The New Neighbor is an animated Donald Duck cartoon, co-starring Pete.
Synopsis[]
Donald has moved into a new neighborhood to live in peace. He smiles to see his new neighbor, Pete, who inadvertently dumps his garbage into his garden, and has his dog Muncey give him a bone and bury it in Donald's garden, much to Donald's dismay. Donald and Pete greet each other until Pete asks to borrow some ice cubes. Donald shows him the refrigerator but Pete cleans it out by taking all his food and leaves while thanking him. Donald gets another visit from Pete's dog sending Donald a note for a favor, enough time for Muncey to borrow Donald's dishes. Donald goes angry until Pete visits again to have him try what looks like porridge. Donald tries it and likes it at first but coughs it out upon realizing it was dog food (Pete has told his dog that he eats it). Pete then tell his dog he is too finicky.
The next day, Donald and the whole neighborhood is working on their gardening. Pete greets Donald again and asks to borrow his spade but instead he takes all of Donald's tools (fork, trowel, sprayer, pruners, clippers). Donald goes mad when his wheelburrow goes empty until a thunderstorm hits. Donald runs in the porch to dry until Pete reminds him that he returned his tools. Donald quickly takes all his gardening tools and goes back in the house while Pete sits reading his newspaper.
The next day, Pete climbs up his tree to give it a trimming until all the branches and leaves from whence it came fall onto Donald's lawn from the wind. Donald gasps seeing this and Pete tells him: "Better rake 'em up quick! They'll ruin your lawn!" and laughs. Now livid and thinking Pete is doing these things on purpose, Donald has had enough. Donald rakes up his lawn very quickly and puts the pile into an incinerator. Donald sees Pete's laundry and laughs devising a plan to get back at him. He starts a fire to burn his leaves and calls for Pete showing him the smoke is after his laundry. Pete grabs a hose to douse it out but only to spray Donald in the face. As Pete laughs at this, Donald grabs the hose and puts it in his shorts followed by poking holes with his pitchfork. Pete walks around looking like a fountain. Donald laughs but gets bashed in the head from a baseball bat by Pete.
The brawl was given attention to the whole neighborhood and the headlines were spreading across the country ("Neighborhood Brawl Grows", "War! Between Neighbors", "Neighbors Erupt! Television Covers Battle"). The whole neighborhood gathers up to watch the fight between Donald and Pete. Pete begins to measure his property line by cutting most of Donald's tree (Pete says "Let's watch that property line, punk!"). Donald then cuts his longjohns as a result which was also above his property line. The battle goes on: Pete flinging apples to Donald, Donald catapulting paint on Pete's face with an axe, Pete dumping garbage on Donald, Donald flinging a trash lid to Pete and breaking his greenhouse, Pete tossing a grass cutter to Donald and damaging his roof, Donald running over Pete with the grass cutter by latter after being on a "see-saw" ladder.
Donald and Pete are aided by the neighbors as they needed to take a time-out drinking water. One neighbor tells Pete "Give him the old spite fence" and tells Donald the same thing. The battle continues as Pete and Donald build a spite fence between their property very high. The neighbors chant out "Higher! Higher! Higher!", until Muncey gets involved by breaking below the fence and digging gardens with the other dogs cheering him on. Because of the fence being broken by Muncey, the spite fence trembles and falls apart; scaring all the neighbors and causing a huge wreck. On the last scene, Pete, all injured and bandaged up reluctantly moves away with his house taken with him. Donald also moves away but happily as he reads his paper. It turned out that no one won the battle; it was a draw.
Characters[]
- Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash)
- Pete (voiced by Billy Bletcher)
- Muncey (voiced by Jimmy MacDonald)
- Roving Reporter (voiced by Bill Walsh)
- Narrator (voiced by Art Gilmore)
Releases[]
Television[]
- Walt Disney Presents, episode #6.26: "The Mad Hermit of Chimney Butte"
- The Magical World of Disney, episode #33.18: "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day"
- The Mouse Factory, episode #1.11: "Homeowners"
- The New Mickey Mouse Club, February 8, 1977
- Walt Disney's Mickey and Donald, episode #39
- Good Morning, Mickey, episode #16
- Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #47
- Donald's Quack Attack, episode #50
- The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.32: "Goin' to the Dogs"
Home video[]
- Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Limited Gold Editions - Donald (VHS)
- Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Four (DVD)
Streaming[]
- Disney+, April 3, 2020
Trivia[]
- At one point, Pete can be heard humming "Lambert the Sheepish Lion".
- The same bird the one that was seen from "Little April Shower" from Bambi, can be briefly spotted where he is doing the same movement from the original movie and the birds color is recolored.
- Pete as a homeowner in a similar manner as Goofy's series as a domestic with a son may have been an inspiration for his usage in Goof Troop.
- This is one of the rare times Donald Duck wore pants.
Gallery[]
