Donald Duck (film)

Donald Duck is a a 1998 American computer-animated comedy adventure film, produced by DisneyToon Studios and Walt Disney Television Animation. The film features characters from The Disney Afternoon television series Quack Pack; the film itself acts as a sequel to the TV show. Directed by Kevin Lima and Burny Mattinson, the film's plot revolves around Donald must go into hiding after he accidentally mistakenly becomes a wanted criminal for stealing the money to give to the poor that he didn't commit and none of friends believe him (not even Mickey or Daisy), so he must go to the one person he can't stand who is now his only hope, his rival, Daniel Duck. Donald tells Daniel what happened, at first he doesn't believe him but soon he has a change of heart and helps him clear his name. It also features other characters such as the Beagle Boys (as the main antagonists), Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Peg Leg Pete (in a cameo as an anchorman), and Scrooge McDuck.

The film was released theatrically on July 10, 1998 by Walt Disney Pictures to mixed reviews from critics and moderate box office success. The film was dedicated to Dana Hill, who died on July 15, 1996 during production.

Production
The main characters of this film, specifically Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie, are based on their incarnations in the Quack Pack television show, albeit slightly older: Max and PJ are high-school aged rather than middle-schoolers. However, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck retain their classic outfits from the 1940s cartoons as opposed to the looks that they had in the 1950s cartoons and Quack Pack.

Although based upon a Disney TV series, Donald Duck was jointly produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Television Animation, Disney MovieToons, Walt Disney Animation France S.A. and Walt Disney Animation Australia. Pre-production was done at the main WDFA studio in Burbank, California, starting as early as mid-1996. The animation work was done at Walt Disney Animation France in Paris, France supervised by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, with additional scenes animated at Disney's studio in Sydney, Australia under the direction of Steve Moore, and clean-up work done at the main Burbank studio. Additional clean-up/animation was done by Phoenix Animation Studios in Canada, and digital ink and paint by the Pixibox studio in France.

After Who Framed Rodger Rabbit, Disney and Warner teamed up again in 1995 and made a deal that they would put Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse in a scene together like in Rodger Rabbit, so they started to develop ideas for a movie starring the two, but then Tony Anselmo (who voices Donald Duck), had an idea for a feature film starring Donald Duck "where he ambarks on an adventure of a lifetime" and the producers agreed to that idea with only one condition that they would put Daffy in the movie with Donald too, and from there he agreed to it. Production for the film started in April 1996 to Early August 1997.

Release
The film was released theatrically on July 10, 1998.

Home media
Donald Duck was first released on VHS on December 1, 1998.

It was reissued on June 20, 2000, along with a DVD version as part of the short-lived Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection. To date, this film, A Goofy Movie and Doug's 1st Movie are the only three Disney animated films produced in widescreen that have pan and scan-only Region 1 DVD releases (not counting separate widescreen and pan and scan DVD releases of the two Disney/Pixar films The Incredibles and Cars). However, the film's PAL and NTSC (Japan) counterpart does have a non-anamorphic widescreen DVD, and the film is available in a letterbox presentation on LaserDisc.

The film was released on Blu-Ray for the first time on November 4, 2008 to commemorate its 10th anniversary.

Sequel
A direct-to-video sequel, Donald Duck 2: Goin' Quackers, was released in 2000.