Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book
character best known for his cartoons from Walt
Disney Productions. Donald is a white
anthropomorphic duck with yellow-orange bill,
legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt
and cap — but no pants (except when he goes
swimming). Some people believe that Finland banned
him because he has no trousers, but this is an
urban legend, explained here.

Donald's famous talk, one of the most
identifiable voices in all of animation was, until
1985, performed by voice actor Clarence "Ducky"
Nash. Nash's story was something of a fairy tale.
He came from the rural community of Watonga,
Oklahoma, and due to his voice acting rose far
above his economic milieu. It was largely this
semi-intelligible speech that would cement
Donald's image into audiences' minds and help
fuel both Donald's and Clarence's rise to
stardom.

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
Fauntleroy suits). To find Donald's name in other
countries, please see Disney characters' names in
various languages.

Like many old cartoon characters, Donald has no
real set personality, but he is known for his bad
temper, which often gets him into situations.
Still, he remains content with life and is happy.

Donald in animation

Early appearances
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 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 developed
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, 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 by Al
Taliaferro, see below).


Wartime Donald
 
Screenshot from "Der Fuehrer's Face"During
World War II, film audiences were looking for
brasher, edgier cartoon characters. It is no
coincidence that the same era that saw the birth
and rise of Bugs Bunny also saw Donald Duck's
popularity soar. By 1949, Donald had surpassed
Mickey Mouse as Disney's most popular character.
Before 1941, Donald Duck had appeared in about 50
cartoons. Between 1941 and 1965, Donald would star
in over 100.

Several of Donald's shorts during the war were
propaganda films, most notably Der Fuehrer's
Face, released on January 1, 1943. In it, Donald
plays a worker in an artillery factory in "Nutzi
Land" (Nazi Germany). He struggles with long
working hours, very small food rations, and having
to salute every time he sees a picture of the
Führer (Adolf Hitler). These pictures appear in
many places, such as on the assembly line in which
he is screwing in the detonators of various sizes
of shells. In the end he becomes little more than
a small part in a faceless machine with no choice
but to obey till he falls, suffering a nervous
breakdown. Then Donald wakes up to find that his
experience was in fact a nightmare. At the end of
the short Donald looks to the Statue of Liberty
and the American flag with renewed appreciation.
Der Fuehrer's Face won the 1943 Academy Award for
Animated Short Film.

Other notable shorts from this period include the
so-called Army shorts, six films that follow
Donald's life in the US Army from his drafting to
his life at boot camp under sergeant Pete to his
first actual mission as a commando having to
sabotage a Japanese air base. Titles in the series
include:

Donald Gets Drafted - (May 1, 1942). 
The Vanishing Private - (September 25, 1942). 
Sky Trooper - (November 6, 1942). 
Fall Out Fall In - (April 23, 1943). 
The Old Army Game - (November 5, 1943). 
Commando Duck - (June 2, 1944). 
Donald Gets Drafted also featured Donald having a
physical examination before joining the army.
According to it Donald has flat feet and is unable
to distinguish between the colors green and blue,
which is a type of color blindness. Also in this
cartoon sergeant Pete comments on Donald's lack
of discipline.


Post-war animation
Many of Donald's films made after the war recast
the duck as the brunt of some other character's
pestering. Donald is repeatedly attacked,
harassed, and ridiculed by his nephews, by the
chipmunks Chip 'n Dale, or by other one-shot
characters such as Humphrey the Bear, Buzz the
Bee, Bootle Beetle, the Aracuan Bird, Louie the
Mountain Lion or a colony of ants. In effect, the
Disney artists had reversed the classic screwball
scenario perfected by Walter Lantz and others in
which the main character is the instigator of
these harassing behaviors, rather than the butt of
them. However, by turning the tables, Donald's
aggressors come off to some as sadistic or cruel,
and some critics have found the films unfunny as a
result.

The post-war Donald also starred in educational
films, such as Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land
(1959), and made cameos in various Disney
projects, such as The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and
the Disneyland television show (1959).

Since Clarence Nash's death in 1985, Donald's
voice has been provided by Tony Anselmo, who was
mentored by Nash.


Donald in comics
Main article: Donald Duck 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. Most of them
are produced and published by the Italian branch
of the Walt Disney Company in Italy and by Egmont
in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

According to the Inducks, which is a database
about Disney comics worldwide, American, Italian
and Danish stories have been reprinted in the
following countries. In most of them, publications
continue: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil,
Bulgaria, China (Hong Kong), Colombia, Czech
Republic, Denmark (Faroe Islands), Egypt, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hungary,
Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia.,
Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United
Kingdom, USA, former Yugoslavia.


Early development
Though a 1931 Disney publication called Mickey
Mouse Annual mentioned a character named Donald
Duck, the character's first appearance in
comic-strip format was a newspaper cartoon that
was based on the short The Wise Little Hen and
published in 1934. For the next few years, Donald
made a few more appearances in Disney-themed
strips, and by 1936, he had grown to be one of the
most popular characters in the Silly Symphonies
comic strip. Ted Osborne was the primary writer of
these strips, with Al Taliaferro as his artist.
Osborne and Taliaferro also introduced several
members of Donald's supporting cast, including
his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

In 1937, an Italian publisher named Mondadori
created the first Donald Duck story intended
specifically for comic books. The eighteen-page
story, written by Federico Pedrocchi, is the first
to feature Donald as an adventurer rather than
simply a comedic character. Fleetway in England
also began publishing comic-book stories featuring
the duck.


Developments under Taliaferro
A daily Donald Duck comic strip drawn by
Taliaferro and written by Bob Karp began running
in the United States on 2 February 1938; the
Sunday strip began the following year. Taliaferro
and Karp created an even larger cast of characters
for Donald's world. He got a new St. Bernard
named Bolivar, and his family grew to include
cousin Gus Goose and grandmother Elvira Coot.
Donald's new rival girlfriends were Donna and
Daisy Duck. Taliaferro also gave Donald his very
own automobile, a 1934 Belchfire Runabout, in a
1938 story.


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, however: 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. Black Pete was
the only other major character from the Mickey
Mouse comic strip to feature prominently 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 (1948), Gyro Gearloose,
and Uncle Scrooge McDuck (1947). 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.


Further developments
Dozens of writers continued to utilize Donald in
their stories around the world. Italian publisher
Mondadori created many of the stories that were
published throughout Europe. They also introduced
numerous new characters who are today well known
in Europe. One example is Donald Duck's
alter-ego, a superhero called Paperinik in
Italian.


Beyond Disney
Donald Duck is the only popular film and
television cartoon character to appear as a mascot
for a major American university, namely, the
University of Oregon. The University of Oregon
mascot is a cartoon-like duck similar to Walt
Disney's Donald Duck character, often referred to
as "the duck", and may also be referred to as
Donald or Puddles. The mascot wears a green and
yellow costume, a green and yellow beanie cap with
the word "Oregon" on it and originated from
cartoons drawn of a white duck known as Puddles
that frequented football games during the early
20th century. The cartoon duck became more similar
to Donald Duck over time, and the University
received permission from the Walt Disney company
to use the likeness of the Donald Duck character
as a symbol of the University.

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


Different appearances

Movies
Saludos Amigos (1942) 
The Three Caballeros (1944) 
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) 
The Prince and the Pauper (1990) 
Fantasia 2000 (1999) 
The Three Mouseketeers (2004) 

Television series
DuckTales (1987-1990) 
Quack Pack (1996-1997) 
Mickey Mouse Works (1999-2000) 
House of Mouse (2001-2003) 
Disney's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006 debut) 

Video games
Donald Duck's Playground (1988) 
Duck Tales : The quest for gold (1989) (Donald is
only an NPC) 
Quackshot (1991) 
The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck (1991) 
World of Illusion (1992) 
DuckTales 2 (1993) (Donald is only an NPC) 
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (1996) 
Donald Duck Going Quackers (2000) 
Kingdom Hearts (2002) 
Disney's PK: Out of the Shadows (2002) 
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004) 
Kingdom Hearts 2 (2005) 

US comic books
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 
Donald Duck 
Uncle Scrooge 
Uncle Scrooge Adventures 
Donald Duck Adventures 
Mickey and Donald 
DuckTales 
Donald and Mickey 
Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse 
Walt Disney Giant 
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories Penny Pincher 
Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck 
The Adventurous Uncle Scrooge McDuck 
Kingdom Hearts 

Famous illustrators
Carl Barks 
Luciano Bottaro 
Giovan Battista Carpi 
Giorgio Cavazzano 
William Van Horn 
Daan Jippes 
Don Rosa 
Marco Rota 
Romano Scarpa 
Tony Strobl 
Al Taliaferro 

Further reading
Ariel Dorfman, Armand Mattelart, David Kunzle
(trans.), How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist
Ideology in the Disney Comic ISBN 0884770230
(Anti-Donald Duck Marxist Critique) 
Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney's Donald
Duck: 50 Years of Happy Frustration, Courage
Books, May 1990 ASIN: 0894715305