RICH: Disney Family Trees

[DGE@ECN.egmont.com]

	Hey Rich!

>There's also the case where, as originally presented, Mickey's
>own Nephews were apparently not even his relations at the beginning, but
>rather the children of a woman named Mrs. Fieldmouse, but as the story
>progressed, they adhered to the title "Nephews" and Mrs. Fieldmouse was
>lost to obscurity. In time we came to understand the boys' last name is
>still "Fieldmouse," but this is the name attributed to Mickey's "sister"
>(called "Amelia Fieldmouse" in Italy).
	Actually, it happened *faster* than you suggest:
	When Morty and Ferdie first appear in Sept. 1932, they talk about
"Unca Mickey", but Mickey calls their mom "Mrs. Fieldmouse", which- true,
isn't the way you'd think he'd address a relative. It was only a few *weeks*
later that the blood relationship was retroactively made clear, with Mickey
officially introducing Morty and Ferdie to Minnie as his nephews.
	As for Mrs. Fieldmouse, she wasn't lost to obscurity. She returned
to pick the nephews up after their first visit to Mickey in 1932; a 1939
story mentioned her again; and at Egmont we frequently show her today. In
Egmont continuity, the kids live with her when they're not with Mickey. And
yes, in our continuity she is Mickey's sister. She has to be, if the kids
are to be real nephews.
	The name Amalia (note spelling; I used to be wrong about this, too)
is actually her Dutch name, not her Italian one. In Egmont stories, she has
the English first name of Felicity.

	As for Minnie's nieces,

>The truth is that there appears to be only ONE
>instance where [Minnie's nieces] are called Melody & Millicent,
>but their names changed to Pammy & Tammy

	Actually, to the best of my knowledge, there's one story where
they're called Melody and Millicent, and one story where they're Pammy and
Tammy. The names didn't formally change from one to the other. More like two
stories were written, one without knowledge of the other.

>according
>to David Gerstein, only Egmont has decided on one set of "official" names;
>that being "Millie & Tillie."

	Those names are actually the Danish names, which I discovered were
used verbatim on an old Egmont character list, and which were never used
anywhere in English. So they're no longer official. Since 1999, the official
reference names we use at Egmont are Millie and Melody.
	The beauty of those names, BTW, is that they allow us to be
consistent all the time. When there are two, it's Millie and Melody, and
when the girl is singular, it's Melody.

	Clarifyingly,
	David