Million Dollar Duck (DVD), Disney, Comedy

Disney's classic 1971 comedy about the goose that lay the golden eggs returns in digital format, retaining its old-style family-friendliness, slapstick silliness, and good-natured predictability. Dean Jones plays professor Albert Dooley, a lab worker down on his luck, who lives in suburbia with his earnest yet scatterbrained wife Katie (played deliciously by Sandy Duncan). When an under-performing lab duck's life is in jeopardy, Dooley rescues him to become a family pet and soon discovers that some earlier exposure to radiation has turned the duck's eggs into gold. The Dooley's newfound wealth brings its share of pandemonium as they try to keep their proverbial "nest egg" under wraps, especially from nosy neighbor Finley Hooper (Joe Flynn), a government Treasury man. Such low-tech fare is not without touches of brilliance: Duncan gets to deliver the best lines and does so with great panache. If Million Dollar Duck falls short in inventiveness, this small serving of comfort food satisfies with ample amounts of warmhearted cheer. (Ages 4 and older) Lynn Gibson.