Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959)

Paul Frees: The True Spirit of Adventure, Narrator, Pi creature

Quotes 

• The True Spirit of Adventure : The mind knows no limits when used properly. Think of a pentagram, Donald. Now put another inside, a third, and a fourth. No pencil is sharp enough to draw as fine as you can think, and no paper large enough to hold your imagination. In fact, it is only in the mind that we can conceive infinity.

  [the infinite progression of pentagrams turns into a hallway of doors] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Mathematical thinking has opened the doors to the exciting adventures of science.

  Donald Duck : I'll be doggone! I've never seen so many doors before.

  [Runs back and forth from one door to another] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Each discovery leads to many others. An endless chain.

  Donald Duck : Hey, hey! What's the matter with these doors? Hey! These doors won't open! They're locked!

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Of course they are locked. These are the doors of the future, and the key is...

  Donald Duck : Mathematics!

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Right. Mathematics. The boundless treasures of science are locked behind those doors. In time, they will be opened by the curious and inquiring minds of future generations. In the words of Galileo, "Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe."

• The True Spirit of Adventure : And now you are ready for the most exciting game of all.

  Donald Duck : Oh, boy!

  The True Spirit of Adventure : And the playing field for this game is in the mind.

  [Fade in to Donald's mind, revealing a disorganized room with dusty file cabinets] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Uh-oh. Look at the condition of your mind: antiquated ideas! Bungling! False concepts! Superstitions! Confusion! To think straight, we'll have to clean house.

  [the cabinets close and a broom starts sweeping by itself; Donald's face contorts as dust and moths fly out of his head] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : There, that's more like it. A nice clean sweep.

• Pi creature : Pi is equal to three point one four one five, *nine* two six five three five eight nine seven four seven, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!

• Donald Duck : [calling out]  Hello!

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Hello Donald.

  Donald Duck : That's me! Where am I?

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Mathmagic Land.

  Donald Duck : Mathmagic Land? Never heard of it.

  The True Spirit of Adventure : It's the land of great adventure.

  Donald Duck : Well, who are you?

  The True Spirit of Adventure : I'm a spirit. The True Spirit of Adventure.

  Donald Duck : That's for me! What's next?

  The True Spirit of Adventure : A journey through the wonderlands of Mathematics.

  Donald Duck : Mathematics! That's for eggheads!

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Eggheads? Now hold on Donald. You like music, don't you?

  Donald Duck : Yeah.

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Well, without *eggheads*, there would be no music.

• [as the Pytagoreans play music] 

  Donald Duck : What's going on?

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Shh, it's a jam session.

  Donald Duck : Gimme something with a beat.

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Shh!

  [Donald plays a urn like a bongo drum; the Pytagoreans play along] 

• Donald Duck : [while playing billiards, on hitting the other two balls the right way]  Hey! It works! Oh, boy! It's a cinch.

  [but he now struggles to work out the diamond system] 

  Donald Duck : If I hit it here... 3.5 plus 4 to 4.5 minus 3... divided by that...

  The True Spirit of Adventure : You're making it tough for yourself Donald.

  [He hits it wildly and the cue ball bounces off numerous cushions before hitting the other two balls] 

  Donald Duck : How do you like that for mathematics, Mr. Spirit?

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Wonderful, Donald.

• Donald Duck : [referring to a ballerina being measured with the golden rectangles]  Well, well, well. This is mathematics? I gotta have me some of that!

  [he runs up to the model and breaks the rectangles apart] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Ah-ah-ah, Donald!

  Donald Duck : Let me try it!

  [he picks up a small rectangle] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : No, no, no!

  Donald Duck : Ideal proportions.

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Not quite.

  [Donald tosses away the rectangle and picks up a larger one] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Uh-uh. No, I'm afraid not.

  [Donald tries to fit himself inside the rectangle] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Well, we can't all be mathematically perfect.

  Donald Duck : Oh, yeah?

  [Donald squeezes himself into the rectangle, and he successfully gets inside taking up the shape of a pentagon] 

  Donald Duck : There, I knew I could do it!

  The True Spirit of Adventure : Now that you're all bent up in a pentagon, let's see how nature uses the same mathematical form.

  [various forms in nature with this shape are shown] 

  The True Spirit of Adventure : The petunia, the star jasmine, the starfish, the wax flower. There are literally thousands of members in good standing. In nature, it's the Pythagorean idea of the star. All nature's works have a mathematical logic, and her patterns are limitless.

• The True Spirit of Adventure : The profusion of mathematical forms brings to mind the words of Pythagoras: "Everything is arranged according to number and mathematical shapes." Yes, there's mathematics in music, in art, in just about everything. And as the Greeks have guessed, the rules are always the same.