Tea for Two Hundred

Tea for Two Hundred is a 1948 American animated short film directed by Jack Hannah. Part of the Donald Duck film series, the film was produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on December 24, 1948. The cartoon stars a picnicking Donald Duck 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, 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. But 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.