Million Dollar Duck

Starring:Dean Jones, Sandy Duncan, Joe Flynn, Tony Roberts, James Gregory, Lee Montgomery, Jack Kruschen, Virginia Vincent, Jack Bender, Billy Bowles, Sammy Jackson, Arthur Hunnicutt, Frank Wilcox, Bryan O'Byrne, Ted Jordan, Bing Russell, Peter Renaday, Frank Cady, George O'Hanlon, Jonathan Daly
Director: Vincent McEveety
Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Disney's classic 1971 comedy about the goose that lay the golden eggs returns in digital format, retaining its old-style family-friendliness, slapstick silliness, and good-natured predictability. Dean Jones plays professor Albert Dooley, a lab worker down on his luck, who lives in suburbia with his earnest yet scatterbrained wife Katie (played deliciously by Sandy Duncan). When an under-performing lab duck's life is in jeopardy, Dooley rescues him to become a family pet and soon discovers that some earlier exposure to radiation has turned the duck's eggs into gold. The Dooley's newfound wealth brings its share of pandemonium as they try to keep their proverbial "nest egg" under wraps, especially from nosy neighbor Finley Hooper (Joe Flynn), a government Treasury man. Such low-tech fare is not without touches of brilliance: Duncan gets to deliver the best lines and does so with great panache. If Million Dollar Duck falls short in inventiveness, this small serving of comfort food satisfies with ample amounts of warmhearted cheer. (Ages 4 and older) --Lynn Gibson

Description

Bring home surefire Disney fun starring classic comedians Dean Jones, Sandy Duncan, and Joe Flynn. Research professor Albert Dooley (Jones) is stuck with past-due bills and one downy, dense lab duck. But an ordinary bird turns extraordinary when he is accidentally zapped with radiation and casually starts laying the proverbial "golden eggs." Cashing in on newfound riches becomes a sidesplitting scramble as the secret gets out and friends, neighbors, and government T-men mount an all-out quack attack to capture the rare bird. It's heartwarming hilarity that will keep the whole family in stitches!

Customer Reviews:

Be careful what you wish for..........2005-10-20

This Disney family comedy was released theatrically in 1971, and aired on the "The Wonderful World of Disney" television show in 1974, '79, and '82. Dean Jones and Sandy Duncan (in the dippiest role of her life) are married couple that is having a hard time making it. Their son wants a dog, but they can't afford it. The father is working at a laboratory that uses animals as test subjects for intelligence, and his duck subject is a failure. One day it gets gamma rays by accident and the boss says, "Get rid of that duck". The duck becomes the boys pet, but begins to lay golden eggs. The family wants to take the duck for their own use and gets greedy, upsetting the boy. It turns out the duck will only lay eggs for a certain sound and watching Dean Jones try to attempt this sound is hilarious. The government is trying to track down the source of the eggs that keep showing up around town. But the party is interrupted by a hostile neighbor that works for the IRS, and leads up to a wild car chase by the IRS agents and this leads to tons of slapstick humor.

Family Fun.......2005-09-10

Another fantastic family movie. Great for any age. Very funny and totally free of any shocking scenes. One you can enjoy over and over.

Million Dollar Duck.......2005-05-06

I am delighted to see that two of my favorite Disney films have been released on dvd, "Million Dollar Duck" and "The Barefoot Executive." Descriptions of the plots for these movies are already noted here, but I will say that both these films are very enjoyable family viewing. I can remember going to the theater as a child and watching these films, and I still enjoy them today. Nobody's claiming they're the best films ever, or even the best Disney films ever, just good, fun entertainment in the grand Disney tradition.Some have complained about these films not being released in their original aspect ratio's, or being remastered for dvd. Although I would have preferred them released letterboxed as well, neither film was released in a very wide aspect ratio, so they play fine on tv, and as for Disney using the same masters they used for the vhs releases and tv airings, if that's what they did, big deal. Those prints are fine. Sharp, clear pictures, with good color.Sure, it would have been nice to have remastered letterboxed versions on dvd, but be grateful we have them on dvd at all. They've both been a long time coming.

One of Disney studio's all-time worst.......2005-04-04

Well, it looks like Disney is cleaning out the studio vaults with it's DVD release of "Million Dollar Duck", one of it's absolute worst films and a textbook example of everything that was wrong with Disney films during the incredibly lame Ron Miller years. To add insult to injury, they apparently aren't even bothering to release this one in a restored widescreen print; instead, they're dumping in onto the format in the same tired old VHS print that's been available for years. I ask consumers everywhere: why buy something on DVD that isn't any better than what you've already got on VHS? Why waste your money? And why not demand that Disney work a little for your entertainment dollar?

Let's face it, we the consumers are getting ripped off. And while "Million Dollar Duck" may be a lame film that will bore even the youngest of children into wanting to take a nap, it still should be presented in as fine a quality print as possible. So, discriminating DVDers, send Disney studios a message and continue to boycott any DVD that has not been presented in the proper aspect ratio and format. And that goes double for WHV, Paramount, MGM/UA, Universal and Columbia, all of whom are trying to dupe the public by dumping rotten prints of their older titles on DVD with little more than flashy new packaging.

This is getting sooooo frustrating.

By the way, how bad is this film? Let's put it this way, in the '70's, Disney used to re-release its live-action films every couple of years, whether first-run or to add to a current release as the second-half of a double bill. Not "Million Dollar Duck". After it's initial 1971 release, it disappeared for a couple of years before appearing on Disney's "Wonderful World of Disney" as a two-part "movie of the week". So, even kids of the day took a pass on a film that, if anything, looks worse today than it did back then. Especially in its present VHS/DVD print. Ugghh.

Film and DVD: * (out of *****)

Yaay!.......2005-03-13

Wow, I used to think this was the funniest movie when I was a kid! Sandy Duncan and Dean Jones were always great!

Everything from that Eugene character to that farmer who demanded "Hep me get these ducks back in the pen!" LOL! Too funny.

If you're wanting a little 'value added' with Italian and German dubs (ie. learning those langs and want to hear familiar dialog by native speakers), and have a multi region or Region 2 DVD player, search amazon.de for "Die Millionen-Dollar-Ente." You can select whether you want to hear the movie with English, Italian or German speech before you play the movie.

Most people in America don't realize how enriching their DVD experience can be, since the industry only bundles the english track on the discs sold here. You MUST have a "Region Free" or "Region 2" (sold in Europe & UK) to play the German DVD. Thank the movie industry for wanting to control what you watch and how you watch it. (And to think of the hundreds of dollars Americans spend on tape sets to hear dialog by native speakers in another language.)
I rate this one an 8 1/2 of 10 on the "Rewatchability" scale.

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