Ludwig Von Drake

Ludwig von Drake is one of Walt Disney's cartoon and comic book characters. He was first introduced on, as the presenter (and singer of "The Spectrum Song") in the cartoon An Adventure in Color, part of the first show 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.

Later appearances


Von Drake has appeared on 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.

Von Drake reprised his psychiatrist role in the DuckTales episode "The Golden Fleecing", as well as several appearances on Bonkers. Later animation, such as his recurring appearances on House of Mouse, cast him as more of a "nutty professor"-type character, similar to Gyro Gearloose. 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, 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.

Ludwig Von Drake has also made numerous appearances in Mickey and Friends video games, most notably Mickey to the Rescue and Mickey's Speedway U.S.A. Interestingly, he has yet to make an appearance in the Kingdom Hearts games.

Disney Sing Along Songs
In the Disney's Sing-Along Songs series of videos, he has hosted these 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.

Gallery
Ludwig Von Drake