Hypnosis in Media

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Don­ald Duck gets a hyp­no­tism kit in the mail, com­plete with hyp­no-gog­gles and an instruc­tion book that tells him to “Select a Sub­ject of Low Intel­li­gence”, and so he selects his dog Plu­to. Stereo­typ­i­cal hilar­i­ty results.

In ‘The Eyes Have It’, Don­ald Duck uses his new­ly-arrived “E.Z Hyp­no­tism” kit to have some hyp­not­ic fun with Plu­to, mak­ing him believe he’s a mouse, a tur­tle, a chick­en and final­ly a lion. Its all in fun until Plu­to decides to start stalk­ing Don­ald, and Don­ald has lost the hyp­no-gog­gles and Plu­to has chewed the instruc­tion book to pieces! Its a chase to evade the “lion” that only ends when the two are knocked out, except when Don­ald wakes up, he still thinks Plu­to is a lion and flees, leav­ing behind a very bemused Pluto.

Com­men­tary: All stereo­typ­i­cal, very rem­i­nis­cent of the time peri­od (1945). Hyp­no-gog­gles, the notion that sub­jects had to be weak-willed, plus the car­toon stereo­types of phys­i­cal hyp­not­ic trans­for­ma­tions. You do have to admire the snare­drum / dance effect as the sug­ges­tions take hold, though.

The episode is not to be con­fused with the episodes of the same name in “Charmed” and “Lois & Clark”, nei­ther of which, although giv­en their his­to­ry of episodes with hyp­not­ic or mind con­trol ele­ments, involve any such things, alas.

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