Huey, Dewey, and Louie

Posted Friday, 14 January 2011 by Blog
Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck are a trio of fictional, anthropomorphic ducks who appear in animated cartoons and comic books published by the Walt Disney Company. Identical triplets, the three are Donald Duck's nephews. Huey, Dewey, and Louie were created by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro, and first appeared in a newspaper comic strip on October 17, 1937. Their first animated appearance was in the theatrical short Donald's Nephews, released April 15, 1938.

On a few occasions, there is a fourth nephew that appears, slipping through by a mistake of the artist. He has been named "Phooey Duck" by Disney comic editor Bob Foster. One short Egmont-licensed Disney comic explained Phooey's sporadic appearances as a freak incident of nature.


Character background 
Huey, Dewey, and Louie are the sons of Donald's sister Della Duck; in Donald's Nephews, their mother is instead named Dumbella. In the original theatrical shorts, they were originally sent to visit Donald for only one day; in the comics, the three were sent to stay with Donald on a temporary basis, until their father came back from the hospital (the boys ended up sending him there after a practical joke of putting firecrackers under his chair). According to the Duck Family Tree, their full names are Huebert, Deuteronomy and Louis. In both the comics and animated shorts, the boys' parents were never heard from or referred to again after these instances, with the boys ending up permanently living with Donald. All four of them live in the fictional city of Duckburg, in the fictional state of Calisota.
The three ducklings are noted for their identical appearances and personalities. A running joke involves the three sometimes even finishing each others' sentences. In the theatrical shorts, Huey, Dewey, and Louie often behave in a rambunctious manner, sometimes committing retaliation or revenge on their uncle Donald Duck. In the comics, however, as developed by Al Taliaferro and Carl Barks, the young ducks are more usually portrayed as well-behaved, preferring to assist their uncle Donald Duck and great-uncle Scrooge McDuck in the adventure at hand. In the early Barks comics, the ducklings were still wild and unruly, but their character improved considerably due to their membership in the Junior Woodchucks and the good influence of their wise old great-grandmother Elvira Coot "Grandma" Duck. According to Don Rosa, Huey, Dewey and Louie became members of the Junior Woodchucks when they were around 11 years old.
Colors of Huey, Dewey, and Louie's outfits

In early comic books and shorts, the caps of Huey, Dewey, and Louie were colored randomly, depending on the whim of the colorist.

On few occasions until 1945 and most every cartoon short afterward, all three nephews wore identical outfits (most commonly red). It wasn't until the 1980s when it became established that Huey is dressed in red, Dewey in blue, and Louie in green. Disney's archivist Dave Smith, in "Disney A to Z," said, "Note that the brightest hue of the three is red (Huey), the color of water, dew, is blue (Dewey), and that leaves Louie, and leaves are green." Another combination that shows up from time to time is Huey in blue, Dewey in green, and Louie in red. In-story, this inconsistency is explained away as a result of the ducklings borrowing each other's clothes.
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