Billposters (1940) User Reviews

Fun, if senseless

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 6/10 · 28 August 2005]

In this cartoon Donald and Goofy are out in the countryside pasting up posters for tomato soup. It's a rather odd place to be doing such a thing considering such ads are usually pasted over the plywood boards of an abandoned shop in a dreary ghetto, but never mind.

Goofy decides to paste a poster onto a windmill (a rather odd choice) but ends up getting frustrated by the twirling blades. Donald is pasting a poster on a farmhouse but is tormented by a tin can-eating goat (cartoons often portray goats as can-eaters-is this for real or is it just a myth?) who eats the posters as soon as he puts them up.

After some effort they both overcome their obstacles and succeed at their task. Now all the country animals can appreciate the tomato soup ad. Weird.

A goat is the main character of BILL-POSTERS . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 9 February 2022]

. . . and we're not talking "Greatest Of All Time." Regular goats will eat hay, grasses, weeds, grain and sometimes even tree bark--but NEVER tin cans, as these Dizzy nature films continually insist upon depicting. However, an American G. O. A. T.--whether named Ryun, Blair, Biles, Brady or Shiffrin, MIGHT eat a tin can, even though they specialize in eating crow. All five of these over-rated has-been's specialized in snatching total defeat from the jaws of triumph at the pinnacle of their supposedly invincible careers, just like "Casey at the Bat." These five bozos may have had the best publicity flacks, but disaster always results when you play down to the level of your PR department. Many if not most nations would not tolerate getting such egg of their face, and would find some pretext to erase such a sorry quintet from their sports annals. No actual G. O. A. T. has a grand finale as a loser on the World's Biggest Stage, whether it's the Olympics or the Super Bowl.

Goofy outdoes Donald

[Squonk · 7/10 · 2 March 1999]

Goofy and Donald Duck are out to put up some posters on a windmill. Why a windmill? Who knows. This short is well made but somewhat uneven. Goofy really outshines the feathered one. Most of Goofy's funny bits simply stem from the fact that he's Goofy. Donald's segments deal with him battling a goat who would like to eat the posters. Donald's segments just don't hold up to Goofy's.

The Dysfunctional Duo Strikes Again

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 21 October 2002]

A Walt Disney DONALD AND GOOFY Cartoon.

Donald & Goofy, working as BILLPOSTERS, encounter trouble from an angry billy goat and an uncooperative windmill.

This is a wonderful, hilarious little film, with excellent animation. It is a fine example of the quality of work the Studio was capable of producing on a small scale, even as it was switching gears to accommodate the simultaneous creation of feature length cartoons. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's unique voice.

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.

Goofy and Donald as bill posters

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 1 January 2013]

I love Disney, I love Goofy and I love Donald Duck. Reasons enough to watch Billposters. And for me I consider Billposters one of the funniest and best shorts pairing Goofy and Donald. The animation is wonderful, the backgrounds are crisp and detailed and the colours are appealingly vibrant. Both Goofy and Donald are very well drawn as well. The energetic and beautifully orchestrated music evoked a similar reaction from me, and I expected this as the music is a big ingredient of why the Disney shorts on the most part are such a big success. The use of Whistle While You Work was a very nice touch, a throwback to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a pioneering achievement in animation. The story is one of those stories that could easily be tired, but it is really helped by the brisk pacing, the chemistry between Goofy and Donald and the clever gags, the standouts being Goofy's confused reaction to the windmill stealing his brush, the bucket falling on Goofy's head to make him look like an elephant and the goat eating the posters. I do agree here that Goofy is the stronger character of the two in this short, but he and Donald work so well together and the short play to their strengths and personalities(Goofy when he makes an easy situation harder than it is and Donald in how he reacts to everything) seamlessly. Pinto Colvig and Clarence Nash's voice characterisations are both distinctive and done with terrific gusto. Overall, a wonderful short, one of the best and funniest with Goofy and Donald paired together. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Donald and Goofy never catches a break!

[OllieSuave-007 · 5/10 · 5 May 2017]

Donald and Goofy are out in the countryside putting up posters advertising tomato soup.

As with the clumsy Goofy and the bad-luck plagued Donald, this cartoon is doesn't short of mishaps for the poor two. Some funny moments here and there, especially with Goofy getting spooked with the twirling blades of a windmill and Donald getting tormented by a mean and annoying goat. But, it is mostly average slapstick stuff.

It's too bad Donald and Goofy doesn't ever get the upper hand in this cartoon and always let the mishaps get the best of them.

Grade C-