Ludwig Von Drake

Professor Ludwig Von Drake is one of Walt Disney's cartoon and comic book characters. He was first introduced as the presenter (and singer of "The Spectrum Song") in the cartoon An Adventure in Color, part of the first episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on NBC. Said to be an uncle of Donald Duck, he was supposedly named after either Ludwig von Mises or Ludwig van Beethoven. The character displayed his "expert" knowledge on a variety of subjects in eighteen episodes of the classic anthology series, as well as on a number of Disneyland Records.

Paul Frees was the original voice of Ludwig von Drake. Frees retired from the role before his death in 1986, and Walker Edmiston took over. Corey Burton currently voices the character.

History
Ludwig von Drake comes from Vienna, Austria. Some creators have presumed that his family is a German branch of the Duck family but that hasn't been included in any major stories. (According to a theory by Don Rosa, the professor married Matilda McDuck, one of Scrooge McDuck's sisters).

Ludwig has a fascination with knowledge. Since his youth he has been trying to obtain as many diplomas, in any science, as possible. He is often shown as having little social competence, however, and is often portrayed as being very forgetful, sometimes even somewhat senile. In the comics Ludwig usually visits with Donald Duck and Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. On occasion, Daisy Duck would coax (or even trick) the professor into giving lectures and tours for her ladies' club. Sometimes Ludwig and Gyro Gearloose have competed as to who is the greater inventor.

Relationship with Donald Duck
Among his many interests is psychology, and he has tried to make a psychological study of his nephew Donald Duck. Ludwig was best fleshed out in this anthology cartoon, where Donald's psychology was examined, as we got to see some of his worst temper tantrums. Ludwig however was well understood by the end of the cartoon. His Germanic ancestry betrayed itself in his language - for example "as we say in the psychiatry" is a very German Anglicanism. In comics translated into German he sometimes speaks with an Austrian accent, like "ein bisserl" instead of "ein bisschen". He also enjoys several off color jokes, for instance "What you have here is a depressed Duck! And there is nothing worse than depressed duck...unless you like depressed duck...but the taste is sometimes...." clearly making a pun off of the dish of pressed duck.\

Role in the Disneyland television series
"And you know something, without light there is no color."

- Ludwig Von Drake

Walt Disney entered into television production as early as 1950. By 1954, he had his own weekly anthology TV series called Disneyland on ABC. In 1961, after a disagreement, Disney changed his loyalties to NBC and added color to the mix and renamed the show The Wonderful World of Color. In order to introduce this new feature, his company also created a brand-new character that is arguably one of Donald Duck’s relatives: the brainy German scientist Ludwig Von Drake. Drake turned out to be a very popular recurring character and appeared many times hosting the weekly show and also appearing in some specials with one nominated for the Academy Award.

Later appearances
Von Drake went on to appear in several Disney animated cartoon series: DuckTales, Raw Toonage, Bonkers, Mickey Mouse Works, Quack Pack, House of Mouse, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and in numerous television specials. In all of these, Von Drake wears a pink shirt, black tie, red vest, and a lab coat. In the 1963 version of Mickey and the Beanstalk (originally as the segment featured on Fun and Fancy Free), it is revealed that Ludwig Von Drake has a Bootle Beetle companion named Herman.

Ludwig Von Drake has also made numerous appearances in Mickey and Friends video games, most notably Mickey to the Rescue and Mickey's Speedway USA.

DuckTales
Von Drake made a guest appearance on DuckTales as Launchpad McQuack's psychiatrist in the episode "The Golden Fleecing".

Bonkers
Von Drake reprised his psychiatrist role in several guest appearances on Bonkers, mostly in the episodes produced by Duane Capizzi and Robert Hathcock.

Quack Pack
In Quack Pack, Von Drake is responsible for giving Huey, Dewey and Louie their superhero abilities as the power of speed, strength and brains.

Mickey Mouse Works
Von Drake stares in his own series of short cartoons called Von Drake's House of Genius which revolves around him and his latest inventions going terribly wrong and always backfiring. He has also made cameo appearances in cartoons centering on Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

House of Mouse
Ludwig is a recurring character in the series as a "nutty professor"-type character. He is sometimes seen as annoying by Mickey and the other employees. In "Ask Von Drake", Mickey tries to prove that Ludwig Von Drake doesn't know everything. At the end, Mickey convinces him that during the headcount of all the Disney characters in the building, he forgot himself. Also, in "House of Genius", Ludwig creates robot duplicates of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto. At the end, when Ludwig brings in a robot duplicate of himself, Mickey tells the robot to send the real Ludwig packing. Von Drake also appears in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
In his latest appearance, Von Drake a recurring character and the creator of the clubhouse. Ludwig often creates new inventions that go wrong accidentally instead of being a fact that he's more wacky than intelligent. Like his previous appearances, many of his inventions cause trouble such as when Donald drunk his potion and transformed into a frog or when magical goo he created multiplied Goofy. Despite this a number of inventions saved the day such as the time the color was being drained from the world and he used a device to get it back. He is the most intelligent of the group and most problem solving are due to his ideas and innovations.

Disney Sing Along Songs
In the Disney's Sing-Along Songs series of videos, Von Drake appeared as the host of six volumes:
 * You Can Fly (February 5, 1988)
 * Fun With Music (along with Professor Owl) (October 12, 1989)
 * Under the Sea (August 14, 1990)
 * I Love to Laugh (a.k.a. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious) (December 28, 1990)
 * 101 Notes of Fun (March 12, 1994)
 * Colors of the Wind (July 21, 1995)

Comics
The Disney studio encouraged the writers of Duck comics to introduce this new character in print, and already in September 1961, Von Drake started appearing in Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp's featured daily strips. However, aside from a solitary cameo appearance in a one page story in Uncle Scrooge #54 (December 1964), the character was not used by leading Disney duck artist Carl Barks.

In 1961, Dell Comics launched a comic book series starring von Drake and illustrated by Tony Strobl, but it only lasted for four issues before being discontinued. The character made subsequent appearances in other comic titles such as Walt Disney's Comics and Stories and in the Donald Duck newspaper strip.

Disney Parks
Ludwig Von Drake makes extremely rare appearances as a walk-around character at the Disney Parks. He usually appears during Donald Duck's birthday bashes and parties. In 2008, Disney Parks released a promo starring Von Drake as he and a narrator explained the Walt Disney World Resort in 3D where you can tour the entire resort through your computer.

As one of the Disney character mascots for the club, Ludwig attended 2011's D23 expo in Anaheim, California. At the event, Ludwig judged the contestants as the challenged their Disney knowledge in the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament 2011.

Disneyland Park
In Disneyland's ToonTown, his laboratory window can be seen on one of the buildings.

World of Color
Ludwig Von Drake appears in the music video style montage featuring himself and Walt Disney as apart of the nighttime spectacular's pre show. During the song Von Drake can be heard and seen singing pieces of his famous Spectrum Song along with the theme of The Wonderful World of Disney television series.

Mickey Mouse Revue
Von Drake made an appearance as an audio animatronic in the former show.

Trivia

 * Von Drake is the first Disney character made specifically for television.
 * Although he is more widely known for being related to Scrooge by marrying Scrooge's sister, In an 1960s comic states that Ludwig is Scrooge's cousin.