BarksBase: Animated cartoons (Unfinished projects)

Animated cartoons

Unfinished projects

The Love Nest (February 1936)

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are interior decorators who fix up a honeymoon cottage for Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow.

Barks submitted a sequence of gag drawings that constituted his first work on Donald.

Timid Elmer/Elmer's Light o' Love (c. 1936)

Elmer Elephant looks on helplessly as Tillie Tiger falls for the balletic charms of Granville Goat.

Barks wrote a scenario entitled »Elmer's Light o' Love«. This film was intended as a sequel to the Silly Symphony cartoon »Elmer Elephant« (28 March 1936, directed by Wilfred Jackson).

A comic-strip version entitled »Timid Elmer« was published on the Silly Symphony Sunday pages from 4 December 1938 through 12 February 1939.

Northwest Mounted/Mickey of the Mounted/Mickey Gets His Man/Royal Mounted Police/Mickey the Mountie (August 1936) *

When Black Pete kidnaps Minnie Mouse, intrepid mountie Mickey gives chase through the frozen badlands.

Under the direction of Dick Creedon, Barks wrote the treatment and drew more than 300 storyboard sketches.

This is the first adventure story Barks drew and the second he wrote (see below under »Lost Prospectors«). It is also his first tale of the Klondike gold rush.

Some elements of the plot can be found in FC 199/2. The mountie theme is at the heart of FC 48/1.

Nightwatchman Donald (August 1937) *

As night watchman in a department store, Donald is plagued by a playful monkey.

Barks cast Donald as a night watchman again in WDC 89/1 and WDC 231/1.

Interior Decorators (October 1937) *

Donald and his dimwitted helper Gus are hired to renovate a mansion.

Had this film been completed, it would have constituted the first appearance of Gus Goose. The plot recycles ideas from »The Love Nest«. One scene already depicts Gus' voracious appetite which then became the main theme of »Donald's Cousin Gus«.

Yukon Mickey/Yukon Donald (February 1938) *

Mickey learns that a baby walrus has been stealing food from his cache.

Disney scrapped this project because he considered it neither original nor funny. Later he thought the plot might be more suited to Donald, and many of the storyboard sketches were redrawn substituting the duck.

Lost Prospectors (March 1938) *

Donald and Gus Goose trek across Death Valley, encountering mirages and a strange giggling spring.

This cartoon was based on a plot outline for a film starring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy which Barks wrote in April 1936 entitled »Desert Prospectors«.

Donald Munchausen (April 1938)

Donald tells his nephews tall tales about his adventures as a photographer in Africa.

Barks was the story director. He made only a few drawings for this film, though numerous story notes in his hand survive.

Tanglefoot (May 1938)

This cartoon, which never got beyond the stage of discussion, was to have been an adaptation of Floyd Gottfredson's comic-strip serial about Mickey's horse Tanglefoot.

Donald's Shooting Gallery (June 1938)

Donald lures the nephews to his manipulated shooting gallery by offering a box of candy as a prize.

Barks worked with Jack Hannah and Chuck Couch on this film. Only a story outline and mimeographed copies of a few drawings (not by Barks) survive.

Barks used a manipulated shooting gallery again in WDC 75/1. In WDC 279/1, Donald has a manipulated pitching stand.

The Rubber Hunter (c. 1938) *

Donald journeys to South America for raw rubber to make a new tire for his car.

Barks later used one gag concerning rubber bundles in FC 238/1.

The Beaver Hunters/Beaver Hunt (May 1939) *

Donald and Pluto go beaver hunting, but the wily rodents foil them.

Donald's Balloon/Donald's Stratosphere Flight (August 1939)

Mickey, Minnie, Horace, and Clarabelle enter a balloon race against Black Pete.

This film was originally entitled »Balloon Race« and was then renamed »Mickey's Stratosphere Flight«. Later Donald received the starring role and the title was changed to »Donald's Stratosphere Flight«.

Traveling Salesman Donald (c. 1940) *

Salesman Donald cons bartender Pete into buying a phony pearl.

This cartoon was probably the first collaboration between Barks and Jack Hannah.

Sculptor Donald (c. 1941) *

Donald enters a contest for the best wax sculpture, but the nephews sabotage his statue with a blowtorch.

Barks drew all the story sketches for this cartoon.

Barks used the plot idea again in WDC 196/1.

Madame XX (1942) *

On a mission to deliver secret plans to the war office, Private Donald is waylaid by a seductive foreign spy.

Barks reused the motif of the seductive spy in WDC 94/1 and, above all, in FC 308/1.

Donald's Tank (1942) *

Donald takes off in an armored tank, strays across the French line, and spoils a surprise attack by Adolf Hitler.