''Tea for Two Hundred'' is a 1948 American animated

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

directed by Jack Hannah. Part of the ''Donald Duck'' film series, the film was produced in

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

on December 24, 1948. The cartoon stars a picnicking

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

who faces an army of African ants trying to steal his food. Clarence Nash stars as Donald while the ants were voiced by Pinto Colvig. The film includes original music by Oliver Wallace. ''Tea for Two Hundred'' was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

, but lost to '' The Little Orphan'', an MGM ''Tom and Jerry'' film which shared one of 7 Oscars for the ''Tom and Jerry'' series. The title of the film is a reference to the song " Tea for Two". Animation from the short was later used in '' Uncle Donald's Ants'' (1952).

Plot

While camping in the mountains, Donald Duck sits down to eat a picnic. Soon a line of ants emerges from a nearby bush and marches past Donald, each carrying a grain harvested in the wild. Donald takes interest in the straggler, a small ant who seems to be carrying a bean several times his body weight. Donald begins to test the ant to see how much he can take. The ant, seemingly unaware of Donald, continues to march. Finally Donald balances several food items from his picnic on the ant, which the ant carries. When Donald makes the ant walk a tight rope, Donald plucks the string causing the ant to fall into a large custard pie. The ant is angry with Donald at first, but when he tastes the pie and sees all of Donald's food, he becomes elated. He enthusiastically runs back to the ant colony and tells the ants about all of Donald's food. The ants call the colony together using mushrooms as hand drums. Later, while Donald is sleeping against a tree next to his picnic basket, a small team of ants sneak up on him. They open the basket, but Donald, still asleep, instinctively puts his hand over the basket to keep the ants out. Then all of the ants fill in around Donald and pick him up. They carry him over to a cliff where they throw him off into the water and he squawks angrily and races back up the cliff just in time to see the ants are carrying food items out of his basket into their hole and tries to keep them from doing so. The ants huddle and make a plan then faces Donald, who gets ready, exclaiming "Oh, yeah?" as he does. The ants tackle Donald as if they play football. As he tries to grab his food directly from their hole, the ants pull off Donald's shirt as well. He then puts on a barrel to protect his modesty, and uses dynamite to try destroying the anthill. However, the explosion of the dynamite causes a large part of the cliff to fall away and Donald falls into the water a second time, screaming loudly as he does. The ant colony congregates around a large cupcake. The little ant whom Donald had been harassing runs to the top and eats the cherry.

Voice cast

* Donald Duck: Clarence Nash * Ants: Pinto Colvig

Releases

* 1948 - original theatrical release * 1954 - ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

'', episode #1.4: "The Donald Duck Story" (TV) * 1972 - '' The Mouse Factory'', episode #1: "Vacations" (TV) * - '' Good Morning, Mickey!'', episode #54 (TV) * - '' Mickey's Mouse Tracks'', episode #18 (TV)

Home media

The short was released on December 11, 2007, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume Three: 1947-1950''. Additional releases include: * 1985 - '' Cartoon Classics - Limited Gold Edition II: Donald's Bee Pictures'' (VHS) * 1992 - '' Cartoon Classics - Special Edition: Happy Summer Days'' (VHS)

Notes

{{Donald Duck in animation, state=collapsed 1948 films Donald Duck short films 1940s Disney animated short films Films directed by Jack Hannah Films produced by Walt Disney Animated films about ants Films scored by Oliver Wallace Picnic films 1948 animated short films