Grand Canyonscope is a 1954 animated short film from Disney, directed by Charles Nichols, and starring Donald Duck.
Donald visits the Grand Canyon, but keeps running afoul of the rules of the park ranger (J. Audubon Woodlore), who both run afoul of a mountain lion. The chase that follows results in the utter destruction of the canyon.
Tropes:
- Big "SHUT UP!": As Donald gets into an argument with his echo at Echo Cliff, Ranger Woodlore yells at him, "QUIET!", then tells him, much more calmly, to not yell at Echo Cliff.
- Blinding Camera Flash: Donald asks the ranger to photograph him atop his burro. The flash blinds the burro, leaving him stumbling along the steep Grand Canyon trail.
- Broken Echo: Donald sneezes and the sneeze echoes all over the Grand Canyon... but then one of the echoes comes out as "Gesundheit". Donald then argues with the echo until the ranger yells "QUIET!", and both Donald and the echo shut up.
- Downer Ending: Donald and the Lion both destroy the Grand Canyon by filling it in, and Woodlore forces them to restore the canyon by digging it back to its former glory, even if it takes a long time.
- Foreshadowing: Donald is so impressed by how deep the Grand Canyon is (a mile deep) that he tries to drop a rock to the canyon floor, only for Ranger Woodlore to stop the rock from falling by catching it in a net and chastising Donald for throwing rocks into the canyon, which would soon result in them not having a canyon. By the end of the cartoon, the chaos of the chase results in all the rocks falling down and filling in the canyon.
- Oh, Crap!: Ranger Woodlore initially refuses to believe that he is staring face-to-face with a mountain lion that he had just disturbed from its nap, since the last such lion in the Grand Canyon was during the Civil War. In response, the lion dons a Confederate cap while Woodlore becomes nervous that this might be that last lion and whistles "I Wish I Was In Dixie", which further infuriates the lion and roars at Woodlore, who runs for his life.
- Disaster Dominoes: As the tall rock formations of the canyon fall, one formation smashes into another, and then that one into another, etc., resulting in the destructive fill-in of the canyon.
- Monumental Damage: Donald and the lion single-handedly cause the collapse of the entire Grand Canyon. In the end, they are left to dig it all back up.
- Rain Dance: Donald fools around with a genuine raindancing costume and manages to summon a Personal Rain Cloud before the ranger catches him. Note that when Donald dances a traditional dance, nothing happens. But when he switches over to the Charleston... instant rain!
- Recycled Animation: Shots of the Canyon falling down reuse animation from "The Legend Of Coyote Rock".
- Sarcastic Well Wishing: In the end, as he solemnly but sternly admonishes Donald and the lion for the filling-in of the Grand Canyon, Woodlore begins said admonishment with a sarcastic commendation:Ranger Woodlore: Well, I hope you're satisfied. You two have, in a matter of minutes, messed up what had took Mother Nature millions of years to create. The national park rule book states, and I quote: "When a natural object is marred or defaced, it must be restored to its original state." (holds up some shovels) So... (tosses them the shovels) START DIGGING!
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: After being blinded by the flash of Donald's camera, the burro's pupils shrink into tiny pinholes.
- Widescreen Shot: This was one of a few Disney cartoons shot on the Cinemascope format, which gets Lampshaded on the opening scene when Ranger Woodlore asks the crowd to spread out because "this is Cinemascope." (A "flat" version shot on the traditional Academy aspect ratio was also released for those theaters not equipped for Cinemascope; there the line is changed to "this is a big canyon.")
