Cured Duck is a 1945 Classic Disney Short directed by Jack King that stars Donald Duck and Daisy Duck.
After Donald has an extreme temper tantrum over something as petty as not being able to open a window, Daisy refuses to see him again until he can cure his temper problem. Donald finds an ad for a mail order temper cure by the Tootsberry Inst. of Temperism and quickly sends away. Donald ends up receiving an Insult Machine designed to insult and antagonize him as much as possible. After ten minutes of enduring much jabbing and pain from the machine without losing his temper, Donald is deemed cured. Donald returns to Daisy and proves his anger problems are behind him, only to end up laughing at Daisy's hat which sets her off into her own out of control temper tantrum.
Cured Duck contains examples of the following Tropes:
- Acme Products: Disney related shorts usually feature Ajax products and brands, but Donald goes through an Acme Garage while rushing over to Daisy.
- Agony of the Feet: The Insult Machine gets Donald off guard and then throws a brick onto his foot.
- Amusing Injuries: The Insult Machine repeatedly hurts Donald in funny ways and clearly enjoys every minute of it.
- Bowdlerise: Disney Channel and Toon Disney airings of this short removes Donald smoking a cigar at the beginning.
- Cigar Chomper: Donald begins the cartoon smoking a cigar. Daisy gets sick from the smoke and tries to open a window. Donald gallantly tries to open it for her; the ensuing temper outburst when he can’t starts the plot.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After Donald destroys Daisy’s living room over his failure to open the window, Daisy indignantly walks over to the window and unlocks it, then lifts it open with one finger, leaving Donald embarrassed. Donald does learn his lesson, as he unlocks the window before trying to open it a second time, although it still gives him trouble.
- Cranial Eruption: Donald gets a large bump on his head after the Insult Machine hits him with a mallet.
- Electric Love: Donald and Daisy rub their duck bills together which creates sparks.
- Floorboard Failure: As Donald struggles to open the window, the floorboard beneath him breaks and flips over, slapping him in the butt. This is what sets off his tantrum.
- Hypocritical Humor: Daisy gets mad at Donald for losing his temper and refuses to date him until he cures it. At the end after Donald is cured, Donald laughs at Daisy's strange looking hat which sets her off into her own Unstoppable Rage.
- Impact Silhouette:
- During Donald's temper tantrum, while pulling a phone out of a wall and anything else the cord was attached to, Donald pulls out the phone itself, a lamp, an electric washer and a telephone pole, all while they make perfect impact holes on top of each other.
- While Donald doesn't fully go through a wall, after the Insult Machine sucker punches him into a wall, he does leave a Donald shaped hole through the plaster with the wood paneling visible.
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Daisy's ridiculous looking hat, just don't make fun of it.
- Look Behind You: The first thing the Insult Machine does to antagonize Donald is telling him to please look behind him, only to sucker punch him across the room and into a wall.Insult Machine: Sucker! (laughs)
- Magic Countdown: The Insult Machine tells Donald that he must endure his insults for ten minutes, however since this short is only about seven minutes long, the full time shown onscreen is about a minute and a half.
- Metaphoric Metamorphosis: After ruining Daisy's living room, Donald turns into a heel.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: The last thing the Insult Machine does to Donald is tell him he only has ten seconds left to go while holding up an alarm clock with a lit fuse in it; it promptly explodes in Donald's face, leaving his clothes a little torn up, his feathers a little ruffled and had to be snapped out of a stupor with smelling salts but otherwise no worse for wear.
- Punny Title: The title "Cured Duck" refers to Donald trying to cure his temper, but also refers to curing meat such as duck to preserve them.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: The Insult Machine is designed to laugh very loud and hard at Donald's pain.
- Silent Whisper: The Insult Machine whispers a joke into Donald's ear, but then switches to blowing a very loud horn.
- Standard Snippet: As Donald demolishes Daisy's house, the "Storm" section from "The William Tell Overture" plays in the background.
- Tame His Anger: The whole premise is Donald trying to tame his out of control temper.
- Through a Face Full of Fur: Donald’s feathered head turns red when struggling with the window, and in the ensuing temper tantrum. The same thing happens with Daisy when Donald laughs at her hat.
- Unstoppable Rage:
- Not being able to open a window makes Donald rage hard enough to destroy Daisy's living room and a lot of her possessions.
- At the end of the short, Donald laughing at Daisy's hat sets her off into one of these as well.
