Trivia / Donald Duck

• Acting for Two:
  • The Disneyland episode "A Day in the Life of Donald Duck" had Donald getting into an argument with Clarence Nash, his own voice actor.
  • Most shorts involving the nephews consist of this, since Nash voiced Unca Donald as well as the nephews in a higher octave.
  • In Don Donald and Mr. Duck Steps Out, Nash also provided the voices for Donna Duck and Daisy Duck, respectively, before it was ultimately decided to cast a woman in the role.
• Baby Name Trend Killer: The name "Donald" has been in decline ever since the character debuted in 1934. While he's one of history's most famous cartoon characters because of how entertaining his numerous character flaws are, the same flaws make people reluctant to name their children in a way that will get them associated with him.
• Banned in China: Not an actual example, but there's a popular rumor that he was banned in Finland for not wearing pants. Strangely, the choice of Finland in the urban legend might have to do with Donald Duck being really popular in Scandinavia. Either way, there are still many Donald Duck cartoons available on Disney+ in Finland.
• Cross-Dressing Voice:
  • In Japan, Donald used to be voiced by a female during the 70s and 80s before being voiced by Kōichi Yamadera.
  • His official Dutch dub voice since 1984 (and also German one from 2019 to 2022, when his previous German VA Peter Krause retired from the role) has been provided by Dutch actress Anita Heilker. Since 2022 Donald's German voice has been provided by Kim van Zeben.
• Creator's Pest:
  • According to Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice and Magic", some of the Donald Duck staff grew to dislike the character and how formula driven his shorts became over time. One of the directors, veteran Jack Hannah (no relation to Hanna-Barbera) even complained "I got so damned tired of that duck's voice. I just could not stand having to work with it all the time."
  • According to Disney illustrator and animator Bill Peet (who worked as an inbetweener on the shorts) in his autobiography, he came to dislike Donald so much that at one point during the production of one short, he would temporarily leave Disney in a fit of rage after being handed a giant stack of Donald Duck drawings, screaming "NO MORE DUCKS!!! NO MORE LOUSY DUCKS!" in the process.
• One-Book Author: Donald Duck is about Tony Anselmo's only voice role (alongside Huey, Dewey, and Louie on some occasions) since he's otherwise an animator.
• Promoted Fanboy: Tony Anselmo went from fan, to friend, to successor. An animator at Disney, Anselmo befriended Nash when he joined the studio in the early 80s. Nash personally trained Anselmo to be his successor, though, at the time, Anselmo was unaware of Nash's motivations for teaching him the voice, thought it had just been for fun, and was surprised when he learned the truth.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Donald has had the smallest amount of "official" voice actors out of the main cast. Clarence "Ducky" Nash, who originated the voice in 1934 and voiced him until his death in 1985. And Tony Anselmo, who has been voicing him since 1985.
  • While Tony Anselmo is the current official voice for Donald, he had to be replaced by Daniel Ross on Mickey and the Roadster Racers due to the former being busy with voicing the character in the video games, Mickey Mouse (2013), and DuckTales (2017) around the time production went ahead on the series. Anselmo returned to the duck in Mickey Mouse Funhouse after DuckTales ended.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Concepts for shorts that were never produced include Donald being seduced by a foreign spy so he won't turn in top secret papers to the war office, intercepting a Japanese troop carrier, spoiling a surprise attack by Adolf Hitler and defeating King Kong in feats of strength, among others. Read all about it here and here.
  • Quack Pack was to have a completely different premise, making it a true sequel series to DuckTales. What was it? "The idea was to bring Donald back from the navy. Scrooge realizes that one day Donald will take over the McDuck fortune, so Don should have an idea of what it's like to handle such responsibility, hence he leaves Huey, Dewey, and Louie back with him. They are older now, but are still the kids who used to look up to him and think the world of their Uncle Donald, who just finished basic training. Donald should try to do his best to take care of the nephews while he gets reacquainted with Daisy and works in his new job."
  • Disney wanted Donald to be the main character of the Kingdom Hearts games, but Square Enix preferred Mickey Mouse for that role. Series creator Tetsuya Nomura didn't like either choice, so he decided to Take a Third Option and design a human protagonist in Sora, while keeping Donald as one of his sidekicks and Mickey as Donald's missing superior and king.

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