Mr. Duck Steps Out (1940) Poster

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7/10
Music first, Duck second!
JohnHowardReid7 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The cast: "Donald Duck", "Daisy Duck", "Huey Duck", "Louie Duck", "Dewey Duck".

Director: JACK KING. Screenplay: Carl Barks. Voices: Clarence Nash. Color by Technicolor. RCA Sound System. Producer: Walt Disney.

Copyright 4 April 1940 by Walt Disney Productions. A Walt Disney "Donald Duck" cartoon, released through RKO Radio Pictures. 1 reel. 8 minutes.

COMMENT: The title is a nice pun. Donald steps out to see Daisy, but he gets no further than Daisy's house where they do a lot of stepping to dance music - some of it ingeniously provided by the Don's not over-welcome nephews.

If you like the bland and somewhat mild early 1940s style of swing and jitterbugging, this is definitely a cartoon not to be missed. The music never stops. Laughs take a definite second place to the score.

But as usual with Disney, the colors are bright and technical credits ultra smooth.
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6/10
Dancing Duck
CuriosityKilledShawn31 August 2005
Donald has woken up on the right side of the bed for a change is seriously in a great groove and plans to romance Daisy with a box of chocolates. He dances everywhere in perfect timing with a tune that we can all hear. It's one of those cartoons where actions correspond to the way the music is played and it's done very well.

Donald's trip to Daisy's house is spoiled when his nephews insist on tagging along. He tries, and fails, to rid them with an ice cream bribe. Instead they manage to make him swallow a load of corn that is in the middle of popping which sends him on a wild, spastic jitterbug dance around the living room, which Daisy mistakes for genuine dancing talent.

At least he ends up impressing her and getting kisses.
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7/10
Huey, Dewey and Louie are jerks...what a surprise!
planktonrules1 January 2020
Donald is about to go to Daisy's house for a hot time with his sweetie. Naturally, when Huey, Dewey and Louie find out, they show up to ruin Donald's good time and make it impossible for him to score. Again and again, Donald tries dancing with Daisy--only to have the brats get in the middle of them...literally.

This is a highly unusual short because Clarence Nash not only provides the voice for Donald (which he did for many years) but for the nephews AND Daisy. With the nephews, this isn't a problem. But Daisy sounds exactly like Donald...which is strange considering in subsequent films she had a decidedly girlish voice.

So is it any good? Well, the animation is about as lovely as you'll find in a Disney short and is simply better than anything MGM or Looney Toons made at the time. My only quibble is much of this seems familiar since the nephews are always being jerks towards Uncle Donald. Still, you could do a lot worse and the film is entertaining.
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Donald sure knows how to jitterbug!!
SkippyDevereaux3 December 2000
One of the funniest of the Donald Duck cartoons, here his three nephews try to Donald and Daisy apart and the plan backfires. The real fun begins when Donald swallows the red-hot corn cob!! Great cartoon.
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7/10
solid
SnoopyStyle1 April 2018
Donald Duck has a date with Daisy but his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie keep getting in the way. He arrives at her house only to be preceded by them. In the end, they pop an ear of corn which leads to some outrageous dancing from Donald with Daisy.

I am surprised by the suggestive tail wagging from Daisy. Otherwise, it's a fun little family friendly cartoon short with Donald. The nephews are less annoying than usual since they eventually get Donald together with Daisy for a happy ending. It's not one of the icons but it's very solid.
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10/10
Jitterbugging with Mr Duck
TheLittleSongbird4 July 2012
Mr Duck Steps Out has to be one of my favourite Donald Duck cartoons ever. As an avid Disney and Donald fan, I thought choosing absolute favourite would be difficult, but Mr Duck Steps Out I've always loved and sure is one of them. The animation is as colourful and smooth as some of the best animation of the best cartoons of the 30s and 40s, the music is some of the catchiest ever I've heard for any cartoon and the dancing is full of energy, reminding one fondly of the dancing of that particular era. The gags are fun and very imaginative, the gag where Donald's nephews Huey Duey and Louie put an ear of corn on the stove and knock it into Donald which causes him to shake uncontrollably and throw popcorn everywhere is hilarious especially and has endless and timeless replay value. The story is a very light-hearted one in tone, yet delicately balances also Donald's frustration, and the characters from the temperamental but likable Donald, lovely Daisy to the cheeky yet cute rascals that are Huey, Duey and Louie. Clarence Nash's vocals for all five characters are bravura in every sense of the word. In conclusion, fantastic, a must-watch. 10/10 Bethany Cox
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6/10
Any Home Economics Major worth her salt will tell you . . .
pixrox110 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . that no critter can swallow a single ear of popcorn, and "pop out" at least 40 ears worth of the fluffy white stuff. Yet this is exactly what occurs during MR. DUCK STEPS OUT. Surely Don Duck's intense suffering during his crazed popcorn dance, implausible as it is, severely depressed concession sales of this movie theater staple at the R. K. O. Film palaces screening STEPS OUT for contemporary audiences. Not so coincidentally, this one-time box office champ infamously went belly up a few years later. This reflects the long-time Dizzy funny business model: If you cannot buy your partner, be sure to sabotage them into oblivion.
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9/10
A great introduction for Miss Daisy Duck.
dimadick28 October 2001
This short is the first actual appearance of Daisy Duck because the earlier short Don Donald(1937) introduced a very different in appearance and voice Donna Duck.Donald is at his best in this film.He proves to be a fun-loving young man and he doesn't have to be jumping up and down to attract the audiences.He gets the most out of the situation in this one and at the end has earned Daisy's affection.Daisy proves to be a hell of a dancer and a seductive little devil.Her first role is actualy one of the best she ever had.The nephews need for attention ant their interest in Daisy is a good enough motivation for them.They prove themselves inventive and capable.This short has all five Ducks in one of their most interesting appearances ever.Worth watching.
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6/10
Dancin' duck.
Pjtaylor-96-13804416 September 2020
'Mr. Duck Steps Out (1940)' is essentially one long dance number, as Donald boogies his way over to Daisy's house for a date. However, his three nephews seem determined to mess with him, so it isn't long before trouble ensues. There isn't much to the piece in terms of story. Thankfully, though, the piece is well-paced and lively, with generally impressive animation and a few chucklesome sight-gags. It's typically rather enjoyable and it comes together nicely in the end. 6/10
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10/10
A cleverly done dance number!
OllieSuave-00718 May 2017
Donald Duck is heading out for a date night with Daisy, but he didn't anticipate that his nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, will be going along on the date as well. The nephews beat Donald to get to Daisy's house first. Donald sends the kids off to get ice-cream while he and Daisy do some off-the-chart dancing, set to the background of wonderfully jazz and bandstand-type music. It was really clever how the cartoon writers were able to incorporate the music and sound effects into the characters - such as the sounds of drums to popcorn popping.

The popcorn popping in Donald's tummy, causing him to dance wildly with Daisy while the nephews play on instruments is definitely the highlight of the cartoon. There's toe-tapping music and non-stop dancing from start to finish - great fun here!

Grade A
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4/10
Cute ending, but otherwise very unimpressive
Horst_In_Translation6 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Mr. Duck Steps Out" is another Disney cartoon as the name makes obvious very quickly and this one is from 1940, the days of World War II. Director is the pretty prolific Jack King here and his work fot this one will soon have its 80th anniversary. Donald is out to meet Daisy at her place, but the nephews want some fun too. Sadly, they are the only ones getting it, the audience not so much. I must say I found the comedy here really mediocre compared to other Donald cartoons from this era. Physically, with the color and looks in general, it is fine, but nothing stands out compared to most other Disney (and some WB) cartoons from back then. There is major focus on sound and music in here, especially in the second half, but also from that perspective, it was really very generic in my opinion. Stuff like having frogs take the part of music instruments are simply not good, smart or funny enough. Donald was a weaker version of himself with the material he had, but still more interesting than the nephews who very genuinely unspectacular this time, almost annoying, and also than Daisy who was basically a female version of Donald channeling his looks and basically plays almost no important part here at all in terms of the story. Also this is one of the rare occasions where I am not too fond of Clarence Nash's effort as honestly Daisy sounds just like Donald the entire time. The ending with these kisses is kinda cute, but it cannot make me forget about all the mediocrity from before that. Gotta give this one a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
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A Duck Tale With Jive
Ron Oliver20 November 2002
A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.

When MR. DUCK STEPS OUT for a romantic afternoon with Daisy he finds his Nephews have beat him there.

Some furious jitterbugging and a terrific jazz soundtrack enliven this well-animated little film. This was Daisy's second appearance in a cartoon and the first time her name was used. Clarence "Ducky" Nash provided the voices for all five fowls.

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.
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