Spare the Rod 1954

Donald Duck Clarence Nash is out in the yard, finishing up his yard work while his nephews keep slipping away to act out their favorite pretend game, Indians on the warpath. He keeps them moving with his usual strong-arm tactics, pushing them to finish their chores and showing a blunt, budgeted affection underneath the gruff exterior.

Then a tiny figure appears—a self-styled “child psychologist”—and, with the help of the child psychologist Bill Thompson, he convinces Donald to join in the games, suggesting the playful routine could double as a way to coax the nephews into doing their chores.

Complicating matters are the Pygmy Cannibals Pinto Colvig, who have escaped from a circus train and soon spot Donald, thinking he would make a fine duck stew. Donald misreads the situation, treating the cannibals as if they were the nephews playing along, and goes along with the ruse until his real nephews appear and realize that the other three are actual cannibals.

The nephews escape in fear while the cannibals close in on Donald, aiming to cook him. Donald prays for mercy, only to be bitten by one of the cannibals in a grisly moment of attempted taste-testing. Enraged and pushed to the edge, Donald drags the offending cannibal to the woodshed.

The cannibals manage to slip away from Donald’s place, leaving him to confront the mess. Staring at his nephews, he taunts them to chop their wood for a second time, before, feeling ashamed of having been swayed by the child psychologist, he leads the psychologist to the woodshed as well.