Ludwig von Drake is one of
Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
's
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
and
comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
characters. He was first introduced on September 24, 1961, as the presenter (and singer of "
The Spectrum Song"The Spectrum Song" was written by the Sherman Brothers in 1961 under assignment from Walt Disney to be a signature song for the fictional character Ludwig Von Drake...
") in the cartoon
An Adventure in Color, part of the first show of
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
. Ludwig is a V.I.P. member of the
Mickey Mouse ClubThe Mickey Mouse Club is a long-running American variety television show that began in 1955, produced by Walt Disney Productions and televised by the American Broadcasting Company, featuring a regular but ever-changing cast of teenage performers. The Mickey Mouse Club was created by Walt Disney...
. Said to be an uncle of
Donald DuckDonald Duck is an American cartoon character from The Walt Disney Company. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bow tie, but no trousers...
, he was supposedly named after either
Ludwig von MisesLudwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian aristocrat, economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a major influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School.-Early life:...
or
Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
. He is described as a scientist, lecturer, psychologist, and road traveler. The character displayed his "expert" knowledge on a variety of subjects in eighteen episodes of the classic anthology series, as well as on a number of
Disneyland RecordsDisneyland Records is the original name of the Walt Disney Company's record company.The label was established in 1956 under the name Disneyland Records; its first release was A Child's Garden of Verses. The company changed its name to Walt Disney Records in 1989...
.
Paul FreesPaul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, he began his acting career in 1942, and remained active for over forty years...
was the original voice of Ludwig von Drake. Frees retired from the role before his death in 1986, and
Walker EdmistonWalker Edmiston was an American actor and voice-over artist who was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Edmiston appeared on various television programs in character roles during the 1950s – 1970s, such as Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Knots Landing, and The Dukes of Hazzard, all on CBS...
took over.
Corey BurtonCorey Burton is a voice actor, perhaps best known as Count Dooku, Ziro the Hutt and Cad Bane in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Brainiac in the DC animated universe, Spike Witwicky and the Decepticon Shockwave in the Transformers Universe, and as Captain Hook in Disney's Return to Never...
currently voices the character.
Character
Ludwig von Drake comes from
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
,
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
. Some creators have presumed that his family is a German branch of the Duck family but that hasn't been included in any major stories. (According to a theory by
Don RosaKeno Don Hugo Rosa is an American comic book writer and illustrator best known for his stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and other Disney characters. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. His most famous work is The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which is now out of print...
the professor married Matilda McDuck, one of
Scrooge McDuckScrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a Glaswegian anthropomorphic duck created by Carl Barks that first appeared in Four Color Comics #178, Christmas on Bear Mountain, published by Dell Comics in December 1947....
's sisters. Though this is by no means canon, it might be the only way that Ludwig could be Donald's uncle.)
Ludwig has a fascination with knowledge. Since his youth he has been trying to obtain as many diplomas, in any science, as possible. He is often shown as having little social competence, however, and is often portrayed as being very forgetful, sometimes even somewhat senile. In the comics Ludwig usually visits with Donald Duck and Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. On occasion,
Daisy DuckDaisy Duck is one of Walt Disney's cartoon and comic book characters. She was created as a female counterpart and girlfriend to Donald Duck, and first appeared in the cartoon "Mr. Duck Steps Out" in 1940....
would coax (or even trick) the professor into giving lectures and tours for her ladies' club. Sometimes Ludwig and
Gyro GearlooseGyro Gearloose is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic chicken created by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. He is part of the Scrooge McDuck universe, appearing in comic book stories as a friend of Donald Duck, Scrooge and anyone who is associated with them.-Fictional character...
have competed as to who is the greater inventor.
Inside Donald Duck
Among his many interests is psychology, and he has tried to make a psychological study of his nephew
Donald DuckDonald Duck is an American cartoon character from The Walt Disney Company. Donald is a white anthropomorphic duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He usually wears a sailor shirt, cap, and a red or black bow tie, but no trousers...
. Ludwig was best fleshed out in this anthology cartoon, where Donald's psychology was examined, as we got to see some of his worst temper tantrums. Ludwig however was well understood by the end of the cartoon. His Germanic ancestry betrayed itself in his language - for example "as we say in the psychiatry" is a very German Anglicanism. In comics translated into German he sometimes speaks with an Austrian accent, like "ein bisserl" instead of "ein bisschen". He also enjoys several off color jokes, for instance "What you have here is a depressed Duck! And there is nothing worse than depressed duck...unless you like depressed duck...but the taste is sometimes...." clearly making a pun off of the dish of pressed duck.
Cartoon appearances (1980s-present)
Von Drake has appeared on several Disney animated cartoon series:
DuckTalesDuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Based on Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge comic book series, featuring the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews, the show premiered on September 18, 1987 and ended on November 28, 1990.- Premise :The...
,
Raw ToonageDisney's Raw Toonage is a half hour Disney animated cartoon series that aired on the CBS network in the fall of 1992. There are 12 episodes .-History and production:...
,
BonkersBonkers is an animated American television series that aired from September 4, 1993 to December 21, 1995 in first-run syndication . The syndicated run was available both separately, and as part of The Disney Afternoon...
,
Mickey Mouse WorksMickey Mouse Works is a television show that features the cartoon character Mickey Mouse and his friends in a series of animated segments. It is somewhat of an update of Mickey's Mouse Tracks....
,
Quack PackQuack Pack is an animated television series made by The Walt Disney Company. The show debuted in September 1996 as a part of the Disney Afternoon weekday afternoon programming block. Unlike other Disney Afternoon shows, it was aimed at teens over the age of 12...
,
House of Mouse,
Mickey Mouse ClubhouseMickey Mouse Clubhouse is a children's television series, that premiered in prime time on Disney Channel on May 5, 2006. The program is part of the Playhouse Disney daily block of shows intended for preschoolers....
and in numerous television specials. In all of these, Von Drake wears a pink shirt, black tie, red vest, and a lab coat. In the 1991 version of
Mickey and the Beanstalk (originally as the segment featured on
Fun and Fancy FreeFun and Fancy Free is a feature film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It was one of the "package films" that the studio produced in the 1940s...
), it is revealed that Ludwig Von Drake has a Bootle Beetle companion named Herman.
In
Disney's House of MouseDisney's House of Mouse is an American animated television series, produced by Walt Disney Television, that originally aired from 2001 to 2003.-Premise:...
, Von Drake appears as a recurring character. In "Ask Von Drake", Mickey tries to prove that Ludwig Von Drake doesn't know everything. At the end, Mickey convinces him that during the headcount of all the Disney characters, he forgot himself. Also, in "House of Genius", Ludwig creates robot duplicates of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pluto. At the end, when Ludwig brings in a robot duplicate of himself, Mickey tells the robot to send the real Ludwig packing.
Ludwig von Drake in the Sing-Along Songs series
In the Disney's Sing-Along Songs series of videos, he has hosted these six volumes:
- You Can Fly (February 5, 1988)
- Fun With Music (along with Professor Owl) (October 12, 1989)
- Under the Sea
"Under the Sea" is an Academy Award-winning song from Disney's 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Howard Ashman and is heavily influenced by the Calypso style of the Caribbean. The song was performed in the film by Samuel E...
(August 14, 1990)
- I Love to Laugh
"I Love to Laugh" is a song from Walt Disney's film Mary Poppins. It was composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The song is sung in the film by "Uncle Albert" , and "Bert" as they levitate uncontrollably toward the ceiling, eventually joined by Mary Poppins herself...
(a.k.a. SupercalifragilisticexpialidociousSupercalifragilisticexpialidocious is an English word, with 34 letters, that was in the song with the same title in the musical film Mary Poppins. The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke...
) (December 28, 1990)
- 101 Notes of Fun
Disney Sing Along Songs are a series of videos, laserdiscs and DVDs with musical moments from various Disney films, TV shows and attractions. Lyrics for the songs are displayed on-screen with the Mickey Mouse icon as a "bouncing ball" Disney Sing Along Songs are a series of videos, laserdiscs and...
(March 12, 1994)
- Colors of the Wind
"Colors of the Wind" by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz was the 1995 Oscar-winner for Best Original Song from the Disney animated feature film Pocahontas. It also won the Golden Globe in the same category as well as the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Movie...
(July 21, 1995)
Print appearances
The Disney studio encouraged the writers of Duck comics to introduce this new character in print, and already in September 1961, Von Drake started appearing in
Al TaliaferroCharles Alfred Taliaferro , known simply as Al Taliaferro, was a Disney comics artist who used to produce Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate...
and
Bob KarpRobert Louis Karp was an American comics writer. He began working for the Walt Disney Company in the 1930s, and from 1938 to 1974, he wrote the scripts for the daily Donald Duck newspaper strips. These were illustrated by Al Taliaferro and by Frank Grundeen after Taliaferro's death in 1969.Bob...
's featured daily strips. However, aside from a solitary cameo appearance in a one page story in
Uncle ScroogeUncle Scrooge is a comic book with the stingy Scrooge McDuck "the richest duck in the world" as the main character. The series also featured Donald Duck and his nephews as supporting characters. The first 70 issues mostly consisted of stories written and drawn by Carl Barks, the creator of Scrooge...
#54 (December 1964), the character was not used by leading Disney duck artist
Carl BarksCarl Barks was a famous Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , Gyro Gearloose , Flintheart Glomgold , John D. Rockerduck and Magica De Spell...
.
In 1961,
Dell ComicsDell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
launched a
comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
series starring von Drake and illustrated by
Tony StroblAnthony Joseph Strobl was an American comics artist and animator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Cleveland School of Art from 1933–37, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who actually got some help from Strobl creating Superman...
, but it only lasted for four issues before being discontinued. The character made subsequent appearances in other comic titles such as
Walt Disney's Comics and StoriesWalt Disney's Comics and Stories, sometimes abbreviated WDC or WDC&S, is an anthology comic book series that has an assortment of Disney characters, including Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Mickey Mouse, Chip 'n Dale, Lil Bad Wolf, Scamp, Bucky Bug, Grandma Duck, Brer Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, and...
and in the
Donald Duck newspaper strip.