1959 Donald Duck cartoon
Donald in Mathmagic Land
is an American
live-action animated
featurette
produced by
Walt Disney Productions
and featuring
Donald Duck
. The short was directed by
Hamilton Luske
(with
Wolfgang Reitherman
,
Les Clark
, and
Joshua Meador
as sequence directors) and was released on June 26, 1959.
[1]
It was nominated for an
Academy Award
for
Best Documentary (Short Subject)
at the
32nd Academy Awards
,
[2]
and became a widely viewed
educational film
in American schools of the 1960s and beyond.
[3]
Plot
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]
1: Very Strange
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]
The film begins with
Donald Duck
, holding a hunting rifle, passing through a doorway to find that he has entered Mathmagic Land. This "mighty strange" fantasy land contains trees with
square roots
, a stream flowing with
numbers
, and a walking pencil that plays
tic-tac-toe
. A geometric bird recites (almost perfectly) the first 15 digits of
pi
. Donald soon hears the voice of the unseen "True Spirit of Adventure" (
Paul Frees
), who will guide him on his journey through "the wonderland of mathematics".
2: The Time Of Pythagoras
[
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]
Donald is initially not interested in exploring Mathmagic Land, believing that math is just for "
eggheads
". When "Mr. Spirit" suggests a connection between math and music, though, Donald is intrigued. First, Donald discovers the relationships between
octaves
and string length which develop the
musical scale
of today. Next, Donald finds himself in
ancient Greece
, where
Pythagoras
and his contemporaries are discovering these same relationships. Pythagoras (on the
harp
), a
flute
player, and a
double bass
player hold a "
jam session
" which Donald joins after a few moments using a
vase
as a
bongo drum
. Pythagoras' mathematical discoveries are, as the Spirit explains, the basis of today's music, and that music would not exist without "eggheads". The segment ends with a sequence of
live action
musicians playing both
jazz
and
classical music
and Pythagoras' pals fading away.
3: The Golden Rectangle
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]
After shaking hands with Pythagoras, who then vanishes, Donald finds on his hand a
pentagram
, the symbol of the secret
Pythagorean society
. The Spirit then shows Donald how the mysterious
golden section
appears in the pentagram. Next, the pentagram is shown to contain the pattern for constructing golden rectangles many times over. According to the Spirit, the
golden rectangle
has influenced both ancient and modern cultures in many ways. Donald then learns how the golden rectangle appears in many ancient buildings, such as the
Parthenon
and the
Notre Dame cathedral
. Paintings such as the
Mona Lisa
and various sculptures such as the
Venus de Milo
contain several golden rectangles. The use of the golden rectangle is found in modern architecture, such as the
United Nations building
in
New York City
. Modern painters have also rediscovered the magic of the golden rectangles.
4: Mathematical Forms In Nature
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The Spirit shows Donald how the golden rectangle and pentagram are related to the human body and nature, respectively. The human body contains the "ideal proportions" of the golden section; Donald, overinterpreting the Spirit's advice, tries to make his own body fit such a proportion, but his efforts are to no avail; he ends up "all pent up in a
pentagon
". The pentagram and pentagon are then shown to be found in many flowers and animals, such as the
petunia
, the
star jasmine
, the
starfish
, the
waxflower
, and with the help of the inside of a
nautilus
shell, the Spirit explains that the magic proportions of the golden section are often found in the
spirals
of nature's designs, quoting Pythagoras: "Everything is arranged according to number and mathematical shape."
5: Mathematics in Games
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Donald then learns that mathematics applies not only to nature, architecture, and music, but also to games that are played on geometrical surfaces, including
chess
,
baseball
,
American football
,
basketball
,
hopscotch
, and
three-cushion billiard
. Donald even volunteers the game
Tiddlywinks
, but the Spirit does not pursue this option. Themes of Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel
Through the Looking-Glass
are scattered throughout the chess scene; Carroll himself was both a writer and a
mathematician
. The extended
billiards
scene, which features a non-speaking live actor, shows the calculations involved in the game's "diamond system", and Donald finally learns how to do the calculations, though he ends up making it tough for himself, spectacularly hitting ten cushions in a single shot nonetheless.
6: Mathematical Thinking
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The Spirit then asks Donald to play a mental game, but he finds Donald's mind to be too cluttered with "Antiquated Ideas", "Bungling", "False Concepts", "Superstitions", and "Confusion". After some mental house-cleaning, Donald plays with a
circle
and a
triangle
in his mind, he spins them to make them respectively into a
sphere
and a
cone
, and then he discovers useful inventions such as the
wheel
,
train
,
magnifying glass
,
drill
,
spring
,
propeller
, and
telescope
. Donald then discovers that pentagrams can be drawn inside each other indefinitely. Therefore, numbers provide an avenue to consider the
infinite
. The Spirit states that scientific knowledge and technological advances are unlimited, and the key to unlocking the doors of the future is mathematics. By the end of the film, Donald understands and appreciates the value of mathematics. The film closes with a quotation from
Galileo Galilei
: "Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe."
Cast
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Production
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The film was directed by
Hamilton Luske
. Contributors included
Disney
artists John Hench and Art Riley, voice talent
Paul Frees
, and scientific expert
Heinz Haber
, who had worked on the Disney space shows. It was released on a bill with
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
. In 1959, it was nominated for an
Academy Award
for (
Best Documentary ? Short Subjects
).
[4]
In 1961, two years after its release, it was shown as part of the
first program
of
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
with an introduction by
Ludwig Von Drake
.
The film was made available to schools and became one of the most popular
educational films
ever made by Disney. As
Walt Disney
himself explained: "The cartoon is a good medium to stimulate interest. We have recently explained mathematics in a film and in that way excited public interest in this very important subject."
[5]
Releases
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Home media
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The short was released on November 11, 2008 on
Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Four: 1951-1961
.
[6]
Additional releases include:
- 1988 -
Walt Disney Mini Classics: Donald in Mathmagic Land
(VHS)
- 2007 -
Donald in Mathmagic Land
(DVD exclusive to the Disney Movie Club)
- 2009 -
Donald in Mathmagic Land
(DVD)
In other media
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- A
comic book
adaptation was made, scripted by
Don R. Christensen
, pencilled by
Tony Strobl
, and inked by Steve Steere. This version differs in some ways from the original film version, providing a better context for Donald's excursion into Mathmagic Land.
[7]
- The
House of Mouse
episode "Gone Goofy" features an advertisement for Mathmagic Land at the end.
- In the 2023
Ted Lasso
episode "
Sunflowers
", Lasso consumes what he believes to be psychedelic drugs and begins to hallucinate about the geometry of triangles. The style of animated hallucination sequence is visually similar to that of
Donald in Mathmagic Land
, and Lasso also hears the voice of The True Spirit of Adventure (voiced by
Corey Burton
) explaining the significance of the triangle.
References
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External links
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