Donald's Cousin Gus (1939)

"Donald's Cousin Gus" is a Disney cartoon from 1939, so this one is already almost 80 years old, maybe more when you read this, and the names King, Colvig and Nash make sure that it can be easily understood who produced this. The title is pretty simple this time as it states the name of the character next to Donald in here, the insatiable Mr. Goose who keeps emptying Donald's entire fridge. Oh well. The best moment is maybe when Donald is channeling his inner cat and Gus is channeling his inner (hot) dog voiced by Pinto Colvif too, Disney's go-to guy for dog characters, even hotdogs. So yeah this was a fast and funny work and it is a bit of a pity that Disney's equivalent to Relaxo is not used in other cartoons really. Bx the way, this runs for seven minutes of course like most other cartoons from that time and it is in color too. A certain contender for best/funniest short film from its year and thumbs-up for Gus who really brings out the best and funniest in Donald. Maybe not for Donald himself, but certainly for us. This one really deserves to be more famous and if you love these old cartoons, then it is a must-see. I enjoyed it almost as much as during the first watch thanks to its quality plays on words and give it a very positive recommendation. Go for it.

I know Donald Duck always get the bad luck in Disney cartoons, which gives the character his uniqueness and charm. However, I think Donald got a little too much misfortune in this short.I know this is a cartoon and I shouldn't dwell on the details. But, Donald's cousin Gus is one annoying bird, who pays Donald a visit and eats him out of his house and food. When I watched this as a kid, I wished Donald would have thrown this creature out and locked all the doors so he could enjoy his lunch. Too bad Donald didn't get the last laugh in this one.Grade D

This is a real shame as I love Donald Duck and Disney. But Donald's Cousin Gus just wasn't them at their best for me. It certainly has its good points. The animation is absolutely beautiful, as pretty much always it is nothing to complain about, and I'll say the exact same for the music too. Donald's trademark personality is put to good use, mainly through his priceless reactions to what's going on, though could have been done better in a more inspiredly written situation. Some of the gags at the beginning and a couple of Gus' sly ways with stealing the food especially the one with the cake work very well, and Clarence Nash's Donald voice is impeccable. Sadly, the story gets routine very quickly, and it doesn't help that most of the gags are too more of the same. The barking hot dog gag was an interesting concept and quite an original one, but came across as contrived here instead. Also not helping is that outside of the sly food-stealing Gus doesn't have much of a personality and his playing dumb gets annoying and predictable at the end of the day. Overall, lacking but not bad. 6/10 Bethany Cox

In this cartoon an ungainly and annoying goose called Gus turns up at Donald's house with a note from Aunt Fanny (?) claiming that he is his cousin and is here for a visit. The note also says he doesn't eat much, which turns out to be a total lie since Gus proceeds to eat Donald out of house and home and turn an otherwise peaceful, non-stressful day for Donald into bedlam.Gus is an annoying character but thankfully he doesn't say much and only ever makes a honking sound when he wants attention, which he does by squeezing his ass! Much like Donald, I hope to never see Gus again. And this cartoon ain't that great I'm afraid.