If your childhood consisted heavily of Donald Duck cartoons and Make Way for Ducklings, good luck holding it together through this one. While it’s unlikely that any ad is going to persuade you to spontaneously go to a French theme park if you weren’t already planning a trip, Disneyland Paris just proved it can yank those heartstrings like a master.
In the spot, an adorable duckling finds a Donald Duck comic, and sees in it a new role model. The little bird imitates signature poses, hoping to grow up like their new hero, but when it comes time for the flock to migrate, all that paper is just too heavy to carry along. Through long days and dark nights, the ducks fly onward, until finally, our hero’s eyes widen as they see…well, you can probably guess. Let’s just say our eyes suddenly got as watery as the proverbial duck’s back.
Look, we love this so much we’re not even gonna dock it points for technically misappropriating “The Impossible Dream (The Quest),” originally a song about delusional would-be hero Don Quixote from the musical Man of La Mancha. Unless it’s trying to subtly make the point that a guy in a costume is no more the actual Donald than windmills are actual giants. But that can’t be the case, because Donald is REAL. Real, I tellzya. And I will hear no different after watching that little white fuzzball realize life goals.
Donald Duck does have some things in common with Don Quixote, though—most notably (sort of) a shared first moniker and an exaggerated sense of heroism. So maybe it works after all.
Image: Disneyland Paris
