Daisy Duck

**Daisy Duck** is an anthropomorphic duck who first appeared in the 1940 short *Mr. Duck Steps Out*. She is the girlfriend of Donald Duck, and the best friend of Minnie Mouse. Defined by her elegance, refined tastes and saucy demeanor, Daisy is characterized as a foil to the boorish Donald. She is typically depicted with a hair bow, half-lidded eyes, a purple and pink aesthetic, and heeled shoes. Though she berates Donald’s temperament, Daisy ironically harbors an explosive temper of her own. However, she generally suppresses her eccentricities in attempts to exude savoir-faire.

1937's cartoon *Don Donald* saw an early precursor of Daisy in the form of **Donna Duck**, who bore similar physical features and even had Daisy's temperament. The character would be renamed and refined in 1940 with the release of *Mr. Duck Steps Out*. Daisy would continue to appear in cartoons throughout the following decades, even playing the lead role in the 1947 shorts *Sleepy Time Donald* and *Donald's Dilemma*. The character was further expanded throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, where she headlined her own shorts in the television series *Mickey Mouse Works* and *House of Mouse*, usually playing opposite of Minnie. Since then, Daisy has become a breakout character and a core figure amongst Disney’s roster of animated characters.

## Background

### Personality

Daisy is shown to be a loving and caring girlfriend, who is always there for Donald and encourages him to change his ways for the better. She has faith that her boyfriend is a good person despite his flaws, and uses their relationship as a means to better Donald's life, specifically with regard to his temper. She has even been known to hype Donald up to Minnie and the others. Even so, Daisy has been guilty of unleashing the same kind of rage whenever something upsets her in some way.

In later years, Daisy's personality was expanded, evolving into a fun-loving, and fashion-forward diva. Compared to the rest of the classic Disney cast, Daisy is rather worldly and contemporary, both in how she behaves and even down to the way she speaks. She enjoys fashion and shopping above all else. Although Daisy is usually well-mannered and sophisticated, she can be a bit eccentric and overbearing at times. Daisy's bombastic and talkative nature can occasionally annoy her friends, who sometimes feel suffocated by her presence. She is extroverted and enjoys spending time with her friends, sometimes having a difficult time suppressing her excitement when she socializes with them. Still, as mentioned, Daisy is generally level-headed and mature, especially when needing to balance out the more cartoony hijinks of the others.

Like Donald, she has a love for attention. This is most notably seen in *House of Mouse*, where Daisy was obsessed with getting a chance to perform at the club. Unlike Donald, who stooped to underhanded deeds to steal the spotlight from Mickey, Daisy was determined to earn her stardom, believing her "big break" should be based solely on her talents, and was heartbroken when Donald (albeit well-intentionally) tried to pay Mickey to get Daisy to perform. Daisy can, however, feel envious toward others that have the attention she craves. For example, when Minnie became the apparent starlight of an ice-skating show, Daisy's obsession with the spotlight drove her to attempt to sabotage Minnie's performance. In spite of this, Daisy soon realizes that friendship is more important than fame. After her schemes nearly injured Minnie, Daisy apologized for her selfish behavior and admitted to her shortcomings. In "Daisy's Debut", Daisy was finally given a chance to perform on stage in a duet with Mickey, but after realizing Minnie was longing for quality time with her boyfriend, Daisy willingly dropped out so that Minnie would take her place, proving that she can be selfless and even sacrificial.

### Physical appearance

Daisy is like a female counterpart of Donald. She is a white duck with an orange bill, legs, and feet. She usually has lavender eyeshadow, long distinct eyelashes, and ruffled feathers around her lowest region to suggest a skirt. Like Donald, she typically doesn't wear pants, although she sometimes wears an actual skirt or longer dresses and clothes to cover her bottom.

She's usually seen sporting a blouse with puffed short sleeves and a V-neckline. She also wears a matching bow, heeled shoes, and a single bangle on her left wrist. The colors of her clothes change very often, but her signature colors are usually purple and pink. In comic series, while she also wears pink, she mainly later wears red with black.

The television series *Quack Pack* gave Daisy Duck a more mature wardrobe and hairstyle and cast her as a career woman with a television reporter job. *House of Mouse* got her a blue and purple employee uniform, with a blue bow, and a long ponytail. In *Mickey Mouse Clubhouse*, Daisy regained her purple blouse with a purple bow and shoes. She also wears a gold bangle and has a short ponytail, similar to the longer one seen in *House of Mouse*. It was used again in *Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures* while not working at Mickey’s garage. While working, she would wear a blue shirt with dark pants and a red bandanna tied around her head.

In the new *Mickey Mouse* animated TV series, Daisy wears her trademark blouse in a pink and matching bow. She also sports a pair of white boots with pink daisy designs on the outer sides of them.

In the *DuckTales* reboot, Daisy's hair is in a bun with a black ribbon similar to her appearance from *Donald's Diary* and she wears black shoes with bows. Her eyelids, which are usually magenta colored, were a shade of green. In her debut, she wore an overcoat with her traditional pink while wearing a blue and green sparkling dress with a black strap. Her main clothing is a long pink sleeveless dress with a thin dark pink strap.

### Family

Daisy’s first known relatives were three triplet nieces called April, May, and June (the female counterparts to Huey, Dewey, and Louie), who were created by Carl Barks and made their debut in *Flip Decision* (*Walt Disney's Comics and Stories* #149). In the same story, Daisy visits her sister, the mother of her nieces, who remained unseen. Daisy's parents first appeared in *Donald's Diary,* with three sons looking like Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Daisy has a number uncles, aunts, and cousins as well as other relatives and descendants in the comics series. Daisy has a cousin from Brazil named Almanda de Quack introduced in the *Roadster Racers* series. Daisy's grandmother Lily appears in the *Mixed-Up Adventures* series, who she calls her Gramquacker Lily.

### Voice

Clarence Nash voiced Daisy in her debut in Mr. Duck Steps Out. In the short, Nash voiced Daisy in a similar 'duck-like' voice as Donald's. Starting with Donald's Crime (1945), Gloria Blondell took over vocal duties on the character, giving her a more "normal" female human voice. Blondell would voice Daisy in a further four shorts between 1945 and 1947, with her last being Donald's Dilemma (1947). For Donald's Dream Voice (1948), actress Ruth Clifford, best known as the voice of Minnie Mouse in the late 1940s and early 1950s, voiced Daisy. Blondell returned to the role one final time in Crazy Over Daisy (1950). Vivi Janiss voiced the character in Donald's Diary (1954), while renowned voice actress June Foray (Rocky the Flying Squirrel) voiced her in her final classic shorts appearance, the educational Donald Duck short How to Have an Accident at Work (1959).

Voice actress Janet Waldo, best known as the voice of Judy Jetson, voiced Daisy in the Disneyland Records album An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players (1974).

In 1983, Daisy was voiced by Patricia Parris in Mickey's Christmas Carol who would voice her for various other projects until 1989. After briefly being voiced by Tony Anselmo in *Down and Out with Donald Duck*, Diane Michelle assumed the role for most projects starting in 1989 until 1999. The only exception was Quack Pack where Daisy was voiced by Kath Soucie. Michelle alternated in the role with Tress MacNeille for Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. In 1999, Tress MacNeille took over as Daisy's full-time voice starting with the second season of Mickey Mouse Works. MacNeille has voiced Daisy in the television series House of Mouse, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures, Legend of the Three Caballeros, DuckTales, and The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse. MacNeille has also voiced Daisy in television specials, movies, and video games. Daisy was voiced by Russi Taylor in Fantasia 2000, although she has no lines other than a scream. In the second season of Mickey Mouse Funhouse, MacNeille was replaced by Debra Wilson as MacNeille was uninterested in continuing the series. Wilson, the first African-American performer of Daisy, also voiced the character in the holiday special Mickey Saves Christmas.

## Trivia

* In *Walt Disney's Comics and Stories* #1 (published in 1940), Daisy Duck is named Donna in an image that appears based on *Mr. Duck Steps Out*. The image contains Donald and Daisy, with the text "Donald's got a girl! —and Donna thinks that HE'S just dandy. Because his heart is full of—candy!"
* Like Minnie and Clarabelle, Daisy wears a bow on her head and pumps. However, unlike Minnie and Clarabelle, Daisy doesn't have a dress, as her feathers are ruffled in a way to create a dress. Instead, she wears a shirt that serves as a top.
* According to Don Rosa, Daisy is the sister of Donald's brother-in-law, making her the paternal aunt of Huey, Dewey, and Louie. However, this never turned out to be true but the boys still call her Aunt Daisy in the comics.
* In the Italian dub, Daisy was renamed "Paperina", which comes from "Papero", the Italian word for "Duck" & "Rina", the Italian suffix word for girls. It is similar to Donald's Italian name, "Paperino".

## References

1. ↑ "Donald's Double Trouble"
2. ↑ "Donald's Dinner Date"
3. ↑ "Captain Donald"
4. ↑ "Cured Duck"
5. ↑ "Duck the Halls"
6. ↑ "Daisy's Road Trip"
7. ↑ "Daisy Bothers Minnie"
8. ↑ *The Three Musketeers*
9. ↑ "The Adorable Couple"
10. ↑ "Ladies' Night"
11. ↑ "Where's Minnie?"
12. ↑ "Rent Day"
13. ↑ *Belles on Ice*