Modern Inventions is a 1937

1937 in film

The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

 American animated

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

. The cartoon follows Donald Duck

Donald Duck

Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...

 as he tours the fictional Museum of Modern Marvels. It was directed by Jack King

Jack King (animator)

James Patton "Jack" King was an American comics artist and animator best known for his work at Walt Disney Productions.Born in Alabama, King began his animation career in the silent era in 1920 working at Bray Productions animation studio...

, his first project at the Disney studio, and features original music by Oliver Wallace

Oliver Wallace

Oliver George Wallace was a British composer and conductor. He was especially known for his film music compositions, which were written for many animation, documentary, and feature films from Walt Disney Studios....

. The voice cast includes Clarence Nash

Clarence Nash

Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash was an American voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Donald Duck for the Walt Disney Studios...

 as Donald, Billy Bletcher

Billy Bletcher

William "Billy" Bletcher was an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.-Career:...

 as the Robot Butler, and Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

 as the Robot Barber.

Modern Inventions is an example of retro-futurism

Retro-futurism

Retro-futurism is a trend in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced prior to about 1960...

 and pokes fun at modern conveniences

Modern conveniences

Modern conveniences or Mod cons are labor-saving devices that make a task easier to perform than a traditional method. Because of the historical use of the term, and the differences in lifestyles around the world, the term is a relative term based upon the conveniences previously available to a...

. The scene of Donald in the barber's chair was submitted by Carl Barks

Carl Barks

Carl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...

 as his first story contribution at Disney.

Plot

Donald visits the "Museum of Modern Marvels" which showcases various futuristic electronic appliances and inventions. In the museum, Donald encounters and struggles with many strange and whimsical machines, all of which seem to be against him. A running gag throughout the picture has the Robot Butler appearing to take away Donald's hat, with the words "Your hat, sir." After encountering a robotic hitch-hiker, a wrapping machine, and a fully automated baby carriage, the short ends when Donald attempts to scam a robotic barber chair and winds up getting a haircut on his behind and a shoe-shined bill.

The machines

Inventions Donald interacts with include:

• The Robot Butler
• Hitch-Hiker's Aid
• Automatic Bundle-Wrapper
• Robot Nurse Maid
• Mechanical Barber Chair

Other inventions seen in the museum include:

• Patent Necktie Knotter
• Mechanical Onion Peeler
• Automatic Pea Splitter
• Old Razor Blade Mangler
• Mechanical Bottle Opener
• Magnetic Shoe Lacer
• Peanut Sheller
• Hydraulic Potato Peeler
• Automatic Picture Hanger Upper
• Pneumatic Pencil Sharpener

The hats

Throughout the cartoon, Donald pulls hats out of thin air to replace those taken by the Robot Butler (often followed by "So!"). These include:

• Top hat
  Top hat
  A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
  
  
• Napoleonic officer hat
  Bicorne
  The bicorne or bicorn is an archaic form of hat widely adopted in the 1790s as an item of uniform by European and American military and naval officers...
  
  
• Civil War kepi (however, the Robot Butler picks up on this one almost immediately after Donald puts it on and starts to give chase)
• Baby bonnet (he puts this one on whilst testing the Robot Nurse Maid)
• Bowler hat
  Bowler hat
  The bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby , billycock or bombin, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for the English soldier and politician Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester...
  
  

Releases

• 29 May 1937 – original release (theatrical)
• 1985 – "Cartoon Classics: The Continuing Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale Featuring Donald Duck" (VHS)
• c. 1992 – Mickey's Mouse Tracks
  Mickey's Mouse Tracks
  Mickey's Mouse Tracks was a television series on the Disney Channel which featured Disney cartoons and animated short films, dating from before the advent of Disney Channel. A similar show was Donald's Quack Attack. The show premiered in 1992 and was made to replace Good Morning, Mickey!...
  
  , Episode 7 (TV)
• c. 1992 – Donald's Quack Attack
  Donald's Quack Attack
  Donald's Quack Attack was a television series on the Disney Channel which featured Disney animated short films, especially those with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy...
  
  , Episode 30 (TV)
• 24 December 1997 – "Ink & Paint Club", Episode 26 "Classic Donald" (TV)
• 18 May 2004 – "The Chronological Donald Volume One" (DVD)