OllieSuave-007 Donald is a bug collector in this cartoon and he tries to catch the rare Bootle Beetle. But, as usual, he runs into some bad luck. Yet, surprisingly, Donald wasn't giving too much of a bad rap in this one. There were some funny moments and the animation was very colorful. Donald's adversary, the beetle, wasn't annoying as well.Grade B-

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Bootle Beetle" is an American Disney cartoon from 1947, so this one had its 70th anniversary last year and if you take a look at cast and crew here you will find many people who worked on the company's many other films long and short, with the exception of Dink Trout maybe, but even he is listed for one true animated classic from the old days. Anyway, in here Donald is the star or lets say the most known character. He plays a bug collector that does not appear for a great deal of time though, only briefly before the 3-minute mark. The key players really are two bugs, an old and a younger, and almost the entire film is a flashback sequence with the older telling the younger about his encounter with Donald decades ago apparently. Beetle's must have a great life expectancy there, no need to risk it. The highlight is probably the old Donald near the end depicting a bit of a Captain Ahab symbolism and you really don't see a bearded Donald too often. A pretty entertaining watch we got here, maybe not as good as I remember it from first watch years ago, but still good enough for me to give it a thumbs-up and a positive recommendation. Close to a must-see for lovers of old cartoons.

Drew A.G. Engman Bootle Beetle:My Dad used to show this cartoon to us,(along with every Disney cartoon short, feature, and live film ever made over the years) on our old 16 mm projector. The neighborhood kids in Burbank, and the friends who would come up to "The Cabin" in Pinon Hills, all loved the 1,2,& 3 reel films he'd always bring home on Friday's from "The Studio" (Disney Studios in Burbank). This one he actually worked on about 10 years before I was born. But he worked at Disney Studios from the animation of "Snow White" to about the completion of the 1st animated version of Jungle Book, so his career spanned about 1937 to 1971. He's still alive and kicking at age 92 (as of 12/31/03), living in Pinon Hills near my wife and I.I fondly remember this cartoon as one of my favorite "Donald's."

Ron Oliver A Walt Disney DONALD DUCK Cartoon.An elderly BOOTLE BEETLE recalls his encounter years earlier with bug collector Donald Duck.This enjoyable little film was the first in a very short series to feature the Bootle Beetles. Although undeniably cute, they did not make an impression on the viewers and quickly retired from the screen. Clarence "Ducky" Nash supplies Donald's 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, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. 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.