50 Fun Facts About Donald Duck

In which 1934 Silly Symphony did Donald Duck make his first screen appearance?

The Wise Little Hen introduced Donald in 1934; he and Peter Pig fake bellyaches to dodge the hen's chores and are rewarded at the end with a dose of castor oil.

Disney celebrates Donald's birthday on June 9; what does that date commemorate?

The release of his first cartoon, a 1934 Silly Symphony, gives Disney the June 9 date, even though the 1949 short Donald's Happy Birthday shows the nephews marking the day on March 13.

What is Donald's middle name?

Fauntleroy is revealed as his middle name on the draft notice addressed to Donald Fauntleroy Duck at the start of the 1942 short Donald Gets Drafted.

Who voiced Donald for roughly half a century, from 1934 until his death in 1985?

Clarence Nash, nicknamed 'Ducky', was touring Los Angeles for a dairy as 'Whistling Clarence, the Adohr Bird Man' when he called in at Disney's studio and was invited to audition.

According to legend, Donald's voice actor originally developed the sound as an impression of what animal?

A nervous baby goat was the voice the actor had done since boyhood, reciting 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' in it; at his Disney audition, the story goes, the casting director buzzed Walt to say he had found their duck.

Which Disney animator, mentored by the original voice, took over Donald's voice in 1985?

Tony Anselmo asked his predecessor how the quack was made out of plain curiosity, practised in the car and the shower until it clicked, and was then tutored in earnest as heir to the role.

What does Donald typically wear?

A sailor shirt and cap have been his costume since 1934, yet when he was called up in a 1942 cartoon the sailor-suited duck was drafted into the Army.

In which 1934 Mickey Mouse cartoon did Donald's famous temper first emerge?

Orphans' Benefit, released in August 1934, first showed Donald's temper as he tries to recite poetry and is heckled by the orphans; it was remade in colour in 1941.

Which cartoon, billed as a Mickey Mouse short though Mickey never appears, cast Donald as a guitar-strumming suitor?

Don Donald (1937) sends him courting the fiery Donna Duck, a forerunner of Daisy, on a burro; he trades the animal for a flashy car to impress her, and she walks out when it breaks down.

In which 1940 short does Donald go courting Daisy, her first appearance under that name?

Mr. Duck Steps Out has the nephews follow him to her house and cut in on the jitterbug; they finally flip a kernel of popping corn into his mouth, and it sends him dancing wildly round the room.

Which of Donald's nephews wears green?

Louie wears green, Huey red and Dewey blue, a code settled only in the 1980s; before that, the triplets' colours were swapped at will.

In the comics, why were the nephews originally sent to stay with Donald?

Their prank put their father in hospital: they had set firecrackers under his chair, and their mother asked Donald to take them 'temporarily'; the visit never ended.

What is the name of the nephews' mother, Donald's twin sister?

Della was for decades little more than the signature on the letter that sent her sons to Donald, until the 2017 DuckTales reboot made her a daredevil pilot stranded on the Moon.

The nephews belong to which scouting organisation in the comics?

The Junior Woodchucks, created in 1951, are a send-up of the Boy Scouts, awarding buckets of badges and ever grander ranks; their Guidebook somehow holds the answer to almost any question.

Which cartoonist created Scrooge McDuck and the city of Duckburg?

Carl Barks created Scrooge in 1947 and drew Duck comics until 1966; because Disney's comics ran unsigned, readers who spotted his style knew him only as 'the Good Duck Artist'.

Scrooge McDuck, named after Dickens's miser, first appeared in which 1947 comic story?

Christmas on Bear Mountain has a bored, bearded Scrooge invite Donald and the nephews to his mountain cabin and plan to test their courage by dressing up as a bear, only for real bears to wander in first.

How is Scrooge McDuck related to Donald?

Uncle on his mother's side: Scrooge's sister Hortense McDuck married Quackmore Duck, and in Don Rosa's stories both have ferocious tempers, which is where Donald gets his.

Donald's battered little car in the comics is known as the 313 after what?

Its licence plate number is 313; the red roadster, a 1934 Belchfire Runabout that Donald is said to have built from spare parts, breaks down so often that its repairs became a running gag.

Which Duckburg inventor is assisted by Little Helper, a tiny robot with a lightbulb for a head?

Gyro Gearloose, a chicken who joined the comics in 1952, turns out brilliant inventions that don't always work as intended; Helper arrived four years later and helps clean up after them.

Which Donald Duck cartoon won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film?

Der Fuehrer's Face, in which Donald dreams he is toiling in a Nazi munitions factory, won the Oscar in 1943; Spike Jones's recording of its theme was a hit before the film opened.

In a 1943 wartime cartoon, Donald wakes from a nightmare of Nazi factory work and hugs a miniature of what?

The Statue of Liberty: waking in star-spangled pyjamas, he sees a raised arm in shadow, starts to salute it, then finds it is his own little statue and hugs it, glad to be an American.

A B-25 bomber bearing Donald's face flew in which famous 1942 mission?

The Doolittle Raid of April 1942 included the 'Ruptured Duck', a B-25 whose nose art showed Donald above crossed crutches; sixteen bombers took off from USS Hornet to strike Tokyo.

With what rank did the U.S. Army 'retire' Donald from active duty during his 50th birthday celebrations?

Buck Sergeant was the rank pinned on him at a 1984 parade in Torrance, California: drafted in a 1942 cartoon and never shown leaving the service, he had notionally been on active duty ever since.

In The Three Caballeros, Donald teams up with a Brazilian parrot and a rooster from which country?

Mexico is home to the pistol-toting rooster Panchito Pistoles, who joins Donald and the Brazilian parrot José Carioca; the film premiered in Mexico City in December 1944 under the Good Neighbor policy.

What links the segments of The Three Caballeros together?

Donald opening birthday gifts from his Latin American friends frames the film: one parcel holds a film projector, another a book on Bahia that he and José shrink to step inside, where Aurora Miranda dances with him.

In the original DuckTales, why does Donald leave the nephews with Scrooge?

He joins the Navy in the 1987 pilot, handing the boys to an uncle who is reluctant to take them in; with their guardian away at sea, Donald has only a small part in the series built around his own family.

Which crash-prone pilot was created for the original DuckTales to fly Scrooge on his adventures?

Launchpad McQuack was invented for the 1987 series, walking away unhurt from wreck after wreck, and went on in 1991 to be the sidekick in Darkwing Duck.

In the 2017 DuckTales reboot, which actor voiced Scrooge McDuck?

David Tennant, the Scottish Doctor Who star, inherited the role after Alan Young, who had voiced Scrooge ever since a 1974 record of A Christmas Carol, died in 2016.

In Donald's own 1996 series Quack Pack, what did he wear instead of his usual outfit?

A Hawaiian shirt became Donald's everyday outfit in Quack Pack, which recast him as a cameraman for a TV news show and aged the nephews into teenagers.

In Fantasia 2000, Donald stars in a segment based on which Bible story?

Noah's Ark is the setting of the Pomp and Circumstance segment, in which Donald herds the animals aboard as Noah's assistant and spends the flood believing Daisy was left behind.

In the Kingdom Hearts video games, Donald and Goofy travel with which protagonist?

Sora is the boy the Keyblade chooses; Donald and Goofy, sent out by their missing King Mickey to find its wielder, meet him and invite him to travel with them from one Disney world to the next.

The 1959 film Donald in Mathmagic Land was nominated for an Oscar in which category?

Best Documentary (Short Subject) was its category at the 1960 Oscars; Disney then made the featurette available to schools, where its tour of Pythagoras and the golden rectangle was screened for years.

In the 1942 film Saludos Amigos, Donald plays a tourist visiting which South American lake?

Lake Titicaca opens the film: Donald sightsees among the lakeside people, tries his luck with a boat, and then heads into the mountains on an obstinate llama that gets the better of him.

In which country is watching a Donald Duck special on Christmas Eve afternoon a national television ritual?

Sweden's public broadcaster first aired Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul around 1960 and it became a fixture, drawing some 40 percent of the country; a 1970s plan to drop it was abandoned after a public outcry.

A 1970s Helsinki budget cut grew into a worldwide myth that Finland had banned Donald for what?

Not wearing trousers was the legend's charge; in fact the city's youth board had only voted to stop buying Aku Ankka comics for its youth centres, and the saving was retold abroad as a morals ban.

Which American university based its duck mascot on Donald under a handshake deal with Walt Disney?

University of Oregon athletic director Leo Harris shook on it with Walt in 1947; when Disney's lawyers later found no contract, a photo of Walt in an Oregon jacket bearing the duck was the proof.

How does Donald rank among the studio's cast for number of film appearances?

First of all Disney characters: during the 1940s his cartoons overtook Mickey Mouse's in the number reaching cinemas, and his own series kept running until 1961.

Who tormented Donald through a long run of cartoons that began with a quarrel over a log?

Chip 'n' Dale first appeared in 1943 pestering Pluto; set against Donald in 1947, when he chopped up their home for firewood, they earned an Oscar nomination and years of rematches.

What are the names of Daisy Duck's three nieces in the comics?

April, May and June arrived in the comics in 1953 as mirror images of Donald's three nephews; unlike the boys, they never appeared in the classic cartoons.

Which Duckburg villain wants Scrooge's Number One Dime, rather than his fortune, to melt it down?

Magica De Spell, a sorceress from the slopes of Vesuvius, believes the first coin earned by the world's richest duck can be melted into an amulet with the Midas touch; she made her debut in 1961.

Which voice actor, also Dot Warner in Animaniacs, became Daisy Duck's regular voice in 1999?

Tress MacNeille took over full-time during Mickey Mouse Works; back in her 1940 debut, Daisy had quacked just like Donald, performed by Donald's own voice actor.

What breed is Bolivar, Donald's huge, placid dog in the comics?

St. Bernard: Bolivar began on screen in 1936 as the Alpine rescue dog who saves a frozen Pluto and then gets drunk with him on his own brandy keg, and was adopted as Donald's pet in 1938.

In the 2001–03 series set at Mickey's nightclub, what did Donald want to rename the venue?

House of Duck is the name he gives the club when Mickey leaves him in charge for an evening; the guests soon grow restless, and he is reduced to imitating Mickey's famous roles to hold them.

In the short Sea Scouts, what does Donald finally defeat with a single well-placed punch?

A shark chases Donald round the bay in this 1939 short without rousing him to fight; only when it rams him into his boat and crushes his admiral's hat does he charge back, furious, and floor it with one punch.

In a 1935 cartoon, Donald keeps hijacking Mickey's William Tell Overture by piping which tune on a flute?

Turkey in the Straw keeps coming back however many flutes Mickey snaps in two, until the whole band is playing it by mistake; a tornado then carries the concert off, and Donald pipes it once more at the end.

In Italian comics Donald has a masked superhero identity, known in English by what name?

The Duck Avenger began in Italy in 1969 as a night-time disguise Donald used to take secret revenge on the relatives who pushed him around; only later did he turn to fighting crime.

A doubted origin story has Walt Disney inspired by which cricketer being 'out for a duck'?

Don Bradman, who averaged 99.94 in Tests, was out for nothing in New York on a tour of North America, and the yarn has Walt Disney taking the name from it; historians doubt the story.

By what name is Donald Duck known in Italy?

Paperino, in full Paolino Paperino, was sent off on a serial adventure to Mars by the Italian artist Federico Pedrocchi in 1937, five years before American comic books gave Donald long adventures of his own.

Which eccentric professor made his debut in 1961 as host of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color?

Ludwig Von Drake, Donald's uncle, was invented to explain colour itself on the first episode, which made him the first Disney character created specifically for television.

What did translator Erika Fuchs famously weave into the dialogue of Germany's Donald Duck comics?

Quotations from classic literature: Fuchs, an art historian who edited Micky Maus from 1951, had her ducks echo Schiller and other classics, and her clipped verb sounds such as 'grübel' and 'zitter' are now nicknamed the Erikativ.