Huey, Dewey & Louie, "The Nephews"
GENUS PEDIGREE: | Duckbill (ducklings) | ||
KNOWN ALIASES: | HD&L or HDL; Huebert or Hue (Huey), Deuteronomy or Dew (Dewey), and Louis or Lou (Louie) Duck; the Titanic Trio ("DuckTales"); the T-Squad ("Quack Pack"). | ||
KNOWN RELATIVES: | Della (mother - called Dumbella in the film "Donald's Nephews"); Donald Duck (uncle); $crooge McDuck, Rumpus McFowl (great-uncles); Daisy Duck (aunt); April, May & June; Fethry Duck, Gus Goose, Gladstone Gander (cousins); Webbigail Vanderquack & Bubba Duck (adopted cousins); Cornelius Coot (founder of Duckburg; great-great-great-grandfather); Humperdink Duck (a.k.a. Grandpa Duck); Elvira Coot (a.k.a. Grandma Duck - Duck family matriarch). | ||
KNOWN PETS: | Bolivar ("Bornworthy") the St. Bernard; General Snozzie (Junior Woodchuck's mascot bloodhound); Tootsie (Bubba's Triceratops). | ||
CITIZENSHIP: | Duckburg, USA | ||
KNOWN CONFIDANTS: | Uncle Donald; Uncle $crooge; Launchpad McQuack; Doofus Drake; Bubba the CaveDuck; Webby; Mrs. Beakley; Duckworth; Daisy Duck; April, May & June Duck; Gyro Gearloose; Gizmo-Duck; Mickey Mouse; Morty & Ferdie; Herbert; Li'l Bad Wolf; Three Little Pigs; Junior Woodchuck ScoutMaster & the Junior Woodchucks: Bertie & Egghead, Willie, Lonny, Alfie McFarf, Holsworthy Hog and Timothy Woodchuck (great-grandson of Cyrus P. Woodchuck, Woodchucks founder). | ||
KNOWN RIVALS: | The Beagle Brats; Witch Hazel & Beelzebub the Broom; Captain Ramrod & the Junior Chickadee Patrol; Flintheart Glomgold; Magica de Spell; Argus McSwine. | ||
PARAPHERNALIA: | Baseball caps, raccoon-skin caps; Junior Woodchuck Guide Book. | ||
1st PRINT APPEARANCE: | "Donald Duck" Sunday comic strip (Oct. 17, 1937); "Walt Disney Comics and Stories" #125 (Feb. 1951) in the tale "Operation St. Bernard" was the first "Junior Woodchucks" story. | ||
1st FILM APPEARANCE: | "Donald's Nephews" (Apr. 15, 1938); regulars on the "DuckTales" since the serial "Treasure of the Golden Suns" (Sep. 18, 1987), and "Quack Pack" (1996). | ||
VOICE ACTOR: | English: Clarence "Ducky" Nash (early HD&L shorts); Russi Taylor (all three in "DuckTales"); Jeanne Elias (Huey in "Quack Pack"); Pam Segall (Dewey in "Quack Pack"); E.G. Daily (Louie in "Quack Pack"); David Hayter (Huey, 2020); Sam Witwer (Dewey, 2020); Billy Kametz (Louie, 2020-present); Kate Higgins (Huey child, 2020-present); Eden Riegel (Dewey child, 2020-present); Kari Wahlgren (Louie child, 2020-present);.
Japanese: Kishō Taniyama (Huey, 2020-present); Tomokazu Sugita (Dewey, 2020-present); Nobunaga Shimazaki (Louie, 2020-present); Chika Sakamoto (all three in their childhood, current). | ||
SIGNATURE: | "Unca Donald," "Wak!" and "Quack-a-rooney!" | ||
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: | In the comics Donald Duck's twin sister, Della, sent her triplet sons to their uncle's house for a visit with a letter that read,
"Dear Donald: (* a stunt they seem to have repeated in WDC&S #349 against the braggart Prof. Pulpheart Clabberhead). A briefer version of the letter was shown in their film debut as, "Dear Brother-
| ||
HISTORICAL FACTS: | In their original presentation, by writer Ted Osborne and Artist Al Taliaferro, the three Nephews were indistinguishable, and were created to act as "one" character (often reflecting this when one nephew would start a sentence and the other two would complete it as if they only had one brain among them). Besides the Red/Blue/Green sweater colors, they often wore Yellow, Orange, Purple or even all Black combinations. After some time, and several other artists and writers began using them in comics, a clearer distinction was made: Huey wore Red, Dewey wore Blue and Louie wore Green, and occasionally they had the first letter of their names knitted on their sweaters. This was later emphasized in "DuckTales" where they were specifically noted by their sweater color. Dave Smith, Disney's Archivist, in "Disney A to Z" said, "Note that the brightest hue of the three (Huey), the color of water, dew, is blue (Dewey), and that leaves Louie, and leaves are green." These distinctions are drawn even clearer in the 1996 series "Quack Pack" where even personality traits that were only hinted at before are now strengthened. | ||
LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS: | The names of the Nephews were originally inspired by contemporary political figures Huey P. Long of Louisiana, Thomas E. Dewey of New York and Louie Schmidt (a friend of a Disney artist).The Nephews' full names were finally revealed in the new series "Quack Pack" as Huebert (Huey), Deuteronomy (Dewey), and Louis (Louie) Duck. In at least seven different comic book story panels a mysterious Fourth Nephew has appeared along with the other three and then disappeared in the succeeding panel. Fans have dubbed this unknown nephew as "Phooey" who, in reality does not exist and is a mistake by the artists involved. It has been suggested, though I can't find a specific source, that the concept of Donald's Nephews was patterned after another popular and, then, contemporary cartoon character Popeye's own triplet nephews, who also were indistinguishable and also completed eachother's sentences and were also treated as a singular character in the cartoons which they appeared. | ||
WORKING THEORIES: | [?] Della and the boys' father, were run so ragged by the mischievous trio and their dangerous antics, that they basically dumped the Nephews into Donald's lap and fled. Perhaps Donald's own hot-headed, short-fused temperament proved to be the one influence that actually tempered the boys over the years. |