Quack Pack is an animated television series made by The Walt Disney Company,
featuring Donald Duck and his nephews. The show debuted on September 3, 1996 as
a part of the "Disney Afternoon" programming block, following the major
success of Goof Troop. The series ran two seasons with 39 episodes.
Production Co-Producers Kevin Crosby Hopps and Toby
Shelton turned to Donald Duck shorts for inspiration for Quack Pack. Shelton
noted that in the shorts, Donald mostly interacted with humans, and decided to
incorporate humans into the world of Quack Pack. This contrasted with
DuckTales, a previous Disney Afternoon series, where the world is inhabited by
other anthropomorphic animals. Shelton considers Quack Pack as more of an
extension of the original Donald Duck shorts than of DuckTales. Because of
this, many characters from the DuckTales cartoons and comics, including Disney
characters, such as Scrooge McDuck, Launchpad McQuack, Mickey Mouse, Goofy
or Chip 'n' Dale, do not make appearances in the series.
The show was created to give each of the nephews their own voices and
personalities. Huey was the smooth-talker and schemer, Louie was the
athlete and oddball, and Dewey was the intellectual and prankster.
The original title of the show was Duck Daze, but was changed to Quack Pack
before release. There are still references to Duck Daze in the theme
song. After Quack Pack left the Disney
Afternoon block, it eventually resurfaced in reruns on Disney Channel,
and later on Toon Disney. It was removed from the channel's line up along with
several other classic Disney shows in November 2004.
Plot The show centers around Donald and
teenaged versions of his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The actual age of the
boys is not made certain. Donald works as a cameraman alongside Daisy, who is a
reporter. The group travel around the world looking for a big scoop. The three
boys are triplets but Huey had once referred to Dewey and Louie as his baby
brothers. Huey must have been the first to be born, therefore making him the
eldest of the brothers. Huey, Dewey and Louie have more
distinctive personalities than when they had been presented as younger. They
usually resort to extreme and strange measures to avoid getting into trouble
with their uncle and to achieve their ambitions. They usually do this by
tricking Donald, or whoever else they wish to manipulate. But they usually
feel guilty for any of the wrongdoings they had performed which may have upset
loved ones, proving that they do possess good morals. Huey, Dewey and Louie share
similar passions such as listening to rock music, getting revenge on those who
anger them, impressing girls, getting money, pulling pranks, role models whom
they look up to and admire, playing games and reading comics. They also
share a profound knowledge of cars and mechanics. But there are certain aspects
of their personalities that stand out more in each of them.
Main characters Donald Duck - Wears a blue Hawaiian
shirt with red flowers on it. He is Huey, Dewey and Louie's uncle/guardian
who refer to him as "Uncle D" if not Uncle Donald. All of them live together
in Donald's house. He is also Daisy's boyfriend and cameraman for her T.V.
show. He is notoriously well known for being short-tempered and gets angered
very easily. He is an especially a notorious prankster. Despite this,
Donald tries to be a good parental figure and is sometimes less than
willing to trust Huey, Dewey and Louie. However, he has shown that he greatly
cares about them and is very protective of them. He portrays himself as a father
figure towards them and would usually regard them as his boys. Likewise, Huey,
Dewey and Louie have shown they feel the same way as they have referred to Donald
as their "own flesh and blood" before. Donald usually misinterprets Huey, Dewey
and Louie's harmless intentions for being bad, either by the influence of
the unknown bad guy or having nightmares and daydreams about them being
destructive. With Huey, Dewey, Louie, Donald and Daisy together, Huey has
referred to them as a "happy family". When Donald received super powers he
became a super villain known as the Duck of Doom, resulting in a battle between
him and Huey, Dewey and Louie to get them to clean their bedroom.
Huey - Wears a long red shirt over a light red T-shirt and purple shorts. He
usually acts as the leader of the three brothers. In one episode, it is revealed
Huey suffered from ailurophobia or fear of cats. His fear was so great that he
was afraid of cat sock puppets and had uncontrollable hiccups whenever he saw
even a picture of a cat. His fear first began when a swarm of cats scared him
while he was dressed as a mouse when he went Trick or Treating with his brothers
on one Halloween night when they were little. However, he soon conquered his
fear after his conscience got the better of him and he saved a cat that was
hanging from a broken tree branch. Unfortunately, it soon turned out Huey
was allergic to cats. Huey has a strong belief that the concepts of fate and
coincidence are somehow mysteriously linked together; he also believes that
they are judges on whether the trio are able to have something or not. This
makes Huey possess a more determined character than his brothers as he is
usually the last to give up trying to get something when the trio want
anything. Huey is also the main brother very easily besotted by girls, sometimes
anthropomorphic ducks like he and his family and sometimes they are human.
Despite Huey's good character, he can sometimes come across as being arrogant
and overly keen on making money on occasions. Huey also has a talent for
playing the pipe organ, this was revealed when he performed a parody of
the Phantom of the Opera when he got a mind controlling device on his head
which he first believed to be braces. When Huey was given super powers, he was
given the power of super speed and referred to himself as the Really
Incredibly Fast Guy. Huey's full name is never made certain; his brothers
sometimes refer to him as Hueton, Huebert or Hueson. According to the
original comics and Donald Ducks shorts of which Quack Pack is an extension, his
birth name is Huebert. Dewey - Wears a striped blue baseball
shirt with the number one on the back over a light blue T-shirt and blue
shorts. He has the longest hair out of the three boys and is generally good
with computers and technology. He is usually the most logical out of the
three boys. Even though the trio love practical jokes, Dewey is the main
practical joker and considers himself a master prankster. It is his good
knowledge of technology that make him an impressive prankster such as his
knowledge of projectors to create ghosts and fog machines to create a more spooky
atmosphere. Every Halloween Dewey enjoys pranking Huey, Louie and Donald but on
one occasion this led to them being stranded near a haunted house. Dewey
believed this would be a great opportunity to perform more pranks,
however, it turned out that the house really was haunted and the scary pranks
were being pulled by the monsters that lived there. This resulted in Dewey
getting the blame and it took a while for Huey, Louie and Donald to realize
the truth. While all three boys possess strong consciences, Dewey appears to
possess the most powerful. So much so it manifested itself into a giant, fierce
version of Dewey and used brute force to make him protect his family in the
haunted house when he attempted to sneak away from it. Dewey also has a strong
belief in UFOs despite being aware that there have been scams in the past. When
Dewey received super powers, he was given powers of super intelligence and
psychokinesis. He referred to himself as Brain Boy. Dewey's full name is also not
officially revealed; in one episode he refers to himself as Deuteronomy, but
Huey has referred to him as Dewis. According to the original comics and
Donald Ducks shorts of which Quack Pack is an extension, his birth name is
Deuteronomy. Louie - Wears a green tanktop with green
shorts and a backwards green cap. Louie is a huge fan of comic books and sports
- more so than his brothers, with his favorite comic book hero being Mantis
Boy. Louie owns a violin just as Mantis Boy does; at first he is not good
playing the violin at all, indeed it is regarded as noise to anyone who hears
it, but eventually he learns to play it very well. On occasions, Louie uses it
to play sad music when he and his brothers are manipulating Donald in
order to get out of trouble. In one episode, it was revealed that Louie
feels very strongly for animal rights and even makes plans to set traps to
catch poachers to stop them taking animals. He can be fickle when it comes
to deciding what to be for a future career; he has made ideas to become an
astronaut, a sky diver, a top gun pilot, a hockey goal keeper and a policeman.
Despite Louie sometimes fails to understand people's aims, he has proven
to be a rational thinker; and sometimes an oddball, when the trio come up with a
plan for a particular situation Louie is usually the first of the boys to have
second thoughts and rethink the plan and compare it to the situation. When Louie
was given super powers he became very muscular and strong. He referred to
himself as Captain Muscle. Louie's full name is Louis.
Daisy - Wears a pink dress and dark pink shoes, although sometimes she also wears
a purple skirt suit or a pink sweater with a dark pink skirt. She has blue
eyes, long lashes and often dons pink or purple eye shadow. She is Donald's
girlfriend and the reporter of a T.V. show called What In the World, working
for Kent Powers. She does everything she can to try and get a story, sometimes
even to the extent of intentionally putting others in danger. She has a blue
pet iguana named Knuckles who eats almost anything. Daisy cares a lot about
Huey, Dewey and Louie and is willing to trust them more than Donald does as he
often believes they are up to no good - although Donald's often right. She puts
up with Donald's antics as well, which are also often shady and michevious.
Kent Powers - An egomaniacal TV personality, Kent Powers is the boss of
both Daisy and Donald, the latter of which he frequently tortures for so
little as a good laugh. He often is nasty to Daisy also though. Although
Donald is specifically employed as his cameraman, Kent specifically makes
Donald his personal assistant without paying him any extra. Despite his
popular image, he is narcissistic, arrogant, dishonest, greedy, selfish and
obnoxious, but unlike Donald has nothing whatsoever to compensate for this. Kent
openly dislikes Donald, and happily takes every opportunity to try and fire
him unless there's a good reason not to. Ludwig von Drake - Duckburg's resident
genius and inventor. Donald and the boys often visit Ludwig when they need his
advice or gadgets, though they tend to make matters worse for those involved.
Gwumpki - An immigrant from a country called Gladismorkia, he is friends of
Donald, Daisy, Huey, Dewey and Louie and owner of the local restaurant where the
boys often patronize. He is generally good-natured, though gets exasperated
when the topic of the boys' unpaid tab is brought up.
= Villains = The Claw - An extremely violent criminal
named for the metal claw replacing his hand. The Claw first appears in "Ready,
Aim... Duck!" when Donald claims that he was responsible for breaking the
triplets' video-game console. This causes The Claw to seek out Donald in
anger. In his second appearance, "The Long Arm of the Claw", the Claw
reappears as a fully rehabilitated "good citizen". However, he relapses back into
his violent nature whenever he sees gold and calms down only when he hears the
sound of a ringing bell. Agent X - A feminine and very arrogant
robot assassin working for an unnamed criminal organization, Agent X appears
in "Heavy Dental". Thinking he's visiting the dentist, Huey gets an
experimental mind-control device attached to his head when the doctor in
charge mistakes him for Agent X in disguise. As Huey quickly discovers and
abuses the device's power to his advantage, Agent X is sent to terminate
him and retrieve the device. She chases Huey back to Donald's house, where the
duck is trying to fix the kitchen plumbing. Once inside, Dewey comes up
with the idea to use the broken pipes to drench Agent X in a torrent of water,
completely rusting her. Episodes
Home video = VHS releases =
In 1997, three VHS cassettes containing 6 episodes of the series were released
in the United States. = DVD releases =
US releases The episodes "Transmission: Impossible",
"Heavy Dental" and "Feats of Clay" were released as the first Region 1 volume
Quack Pack: Volume 1 in the United States on February 14, 2006, but further
releases have not been planned yet. International releases
A one-off Christmas special compilation DVD titled Disney's Christmas Favourites
was released in Region 2 on October 31, 2005, and contains the Quack Pack
episode "Snow Place to Hide", along with the Mickey Mouse Works short segment
"Mickey's Mixed Nuts", the 101 Dalmatians: The Series episode "A
Christmas Cruella", and the short cartoon Toy Tinkers.
References External links
Official website Quack Pack at the Big Cartoon DataBase
UltimateDisney.com — Volume 1 DVD Review with Pictures
Quack Pack at Don Markstein's Toonopedia Quack Pack at the Internet Movie
Database Quack Pack at TV.com