The Streamlined Donkey

An exuberant little donkey lives for one thing: the joy of racing at top speed. But his mother, beaten down by a lifetime of servitude, glumly cautions her son to go slow and use care, for misfortune may be just around the corner. She shows him a film about being "slow, sad and dumb-witted" ("Why We Behave Like Donkeys, or How to Lose Friends and Inflame People"). When the son tires of his mother's lectures, he leaves from home, dashing off into the desert. Meanwhile, a heinous villain enters the picture, and he brutally uses Mother Donkey as a beast of burden. The little donkey comes back years later to find his mother missing. When the little donkey learns what has happened, he dives into action, using his irrational behavior to find his mother. Then, using his superior speed and strength, he gives the miscreant a sound trouncing, thus liberating his beloved mother from the evil slavedriver's clutches. The short ends happily with mother and son basking in familial bliss, and Mother Donkey reluctantly acknowledging that extreme caution is not always the only path to righteousness.

Donkey, Mother