Toy Tinkers (also known as Christmas Capers) is a Christmas-themed theatrical animated short starring Donald Duck and Chip 'n' Dale, produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures on December 16, 1949. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short of 1949, but lost to Chuck Jones' Pepé Le Pew cartoon For Scent-imental Reasons.
Synopsis[]
Chip and Dale are awoken from hibernation to the nearby sounds of Donald Duck chopping down a pine tree. They follow Donald, as he is singing "Jingle Bells", to his house where they spy on him setting up his Christmas tree. Seeing all the presents under the tree, especially the nuts, they decide to break into his house and start stealing the nuts. As they are loading up nuts, Dale runs into a few misadventures with the toys. Upon running back into Chip, he gets slapped back into reality.
Donald is then alerted by the sounds of Chip and Dale loading up a toy truck with nuts. Angered but mischievous, Donald activates a train set so that Dale is forced to stop at the rail crossing where he empties the truck, but Chip promptly comes by and steals the bowl of nuts back. Angered even more, Donald comes up with an even more sinister plan.
As the chipmunks are celebrating, Donald Duck comes out from the fireplace as Santa Claus, pretending to give them presents. Chip being given a disproportionately larger present, Dale feels jealous and fights Chip over his. When Chip finally pushes Dale aside and opens it, Donald reveals he was hiding a gun in there the entire time.
Having them at gunpoint, he "arrests" them and marches them into a toy police truck where he locks them in and sends them off to crash into the wall. Upon crashing, Donald loads up a toy rifle with nuts and shoots at them. Chip and Dale take refuge behind a makeshift trench consisting of presents and containing a toy cannon. Donald finds them there to be shot twice by tomatoes by the cannon and promptly makes a trench of his own. Wearing a WWI era helmet he tells them to prepare themselves, and they promptly begin fighting in the style of a WWI battlefield.
Chip and Dale sneak a telephone into Donald's trench and call him via another telephone behind their own. When he answers, they shoot the phone with the cannon, sending it to his ear, and the battle ensues. The phone rings again, prepared for it this time, Donald holds the receiver away from his ear only to realize that ballet music is playing and he begins listening to it and enjoying it, only to be shot again. In anger, he tries calling them and sending a stick of dynamite via the phone lines to retaliate but the dynamite duds. The phone calls him again and he takes another blast, forcing him to surrender, waving a white flag while Chip and Dale march out of the house as all the toys (including marching figures) carry out all the nuts for them.
Notes[]
- A comic book adaptation of the short was published in Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #2, printed by Dell Comics in 1950. In reprints, the story was titled "Christmas Fray" and later "Such a Clatter".
Availability[]
The short was released on the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: The Continuing Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale Featuring Donald Duck VHS in 1985. It made its DVD debut on the Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites - Volume 8: Holiday Celebration with Mickey & Pals DVD in 2005, and was later included on The Chronological Donald, Volume 3 DVD set in 2007.
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Clarence Nash | Donald Duck |
| Jimmy MacDonald | Chip |
| Dessie Flynn | Dale |
External links[]
- Disney Wiki: Toy Tinkers
- Toy Tinkers at the Internet Movie Database
- Toy Tinkers at the Big Cartoon DataBase