Every so often I’ll see an advert for Disney Cruise Lines, with good ol’ co-captains Mickey and Minnie, with their first mate Goofy. Now, I don’t know about y’all, but isn’t it rather odd that the characters chosen to represent the cruise line are two mice and a dog.

Now I can let the mice slide, since they are the mascots for the entire brand, but Goofy? Why would they choose Goofy over Donald, you know the duck? It seems that just straight off the bat, a duck would be much more qualified for a seafaring position. But that got me thinking, just how qualified for such a job is Donald?

Donald Duck, created by Dick Lundy and Walt Disney, first appeared in cartoon The Wise Little Hen (1934) and has appeared in a whopping 218¹ titles (excluding comics), this is the most appearances of any Disney character.

Known for his short temper and incomprehensible speech, his voice was provided by Clarence Nash, who continued to breathe life into the character until his passing in 1985, when Tony Anselmo stepped into the role², making him the second of Donald’s three voice actors³, I suppose only a select few are chosen for greatness. (Mickey Mouse, for reference has an entire section on his Wikipedia page devoted to his voice actors)

But enough about the behind the scenes; Who is Donald Duck?

That actually isn’t as easy to answer as I had initially thought….

Short Films and Propaganda

Within his appearances in the various cartoon productions, Donald is fowl tempered and often one to try and take the easy way out. There isn’t much to say without going into nauseating amounts of detail regarding every appearance, so I’ll stick to the more important ones, namely the propaganda films.

During World War II Donald Duck features in a number of propaganda short films, including Der Fuehrer’s Face. Der Fuehrer’s Face shows Donald working a nightmare job in a Nazi weapons factory, until he eventually suffers a nervous breakdown and wakes up from his dream with a new appreciation for America. But this film, although it won an award, is not where Donald’s importance to the military begins. No, that would be the six part mini series about Donald’s life in the U.S. Army. Because of these Donald became a sort of mascot for many branches of the military, from the Air Force, to the Coast Guard and even the Marine Corps, Donald’s face was everywhere.

Due to the nature of these cartoons occupied Europe did not permit them to be aired, Disney, not wanting to lose out on profits, sought to find a new audience, one in South America.

Now, for those unaware, after the fact, during the war Travel Movies were quite popular. Since very few people could actually travel during this time, these ‘Travel Reels’ were made. They would often be a commercial about some destination, and a viewfinder with pictures of said place.

So, in 1942, Saludos Amigos showed both live action and animated segments about Latin America and introduces the parrot José Carioca. Two years later, The Three Caballeros released and Panchito the rooster was added to Donald’s little friend group. These two will be important later.

Since Donald’s career in the military was never officially ended after the war, for his 50^th birthday celebration the U.S. Army officially honorably discharged Donald Duck as a Buck Sargent, making him the only cartoon character⁴ with real life military rank and honors.

That isn’t where his time in the military ends though, as in the 1987 Ducktales TV series Donald enlists in the Navy.

Speaking of Ducktales;

Ducktales 1987

In the 1987 television series, Donald actually plays a very small role, due to his aforementioned Navy enlistment. Instead the show features her nephews adventures with their Great Uncle Scrooge.

Original shorts introduce Donald’s nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie who are depicted wearing red, blue, and green respectively. Though sometimes they are seen in other colors or in each other’s to confuse those around them.⁵ In many short films, Donald only takes care of his nephews as babysitting for a day, though this is not the case in later comics and television appearances.

In the comics Donald is taking care of them because they sent their father (an unnamed Mr. Duck) to the hospital after an incident with some firecrackers. The triplet’s parents are never mentioned after this. In later adaptions, (Ducktales 2017) Donald is caring for them because their mother is on the moon. Though in many movies they are simply seen living with him without any explanation⁶, until he enlists and they go into the care of Uncle Scrooge that is.

While he may not get much screen-time or join in many adventures in the Ducktales television series, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own fair share of mishaps in the comics. Like, for example, when Donald was a superhero (the first time).

What Donald Does in His Spare Time;

Die-hard Duck Fans will recall the daring duck of mystery, champion of right, who swoops out of the shadows, the Darkwing that owns the night. This is not that duck.

Italian comic⁷ Papernink New Adventures features Donald moonlighting as the titular vigilante⁸, while originally a way for Donald’s more mischievous side to show itself (and get revenge on various relatives in the process), he quickly found himself fighting crime and after his Uncle Scrooge puts him in charge of a 150 story building⁹, aliens. As his alter-ego Donald fights Evronian Empire with gadgets and a computer named Uno.

Aliens, are surprisingly, not the weirdest thing Donald has faced off against. Fans of the Kingdom Hearts games will recall that the various enemies and plot-lines are much stranger than a simple alien threat. Within the game Donald is a mage capable of casting ‘Zettaflare’¹⁰ and fights alongside Goofy and some kid named Sora to defeat the Darkness, Heartless and Nobodies while dimension hopping through Disney properties.

Back on the television screen is Legend of the Three Caballeros, however this time it is not a travel reel. Instead Donald inherits a shack from his great grandfather Clinton Coot¹¹, within the shack is a book containing the goddess of adventure, Xandra. They have to band together, with José and Panchito to defeat an evil sorcerer because the Greek gods have all taken up farming instead. The series was left on a cliffhanger, but since Donald has continued to appear in the Ducktales reboot, we can assume nothing too bad happened.

And as I mentioned the Ducktales Reboot, why don’t I bring up the contents?

Ducktales 2017

The 2017 Ducktales reboot opens on a houseboat, Donald’s houseboat, where he lives with his nephews. He then proceeds to get a job on a submarine (after dropping off his nephews at Scrooge’s place, of course), navigates the booty-trapped Atlantis, while also blocking the his nephews from getting hit with said traps (since they and Scrooge coincidentally were adventuring there at the same time) and survive the second flooding of Atlantis all in an afternoon.

Since this is Ducktales and the series primarily focuses on the nephews and Uncle Scrooge, Donald doesn’t get the prime time slot, but in what screen time he does have he tends to make the most of it.

Steering a boat into a vortex of shadows to protect his nephews show his tenacity and later carpentry when he has to ultimately repair the boat after battle. The series showcases Donald’s navigation skills and reluctantly acquired adventuring prowess, as well as giving the guy some therapy/anger management help.

He ends it as he started it, on a boat, sailing as he pleases.

Fin

All of this to say, Donald wears a sailor’s uniform. He should have some ranking above Goofy on the Cruise Line.