''Donald's Nephews'' is a 1938 Donald Duck

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which features Donald being visited by his three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. 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 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' '' Donald Duck'' comic strip debut (on October 17, 1937), the animation studio's model sheet and storyline would have been Taliaferro and writer Ted Osborne'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'' reversed this, being a TV adaptation of the comics). Similarly, Barks' Junior Woodchuck

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, '' 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 other's sentences was developed by Carl Barks, the

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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 mar ...

of the film, for whom '' Happy Hooligan'', 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, Thomas Dewey, and Louis Schmitt, a Disney Studio animator.

Plot

Donald receives a postcard from his sister, Dumbella, which says that her three boys, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, 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 up the book in an explosive rage.

Voice cast

* Clarence Nash: 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''. It was released to

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

on August 11, 2023.

References

External links

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