Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Donald in Mathmagic Land" is a 27-minute short film which explores basic mathematic references in everyday life. 27 minutes may be long for cartoons from that era, but it's really short given the fact that there were no less than 4 directors and 3 writers working on it. I am sort of interested in maths and I've always liked Donald, but still somehow I did not find this one particularly interesting or funny. Then again I am not really big on Disney's works who take themselves seriously as an educational movie. The Academy thought otherwise and nominated it for an Oscar, but it lost to the Dutch entry from that year. Another mathematics meets cartoon idea won the Oscar, namely "The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics": if you enjoyed Donald's take here, you may want to check that one out as well. It's also not even half as long. This one here is already over 55 years old and yet it is far from being one of the early Donald cartoons. And also far from being among the best in my opinion. Not recommended.

John E. Huculak When I was a freshmen student at the start of high school in 1967 my math teacher brought this film to class to wake up the lethargy and the lack of interest for math in the class. Everybody laughed when he was setting up the projector since it was a cartoon with Donald Duck. The general feeling was it was for 3rd graders and it was going to be a very long and boring 30 minutes. Once the shades were drawn and the lights turned off however the laughing stopped in about 5 minutes into the film. You could hear a pin drop the rest of the way through the presentation. After the film was over the questions started and never really stopped until the end of the semester. That film breathed new life and interest into the world of mathematics for all of us in that class. Our teacher was a great instructor and I guess he had similar experiences with that film in his other classes as well. That film woke up an interest in me that stayed with me through high school and college and even now to this day. I have a copy and I still watch it once in awhile just for the great memories of so long ago.

johnstonjames One of the greatest films of all time. well, maybe one of the greatest educational films of all time. Disney could always make educational films fun and entertaining, and next to his 'Man in Space' series, this is his best. definitely his most timeless since some of the information in the 'Space' series is now dated. only problem is, this is so entertaining you just kick back and watch the cool retro animation and forget to take in the math lesson.Donald Duck quacks,squeaks and squawks his adorable little self through a succession of colorfully presented math lessons ending with a quote from Galileo that's intended to inspire awe and make us ponder the universe. I would have, but I was still too busy thinking about how cute Donald looked. especially when he was playing pool against a live action background.

Big Neil-2 This interesting failure shows us how Disney, never content with being an entertainer and businessman, had intellectual pretensions--sometimes magnificently realized (as in Fantasia), rather less well here.I say this as a great fan of this puzzling but lovable attempted documentary in cartoon form. The pool table sequence goes on for far too long, and contains very little actual math (the same could be said of the whole movie). Disney ultimately lacked the courage of his pretensions, and the movie positively drowns in these little pop culture references, possibly included to forestall charges of elitism. The closing sequence lurches into what we would nowadays call "Intelligent Design" territory, and a reference to God's guiding hand is squeezed in at the last minute, perhaps to placate red-state viewers.So what you are left with is a mishmash of elegant, graceful animation (some of the finest ever committed to screen) combined with a jarringly superficial treatment of the subject. And yet, and yet; the opening segment, with the waterfall of numbers and the jam session with the Ancient Greek mathematicians, has a sense of wonder and hallucinatory magic that has rarely been equaled. And there is always Donald, our favorite everyman, who learns that math isn't just for eggheads, after all.