Donald Duck

"But like every family, we have a trouble child: Donald Duck."

- Walt Disney

Donald Duck (full name first revealed as Donald Fauntleroy Duck in Donald Gets Drafted) is a Disney character from The Walt Disney Company created by Walt Disney. Donald is a short-tempered, impatient, angry, white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bow tie, but no trousers.

Donald's voice, one of the most identifiable voices in all of animation, was performed by voice actor Clarence "Ducky" Nash up to his death in 1985. It was largely this semi-intelligible speech, that would cement Donald's image into audiences' minds and help fuel both Donald's and Nash's rise to stardom. Since 1985, Donald has been voiced by Tony Anselmo, who was trained by Nash for the role.

Personality
Donald's dominant personality trait is his short temper and, in contrast, his positive look on life. Many Donald shorts start with Donald in a happy mood, without a care in the world, until something comes and spoils his day. His anger is a great cause of suffering in the duck's life, and he has on multiple occasions got in over his head and lost competitions because of it. There are times when he fights to keep his temper, and he has succeeded a few times, but he always returns to his well known, aggressive self at the end of the day.

Donald's aggressive nature is a double-edged sword however, and while it at times is a hindrance and even a handicap for him, it has also helped him in times of need. When faced against a threat of some kind, Donald may get frightened and even intimidated (mostly by Pete), but rather than getting scared, he gets mad and has taken up fights with ghosts, sharks, mountain goats and even the forces of nature. And, more often than not, Donald has come out on top.

Donald can at times be a bit of a bully and a tease, especially against his nephews and Chip 'n Dale. As animator Fred Spencer once wrote: The Duck gets a big kick out of imposing on other people or annoying them, but he immediately loses his temper when the tables are turned. In other words, he can dish it out, but he can't take it.However, there is seldom any malice in Donald's pranks. He is never out to hurt anyone, and if he ever goes too far in his pranks he is always very regretful. In Truant Officer Donald, for example, when he is tricked into believing he accidentally killed Huey, Dewey and Louie he shows great remorse, blaming himself and willingly takes a kick handed out by one of the “angel” nephews. That is, of course, until he realizes he has been played a sap and directly loses his temper.

Donald has also been shown to be a bit of a show-off. He likes to brag, especially when he is very skilled at something. This has a tendency to get him into trouble, however, as he also tends to get in over his head.

Still, Donald has proven that he is a Jack of all Trades and are, among other things, a good fisher and hockey player.

Among his personality traits is his stubbornness and commitment. Even though Donald at times can be lazy, and he has stated many times that his favorite place is in the hammock, once he has committed to something he goes in for it 100%, sometimes going to extreme measures to reach his goal.

Donald in animation
According to the cartoon Donald Gets Drafted (1942), Donald's full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck (his middle name appears to be a reference to his sailor hat, which was a common accessory for "Little Lord Fauntleroy" suits). The Quack Pack episode "All Ducks on Deck" and Disney's website also stated his full name as Donald Fauntleroy Duck. Donald's birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film was released, but in The Three Caballeros, his birthday is given as simply "Friday the 13th." In Donald's Happy Birthday (short) it has his birthday as March 13.

Although usually easygoing, Donald's most famous trait is his short and often explosive temper. He is also sometimes portrayed as more crafty and cynical than other characters such as Goofy or Mickey.

Donald's famous voice, one of the most identifiable voices in all of animation, was until 1985 performed by voice actor Clarence Nash, since Donald Duck's debut in the Wise Little Hen.. It was largely this semi-intelligible speech that would cement Donald's image into audiences' minds and help fuel both Donald's and Nash's rise to stardom.

Early appearances
According to Leonard Maltin in his introduction to The Chronological Donald - Volume 1, Donald was created by Walt Disney when he heard Clarence Nash doing his "duck" voice while reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Mickey Mouse had lost some of his edge since becoming a role model for children and Disney wanted a character that could portray some of the more negative character traits he could no longer bestow on Mickey.

Donald first appeared in the Silly Symphonies cartoon The Wise Little Hen on June 9, 1934, though he is mentioned in a 1931 Disney storybook. Donald's appearance in the cartoon, as created by animator Dick Lundy, is similar to his modern look — the feather and beak colors are the same, as is the blue sailor shirt and hat — but his features are more elongated, his body plumper, and his feet bigger. Donald's personality is not develop ed either; in the short, he only fills the role of the unhelpful friend from the original story.

Bert Gillett, director of The Wise Little Hen, brought Donald back in his Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Orphan's Benefit on August 11, 1934. Donald is one of a number of characters who are giving performances in a benefit for Mickey's Orphans. Donald's act is to recite the poems Mary Had a Little Lamb and Little Boy Blue, but every time he tries, the mischievous orphans eat his specially made pie, leading the duck to fly into a squawking fit of anger. This explosive personality would remain with Donald for decades to come.

Donald continued to be a hit with audiences. The character began appearing in most Mickey Mouse cartoons as a regular member of the ensemble with Mickey, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto. Cartoons from this period, such as the 1935 cartoon The Band Concert — in which Donald repeatedly disrupts the Mickey Mouse Orchestra's rendition of The William Tell Overture by playing Turkey in the Straw — are regularly hailed by critics as exemplary films and classics of animation. Animator Ben Sharpsteen also minted the classic Mickey, Donald, and Goofy comedy in 1935, with the cartoon Mickey's Service Station.

Donald was redesigned in 1936 to be a bit fuller, rounder, and cuter. He also began starring in solo cartoons, the first of which was the January 9, 1937 Ben Sharpsteen cartoon, Don Donald. This short also introduced Donald's long-time love interest, Daisy Duck (here called "Donna Duck"). Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey and Louie, would make their first animated appearance a year later in the April 15, 1938 film, Donald's Nephews, directed by Jack King (they had been earlier introduced in the Donald Duck comic strip).

Later animated films


Donald appears in the packaging films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. In the films, Donald gets a chance to travel the world and is mashed up with new Disney characters, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles.

Mickey's Christmas Carol
Donald plays Ebenezer Scrooge's nephew Fred in Disney's 1983 featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
He also made an appearance at the Ink and Paint Club competing against Daffy Duck in ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit. ''He also appears in the end of the movie when the toon characters look at the beaten Judge Doom.

The Prince and the Pauper
He appears as the The Prince's servant in The Prince and the Pauper. Donald maintains his hot temper and is not entirely loyal but once he found out Pete had an evil mission to accomplish, Donald was ready to battle. After the battle Donald became not only a servant but a close friend as well.

A Goofy Movie
He made a silent cameo appearance with Mickey in A Goofy Movie during the song ''On the Open Road. ''

Mickey's Once and Twice Upon a Christmas
Donald appears in the traditional animated Christmas film and it's computer animated sequel. In the first film Donald appears in the first story called Donald Duck: Stuck on Christmas where Huey, Dewey and Louie wish it was Christmas everyday. Although the wish comes true Donald is does not notice. Donald later appears at the end where he joins Mickey and Friends in a Christmas carol. In the sequel, Donald appears in the second story where Huey, Dewey and Louie realize they need to put their names on Santa's List. In the end of the segment Donald's only gift was The Big Book of Manners. Donald later appears in his own segment where he must learn to control his temper.

Fantasia 2000
Donald is the assistant to Noah and boyfriend of Daisy Duck. A storm is near and Donald must round up all the animals and humans onto the Ark. During checking, Donald realizes Daisy is not on board bu she heads towards the boat and Donald doesn't see her. Daisy looks out the window and sees Donald outside when the wave approaches. She covers her eyes and misses Donald jumping onto the ark and they both believe each other are dead.

As the days past, Donald grown a hatred towards love becoming jealous of two doves flirting. Eventually they reach the new land and as Donald sweeps the ark, he finds Daisy's locket in the dust. They both reach for it at the same time reuniting and proclaiming their love.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers
Donald is a janitor in Paris, France. Like Mickey and Goofy, he dreams of becoming a musketeer after being rescued by three as a child. The only thing standing in Donald's way is the fact that he's a complete coward. Pete, the leader of the musketeers plots to take over France and after Princess Minnie demands body guards he use Donald, Mickey and Goofy believing they'll do a terrible job. Donald meets the princess and develops a crush on her assistant Daisy. After proving themselves worthy by defeating the Beagle Boys, Donald is kidnapped in the middle of the night by the Beagle Boys and nearly killed by Pete. He escaped and rushed to Mickey to warn him. Goofy has already been captured and Donald quits. Goofy returns after being saved by Clarabelle Cow and gives Donald enough courage to save Mickey who has been kidnapped by Pete. During their rescue to save Mickey, Minnie and Daisy are kidnapped and the rush to the Opera to save. They save the day, become royal musketeers and Donald wins the heart of Daisy.

DuckTales
Donald featured in a rather small part in the television animated series DuckTales. There, Donald joins the Navy, and leaves his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie with their Uncle Scrooge, who then has to take care of them. Donald appears in two parts of the series premiere, "Treasure of the Golden Suns", as well as the season 1 episodes "Sphinx for the Memories", "Home Sweet Homer", "A Whale of a Bad Time", "Spies in Their Eyes", "All Ducks on Deck", and "Till Nephews Do Us Part".

Bonkers
After DuckTales, Donald made a notable cameo appearance in the first episode of Bonkers, in which he is taking a walk through the park before getting captured by a mugger. Bonkers D. Bobcat happens upon Donald and, unaware that the duck is being mugged at the moment, asks for a guest part in his next picture before eventually coming to his rescue when Lucky Piquel shows up to nab the mugger.

Quack Pack
Three years later, Donald starred in his own Disney Afternoon television show Quack Pack. This series featured a modernized Duck family. Donald was no longer wearing his sailor suit and hat, but a Hawaiian shirt (which he would wear again as Maui Mallard in the game Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow). Huey, Dewey and Louie are teenagers, with distinct clothing, voices and personalities. Daisy Duck has lost her pink dress and bow and has a new hairdo. Oddly enough, no other family members - besides Ludwig Von Drake - appear in Quack Pack and all other Duckburg citizens are humans, not ducks.

Mickey Mouse Works
Donald next played an important role in Mickey Mouse Works. In the Mouse Works shorts, his role was more or less the same as in the classic shorts. In these shorts, though, he garnered a new adversary in the form of a baby turtle named Shelby, whom he would often have to look after and have a hard time doing so

House of Mouse
Donald appears once again in the series House of Mouse as a greeter and co-owner. In the series Donald secretly despises Mickey's role as leader and wishes to some day be in charge. Donald decides to. Donald went humbug and grouchy but soon changed and later put the wishing star on the top of Christmas tree in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and he appears to tries to scare everybody in the club while the Disney Villains take over the House of Mouse in Mickey's House of Villains. A recurring gag in the series is other characters referring to Donald as "Dual" sometimes as mistake and other times to annoy him.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Donald Duck reappears as a main character in the computer animated series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He joins in nearly every adventure Mickey and Friends set off on and helps the gang solve many puzzling problems. But sometimes he lose his temper so mix-up the problems. He is usually a unwitting target for many of the gags on the show and tends to say "Why does always this happen to me?" whenever something bad happens to him.

Donald in comics
While Donald's cartoons enjoy vast popularity in the United States and around the world, his weekly and monthly comic books enjoy their greatest popularity in many European countries, most in Norway and Finland, but many other countries are right behind - most notably Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Developments under Barks
In 1942, Western Publishing began creating original comic-book stories about Donald and other Disney characters. Bob Karp worked on the earliest of these, a story called Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold. The new publisher meant new illustrators, in this case, Carl Barks and Jack Hannah. Barks would later repeat the treasure-hunting theme in many more stories.

Barks soon took over the major development of the comic-book version of the duck as both writer and illustrator. Under his pen, the comic version of Donald diverged even further from his animated counterpart, becoming more adventurous, less temperamental, and more eloquent. Pete was the only other major character from the Mickey Mouse comic strip to feature in Barks' new Donald Duck universe.

Barks placed Donald in the city of Duckburg, which Barks populated with a host of supporting players, including Gladstone Gander (in 1948), Gyro Gearloose (in 1952), Uncle Scrooge McDuck (1947), Magica de Spell (1961), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), The Beagle Boys (1951), April, May and June (1953), Neighbor Jones (1944) and John D. Rockerduck (1961). Many of Taliaferro's characters made the move to Barks' world as well, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Barks placed Donald in both domestic and adventure scenarios, and Uncle Scrooge became one of his favorite characters to pair up with Donald. Scrooge's popularity grew, and by 1952, the character had a comic book of his own. At this point, Barks concentrated his major efforts on the Scrooge stories, and Donald's appearances became more focused on comedy or he was recast as Scrooge's reluctant helper, following his rich uncle around the globe.

Disney Parks


Donald is a extremely common character in the Disney Parks and is in almost every Disney show and in every Disney parade. He is the most common character second only to Mickey Mouse. Donald makes a cameo appearance in Hong Kong Disneyland's It's A Small World and in the show Fantasmic!

Mickey's PhilharMagic
In Mickey's Philharmagic, Donald is the main character and go through some of Disney's biggest musical scenes in order to find Mickey's sorcerer hat.

Dream Along With Mickey
In the live stage show in the Magic Kingdom Park, Donald along with Mickey and friends celebrate the magic of dreams. Although Donald attends he does not believe in dreams. Once Maleficent along with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee crash the party Donald with the help of Mickey use the power of dreams to defeat the three villains. Donald believes again and peace is restored in Magic Kingdom.

One Man's Dream II: The Magic Lives On
In Tokyo DisneySea, Donald is in love with Hollywood starlet Daisy Duck. He thinks in order to win her heart, he must become an actor. He tries but the cast and crew won't stop goofing off. He eventually gives up unitl Daisy informs him she likes the way he is which pleases Donald.

Mickey Mouse
Through out his career, Donald has shown that he's jealous of Mickey and wants his job as Disney's greatest star. In the early Disney shorts, Mickey and Donald were partners, but by the time The Mickey Mouse Club aired on television, it was shown that Donald always wanted the spotlight. One animated short that rivaled the famous Mickey Mouse song was showing Huey, Dewey, and Louie as Boy Scouts and Donald as their Scoutmaster at a cliff near a remote forest and Donald leads them in a song mirroring the Mouseketeers theme "D-O-N-A-L-D D-U-C-K-! Donald Duck!" The rivalry would cause Donald some problems, in the 1988 TV special Mickey's 60th Birthday, where Mickey is cursed by a sorcerer to become unnoticed, the world believes Mickey to be kidnapped. Donald Duck is then arrested for the kidnapping of Mickey, as he is considered to be the chief suspect, due to their rivalry. However, Donald did later get the charges dismissed, due to lack of evidence.

Walt Disney, in his Wonderful World of Color, would sometimes make reference to the rivalry. Walt, one time, had presented Donald with a gigantic birthday cake and commented how it was "even bigger than Mickey's", which pleased Donald. The clip was rebroadcast in November 1984 during a TV special honoring Donald's 50th birthday.

The rivalry between Mickey and Donald has also been featured in House of Mouse. It was shown that Donald wanted to be the Club's founder and wanted to change the club's name from House of Mouse to House of Duck. However, in later episodes, Donald accepted that Mickey was the founder and worked with Mickey as a partner to make the club profitable.

Mickey Mouse has failed to realize how much Donald does not like him at times, and always counts him as one of his best friends. Despite the rivalry, Donald seems to be an honest friend of Mickey's, and will be faithful to him in tough situations, such as working with Mickey and Goofy as a team akin to the Three Musketeers. In the Kingdom Hearts games, Donald is quite loyal to Mickey, even briefly leaving Sora to follow King Mickey's orders.

Beyond Disney
Donald Duck is the only popular film and television cartoon character to appear as a mascot for the sports team of a major American university, namely, the Oregon Ducks at the University of Oregon.

Donald's name and image are also used on numerous commercial products, one example being Donald Duck Orange Juice, introduced by Citrus World in 1940.

In 2004, Donald received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining other characters such as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, The Simpsons, Winnie the Pooh, Kermit the Frog, Big Bird, Godzilla and Snow White.

Trivia

 * In the Disney Studios, Donald is often referred to as The Duck.
 * Donald often calls himself Walt's favorite.
 * The duck skeleton with the sailor suit and the hat look like Donald Duck in cameo of the James and the Giant Peach.
 * Although Donald sometimes dislikes Mickey he always considers him his very best friend, alongside Goofy.
 * Donald's original name was Donald Olivar Duckling.