Baby Huey

Baby Huey, a gigantic and naïve infant duckling cartoon character. He was created by Martin Taras for Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios, and became a Paramount cartoon star during the 1950s. Although created by Famous for their animated cartoons, Huey first appeared in comic-book form, in an origin story in Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 September 1949, as published by St John's.

Famous Studios

Huey first appeared onscreen in the "Noveltoons" short "Quack a Doodle Doo", released in 1950. The character's voice was provided by Sid Raymond, an actor and comedian who created several other voices for Famous Studios' characters, including Katnip.

Many animated shorts featuring Huey had recurring themes. Most common among them was him trying to be just like any other kid his age. He would see his peers playing, and would immediately get excited. Whenever he tried to involve himself in the activities of his peers (also anthropomorphic ducklings) he would often inadvertently cause more problems, and as a result they would drive him away through trickery (and into tears). A hungry fox would show up feigning friendship and setting traps along the way. At first Huey was blissfully unaware of the fox's true agenda. But as his peers watched the annoyed fox in action from a safe distance (and fearing for "his" safety just as they did their own), he came to realize the truth about his predator and dispose of him, usually by saying: "I think you're trying to kill me!", and would finish the fox.

Baby Huey had a sidekick in later comics. This was his slow-thinking cousin, whom he referred to as Cousin Dimwit. Dimwit was characterized as a fairly skinny duck in an oversized red woolen sweater, with sleeves that ran over his hands and hung down several inches.

Harvey Comics and later animated appearances

"Harvey Hits" #60 was the first Harvey-published comic book to feature the character. "Baby Huey, the Baby Giant" was the first comic to bear the character's name; spin-offs included "Baby Huey in Duckland" and "Baby Huey and Papa". Harvey purchased the rights to all of Famous' original characters in 1959, and Huey continued to appear regularly in Harvey publications until 1972. Huey was rarely seen for nearly two decades afterwards, returning to comics in 1990.

Film Roman produced a series of Baby Huey cartoons for television in 1994, which aired as "The Baby Huey Show" for one season. Baby Huey also starred in a live-action direct-to-video film, "Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure", in 1999.

U.S. President Bill Clinton in a 1993 conversation cited his similarities to Baby Huey: "I'm a lot like Baby Huey. I'm fat. I'm ugly. But if you push me down, I keep coming back." [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989559,00.html]

The documentary Hype! references Baby Huey; by comparing it to different music revolutions that hit different cities at random times.

References

External links

* [http://home.att.net/~thft/bepisode.htm "The Baby Huey Show" episode guide]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/babyhuey.htm Baby Huey entry at Toonopedia]