Self Control (1938) User Reviews

An odd choice

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 7/10 · 19 June 2005]

Like me, Donald has the worst temper in the world. I get angry and worked up at the slightest of things and, guaranteed, if I were to sit out in the garden in a hammock, like Donald does in this cartoon, I would end up going mad with rage instead of relaxing. Even if it's just a simple caterpillar bugging me.

The voice on his little radio promotes stress-reducing techniques. But come on, this is Donald Duck! A pretty odd choice of fellow to be promoting relaxation tips to. Apparently counting to ten is a good way of not losing control. Trust me, it's not. Much as Donald proves to us in this cartoon.

Fun, sometimes cute and beautifully animated

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 4 April 2012]

I love Donald Duck, and always enjoy his cartoons. Self Control is not one of my favourites, but it is pleasant enough. It is beautifully animated with energetic music, and a well paced and interesting story(though I am also not convinced that counting from 1 to 10 is always a convincing enough way to soothe the temper). Self Control is more very amusing than it is absolutely hilarious, but all the gags still work regardless. Donald is great, temperamental yet still likable, and the caterpillar is very cute without cloying too much. Clarence Nash and Florence Gill both do sterling voice work.

Overall, fun and cute, with beautiful animation and music. Definitely worth watching, even if Donald has done better. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The Dizzy outfit is not so much a bull in a china shop as . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 24 January 2022]

. . . it is a mouse in a cheese warehouse. SELF CONTROL epitomizes how no one connected to Dizzy has any of the title virtue. From giving everyone around him the evil eye to smashing a radio to bits in his ultimate temper tantrum, Dizzy's dopey duck destroys everything he's around, just as his parent Mega Corporation does in Real Life. For instance, Night Line used to provide nightly updates on America's hostages in Iran. Now it only delivers nightly promos for fifth-rate ABC shows and fake celebrities. ESPN used to feature mostly sports, instead of blowhards yakking endlessly about has-been's and never was's. The M-puppets used to mirror America, instead of bogus United Nations enclaves. Star Wars once was thrilling, and the Marvel Multiverse was comprehensible. Too bad America lacked the SELF CONTROL to cut the cheese supply to these rapacious rodents in the 1930's.

"Laugh And Count To Ten"

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 19 November 2002]

A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

A pesky fly, caterpillar, hen & woodpecker all sorely try Donald's resolve to adhere to his new philosophy of SELF CONTROL over his temper.

Excellent animation is one of the highlights of this very funny little film, written by the celebrated Carl Barks. Smiling Uncle Smiley is a bull's eye spoof of old-time radio philosophers (and his songs are quite good).The long ago tune Donald is quacking to as the film opens is 'In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree,' most apropos considering what happens to him near the film's end. Clarence "Ducky" Nash gives Donald his unique voice; the inimitable Florence Gill does the vocalizing for the hen.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by 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 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 simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

I would snap too.

[OllieSuave-007 · 2/10 · 21 February 2016]

This is a colorfully-animated Donald cartoon, where he is out in a hammock resting, or trying to. He listens to a philosopher on the radio preaching self-control by counting one to ten after feeling angry. Donald does this after getting bothered by a caterpillar and a hen, but snaps when a woodpecker paths in his lemonade bowl and pecking on an apple tree, causing the fruit to fall on Donald. I would gave snapped to, as the nasty and annoying woodpecker mercilessly attacked Donald and messed up his sailor's cap. Wished Donald would have taught it a lesson or two. The philosopher on the radio was a little too happy-go-lucky. But, poor Donald got the best made of him in this one. The cartoon wasn't funny either.

Grade D---