"Hello Unca Donald!"

06.09.09 - How would you like to become a permanent babysitter — against your will? For more than a century, cartoons and comics have garnered easy laughs by forcing favorite characters to take care of unseen relatives' pesky kids. In the case of Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, though, the younger generation has ended up adding far more to Duckburg than just simple comedy. Donald's nephews have helped make Donald himself into a more interesting star — and the boys have also become beloved stars themselves.

Mickey's nephews were the first of Disney's younger generation to make the scene. Sunday newspaper strip, 1932; story and art by Floyd Gottfredson, inks by Ted Thwaites.

The terrible trio was hatched in 1937, after Silly Symphonies Sunday strip artist Al Taliaferro observed the success of Mickey Mouse's nephews Morty and Ferdie. If well-meaning Mickey was funny as a frazzled uncle, selfish Donald might be hilarious in the role! Taliaferro pitched the concept to the cartoon story crew. When they liked it — writing Al a special letter of thanks — Taliaferro and his scripter, Ted Osborne, brought Huey, Dewey, and Louie into comics right away. Though the trio wouldn't appear in animation until 1938, they co-starred with Donald in the Silly Sunday starting October 17, 1937.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie were named by cartoon story man Dana Coty, but Taliaferro and Osborne adapted the boys' personalities from a long tradition of mischievous comic strip kids. Sent to Donald by sister Della ("Dumbella" in animation), Huey, Dewey, and Louie played polo indoors. They ceaselessly pestered Donald for sweets. They even straitjacketed Donald in first aid gauze. Watching furious Don try to master these delinquents was as funny as expected. But then things took a more innovative twist.

The late 1930s saw story director Carl Barks gaining influence in the Donald Duck animation unit; in 1942, Barks switched from cartoons to Duck comics production. Under Barks, Donald's parenting efforts began failing less because the kids were rascals — and more due to Don's ever-wilder efforts to prove he knew best. In search of parental authority, Donald would try to master every skill, from cargo shipping to chemistry — and it was Huey, Dewey, and Louie who had to save their uncle from trouble when his big plans fell apart. Over time, these adventures turned the triplets from brats into smarter, long-suffering real kids — the kind with whom young fans could see eye-to-eye.

Donald's nephews' debut in the Silly Symphony Sunday strip, 1937. Plot and art by Al Taliaferro, script by Ted Osborne.

In 1951, Huey, Dewey, and Louie's growth led to their most famous role — as scouts. The Junior Woodchucks, another Barks creation, gave the boys their most famous chance to outdo Donald. While the Woodchucks included proud adult leaders with ranks like B.R.A.S.S.G.A.S.S.E.R. ("Brain-Rattling Assigner of Stupendous Sweatouts and Giver of Awesome Scathing Scoldings and Expurgatory Roustings"), their woodlore knowledge was real — and their amazing Guidebook could give Huey, Dewey, and Louie the answers to any challenge, camping-related or not. The Guidebook told how to put a sleepless dragon to sleep; it even had "an entire chapter on catching greased pigs"!

Of course, despite their expertise, the Woodchucks were still kids. Huey, Dewey, and Louie competed with other scout troops — like the Chickadee Patrol, a rival girls' club — and were hindered, in those battles, by childish impulsiveness and jealousy. Ducks are only human.

In fact, the more human and multi-dimensional Huey, Dewey, and Louie got, the more interesting their co-stars became by extension. Unca Donald, though still not a perfect parent, was forced to acknowledge the kids' knack for rescuing him from his foibles. And at other times, when danger has threatened the boys themselves, Donald has managed to pull off some rescues, too — even when bravery ran contrary to his nature.

Grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie save Uncle Scrooge's Number One Dime from "The Robot Raiders of Magica De Spell" (1984). Story by Joel Katz and Dave Angus, art by Daniel Branca, dialogue by Geoffrey Blum.

Over time, Huey, Dewey, and Louie became fully integrated with the greater Duckburg cast. The boys share Uncle Scrooge's love of adventure; Barks established the trio as Scrooge's sole heirs. But environmental causes still set Woodchucks and industrialist at odds. Similarly, Dickie Duck — teenage girl reporter in Romano Scarpa's classic Italian comics — ropes Huey, Dewey, and Louie into excitement; when they're not skeptical of her big-sisterly attitude, that is. And in other European comics, Donald's nephews team up for pranks with Tom Sawyer-like orphan pal Garvey Gull. But when Garvey scoffs at Woodchuck knowledge, battle is joined!

Today Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck go from strength to strength, with comics still giving the trio their best exposure. For all of their growth in that medium, though, it took the 1987 TV series, DuckTales, to give the boys the consistent colors by which we can tell them apart. Huey wears a red cap, with red being the brightest hue. Dewey wears the color of dew, or blue. And that leaves Louie; and leaves are green. "Wakka-wakka-Woodchuck!"