''Donald's Nephews'' (1938) is a

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

which features Donald being visited by his three

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of the subject's sibling or sibling-in-law. The converse relationship, the relationship from the niece or nephew's perspective, is that of ...

Huey, Dewey, and Louie Huey, Dewey, and Louie are triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and the grand-neph ...

. This cartoon is Huey, Dewey, and Louie's first appearance in animation. Al Taliaferro, the artist for the ''Silly Symphony'' comic strip, proposed the idea for the film, so that the studio would have duck counterparts to

Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pluto, Goofy, and many other characters. The universe originated from the ''Mickey Mouse'' a ...

, the nephews of Mickey Mouse. The Walt Disney Productions Story Dept. on February 5, 1937, sent Taliaferro a memo recognizing him as the source of the idea for the planned short. The memo indicated, “we have decided to actually put a story crew to work on ''Donald’s Nephews''.” With the short already in production more than eight months before the boys' ''

'' comic strip debut (on October 17, 1937), the animation studio's model sheet and storyline would have been Taliaferro and writer

Ted Osborne Theodore H. Osborne (February 6, 1900California Death Index
for Theodore H. Osborne. Retrieved 23 May ...

's frame of reference for the comic strip. Because the strip was an adaptation of the animated shorts, it could utilize ideas from films still in production (

DuckTales ''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four sea ...

reversed this, being a TV adaptation of the comics). Similarly, Barks'

Junior Woodchuck The Junior Woodchucks of the World is a fictional scouting organization appearing in Disney comics and the ''DuckTales'' animated television franchise, most notably in adventures featuring Disney characters Huey, Dewey, and Louie as members. The ...

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

, '' Good Scouts'', was released three months after identical scouting uniforms were introduced by Taliaferro and Bob Karp in the comic strip. The nephews being triplets who finished each others' sentences was developed by

Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McD ...

, the

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

storyboard artist A storyboard artist (sometimes called a story artist or visualizer) creates storyboards for advertising agencies and film productions. Work A storyboard artist visualizes stories and sketches frames of the story. Quick pencil drawings and mark ...

of the film, for whom ''

Happy Hooligan ''Happy Hooligan'' is an American comic strip, the first major strip by the already celebrated cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper. It debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first p ...

'', a comic strip that featured such triplets, was a childhood influence. This characteristic appeared for the first time at the end of the film. The nephews' names were devised by Disney gag man Dana Coty, who took them from

Huey Long Huey Pierce Long Jr. (August 30, 1893September 10, 1935), nicknamed "the Kingfish", was an American politician who served as the 40th governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and as a United States senator from 1932 until his assassination ...

Thomas Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: althou ...

, and Louis Schmitt, a Disney Studio animator.

Plot

Donald receives a postcard from his sister, Dumbella, which says that her three boys,

, are coming to visit him. At first, Donald is excited to see his nephews, but soon the boys start causing trouble. Consulting a book called ''Modern Child Training'', Donald tries to use the suggestions to gain control over his nephews, but things only get worse. In the end, after the boys leave and with his house left almost destroyed, Donald finds out that the sentence "After all, little children are only angels without wings" is "Phooey!", and tears off the book in an explosive rage.

Voice cast

Clarence Nash Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash (December 7, 1904 – February 20, 1985) was an American voice actor. He was best known as the original voice of the Disney cartoon character Donald Duck. He was born in the rural community of Watonga, Oklahoma, and ...

: Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie

Home media

The short was released on May 18, 2004, on '' Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Volume One: 1934-1941''. It was also released on ''Walt Disney's Funny Factory With Huey Dewey & Louie Vol. 4''.

References

External links

* * 1930s color films 1938 films Donald Duck short films 1930s Disney animated short films 1938 animated films Films produced by Walt Disney Films about children Films with screenplays by Carl Barks 1930s American films {{1930s-Disney-animation-film-stub