It seems back in the 30's and 40's there were some things every self-respecting animated star had to do. These included getting drafted, 'going Dutch' (especially if you worked for Fleischer), and having a garden.

Why a garden, especially during the war? Honestly I don't know. Mickey had a garden, too, and I seem to recall that his was a bit funnier, mainly thanks to Pluto, but I could be wrong about that.

Well, the plot is simplicity itself. Donald has managed to establish a splendid vegetable garden - his giant, prizeworthy melons are an especial attraction. After a little slapstick involving a waterpump, the antogonist is literally flushed into the open: a cunning gopher with an insatiable appetite, who decides to relieve Donald of his produce.

The short relies on pretty unremarkable sight-gags, though accomplished with the high quality animation people had by now come to expect of Disney (though I think there was some pre-war stuff which was better done. I don't know if it's me, but compared with say, Ferdinand the Bull (1938), the backgrounds here seem very flat and 'painted on', and don't project much of a sense of... solidity or reality, or of occupying the same universe as the characters at times.

The Gopher's emergence - minding his own business till flushed from his hole, whereupon he becomes a ruthless adversary - is very reminiscent of Bugs Bunny's premise for his behaviour in so many shorts. At this stage Bugs was a newbie on the scene, so that all seems a little odd. Not sure who was taking notes on who, or if it was just coincidence.

I felt sorry for Donald in this 1942 short. I'm not really sure if I was supposed to, but really he was quite innocent in disturbing the gopher, and didn't deserve the extent of the sadistic disaster foisted on him by this bottomless-pit of a rodent.

The film, unfortunately, really isn't a Disney classic. It's entertaining, and some bits are quite funny, but fact is, Disney excelled at feeling and technique. Warner were already king of the hill for rapid-fire slapstick. That's not to say Donald couldn't pull off some inspired performances (see 'Bellboy Donald' from the same year) - but Warner's comedy henerally had a certain ruthlessness to it, whereas even 'Bellboy Donald' ellicits some emotional responses other than guffaws.

This isn't in the same class, either for originality, or, to my eyes, production quality. Still, it's a pleasant enough way to spend a few minutes, and Donald needed a break from being drafted and assembling shell-cases.

What I thought WAS funny, BTW, is the Donald cartoons in the Walt Disney Treasures series have optional subtitles, so you can see what he was actually saying in his tirades if you want to! They're only in English, but then as I vaguely recall Walt himself saying, Donald speaks the universal language, in that nobody can undersrtand it.