete by pointing this out. Pete grabs a hose presumably to douse the smoke out, but instead sprays the powerful jet of water into Donald's face. As Pete laughs at this, Donald puts the hose into Pete's shorts, then pokes holes into the filled shorts with a pitchfork. Pete walks around looking like a fountain. Donald laughs but Pete retaliates with a baseball bat, causing to escalate into a full-scale war.
The escalating conflict attracts crowds and local TV coverage, with headlines such as "Neighborhood Brawl Grows", "War! Between Neighbors", "Neighbors Erupt! Television Covers Battle". To start the battle, Pete begins to survey his property line, and cuts a large protruding limb from Donald's tree while saying, "Let's watch that property line, punk!" Donald responds by cutting Pete's longjohns that were extending over the property line. The battle continues to intensify with Pete flinging apples at Donald, Donald catapulting a can of paint onto Pete, Pete dumping garbage on Donald, Donald flinging a trash lid at Pete and breaking his greenhouse, and Pete tossing a lawn mower onto Donald's house damaging his roof. Ultimately Donald and Pete end up on a ladder suspended on the fence, making them appear to be playing on a "see-saw", while the crowd laughs at them. Pete lifts the ladder, but Donald uses gravity to run the lawn mower at Pete, successfully cutting up Pete's back.
With a break in between "rounds", both neighbors retreat to their "corners" for a break and pep talk from their supporters. One person from the neighborhood throws further fuel on the fire by suggesting to each that a spite fence would be a prudent move. As the bell rings to indicate the start of the next "round", the neighbors start building fences on their respective sides of the property line. The fence grows in height as the neighbors chant out "Higher! Higher! Higher!" Muncey begins digging under the foundation of the combined fences, and then begins forcibly punching holes through the bottoms of them. The foundational damage causes the perilously high fences to crumble and collapse, causing the gathered crowds to scatter.
In the final scene, Pete is shown injured and bandaged up, reluctantly moving away with his house in tow. Donald is declared the winner, but as the camera zooms out, we see Donald is moving away as well, hence making the war between neighbors a draw.
Voice cast[edit]
Television[edit]
- The Mouse Factory, episode #1.11: "Homeowners"
- The New Mickey Mouse Club (February 8, 1977)
- Good Morning, Mickey, episode #16
- Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #47
- Donald's Quack Attack, episode #50
- The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.32: "Goin' to the Dogs"
Home media[edit]
The short was released on November 11, 2008, on Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Four: 1951-1961.[2]
Additional releases include:
- Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Limited Gold Editions - Donald (VHS)
Notes[edit]
- At one point, Pete can be heard humming "Lambert the Sheepish Lion".
- The same bird that was seen in "Little April Shower" from Bambi, can be briefly spotted where he is doing the same movement from the original film and the bird's color is recolored.
References[edit]
- ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 74–76. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ "The Chronological Donald Volume 4 DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
External links[edit]
- The New Neighbor on IMDb
- The New Neighbor at The Internet Animation Database
- The New Neighbor on Filmaffinity
