Reginella returns!

[Orora]

How many of you are familiar with Reginella?
She is a little alien queen who is a love interest of Donald in the Italian stories.
She was created by Giorgio Cavazzano and Rodolfo Cimino.


Reginella meeting Donald for the first time, in 1972:

When Reginella first appeared, her character was more ambiguous. Donald gets captured by her servants while at sea, and when she sees him for the first time, she asks him to be "conditioned" because she finds him attractive.
Later, he gets by her side and it's implied he is not quite himself, not even recognizing Huey, Dewey and Louie.

This aspect will be forgotten, however, and Donald will later be shown as genuinely in love with Reginella.





However, each time, tragic circumstances forced Reginella and Donald apart.

Strangely, the first time they separated, it was partly because Donald remembered Daisy. However, Daisy will not be mentioned again in the later Reginella stories.

Her stories have only recently gotten an English translation. Her original 1972 story has been localized as The Kingdom Under the Sea.

Her last story appearance was in 1994 (if you don't count parody appearances). And she has recently returned in a new story in Topolino!
(both those later episodes didn't have Cavazzano working on it)


Already, she has had a significant character redesign: her eyes are now almost manga-like, purple and sparkly!
(except for the cover where they're blue, but whatever; at least Cavazzano drew this cover)




Who is familiar with Reginella? And what do you think of this long-awaited return? (23 years, after all!)

[drakeborough]

Jul 28, 2017 14:20:29 GMT Orora said:

She was created by Giorgio Cavazzano.

[...]

Her last story appearance was in 1994. And she has recently returned in a new story in Topolino!
(both those later episodes didn't have Cavazzano working on it)

To be exact, she was created by writer Rodolfo Cimino, though it's true that Cavazzano did the art for her first 4 stories.

Jul 28, 2017 14:20:29 GMT Orora said:

And what do you think of this long-awaited return? (23 years, after all!)

Technically, the years are just 12, even though her last appearance was a Grande Parodia, and so she was just playing a role.

There are also some rumors that Cimino wrote more scripts with Reginella but the stories were rejected. I can't confirm it, though.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

What I think? Hip-hip-hooray! Especially because the art on the story seems pretty damn good (though I'm not super happy with the gratuitous redesign).

[Orora]

Thanks for the corrections, drakeborough! Forgot to mention these parts.

As for her redesign, I get an Alessandro Barbucci vibe here, for the "manga" side of things...

And I also noticed she now has a star on both sides of her hair!

Funny thing is, in her 1994 appearance "Donald, Reginella and the fearsome Vampirion", her skin became peach/brown as the side effect of a magic spell she used in the previous 1992 episode, "Reginella and the Earth Menace". Looks like it wore off.

[sirtao]

Jul 28, 2017 14:20:29 GMT Orora said:

Later, he gets by her side and it's implied he is not quite himself, not even recognizing Huey, Dewey and Louie.

It's not implied. It's explicitly stated Donald was "split in two", with the "Earthly" part of him sealed away, all his memories of his previous life removed.
His attraction and affection for Reginella was completely spontaneous and not manipulated, though.

Strangely, the first time they separated, it was partly because Donald remembered Daisy.

Actually, I don't remember Daisy being referenced at all in their first (or any) story, they were forced to separate because Donald wasn't completely purged of his Earthly origins.

However, Daisy will not be mentioned again in the later Reginella stories.

Daisy is Worst Girl, nothing lost.

[Orora]

Jul 28, 2017 17:37:40 GMT sirtao said:

Jul 28, 2017 14:20:29 GMT Orora said:

Later, he gets by her side and it's implied he is not quite himself, not even recognizing Huey, Dewey and Louie.

It's not implied. It's explicitly stated Donald was "split in two", with the "Earthly" part of him sealed away, all his memories of his previous life removed.
His attraction and affection for Reginella was completely spontaneous and not manipulated, though.

Strangely, the first time they separated, it was partly because Donald remembered Daisy.

Actually, I don't remember Daisy being referenced at all in their first (or any) story, they were forced to separate because Donald wasn't completely purged of his Earthly origins.

However, Daisy will not be mentioned again in the later Reginella stories.

Daisy is Worst Girl, nothing lost.

Ah ok. Well, what I wanted to say was that this whole part of Reginella "conditioning" him through a machine and then checking if he still recognizes his nephews... kinda felt brainwashy.

Yes, at the end of the first story, Donald and Reginella separated because Donald ran away from an enemy who attacked him with a flaming sword, and he was considered a coward, thus "unworthy".
Reginella gave Donald a medallion, and he decides to throw it away in the sea, saying he cannot live with her and that he needs to part with her memories... but he does this after Huey, Dewey and Louie mention Daisy!!

More on her new character design:

Wow, she gained eyebrows!!

[Matilda]

I've read all four of the Cimino/Cavazzano Reginella stories in French--and now the first one in English. I enjoy them, though the character and her stories have not become "real" in my mental Duckworld. Personally, I'd rather revamp the relationship between Donald and Daisy (as some more recent stories have done) so that their relationship has more going for it, as opposed to giving Donald an alternative love interest from outer space. How could Daisy ever compete against an alien queen who's nonthreatening because she's small and cute and (literally and figuratively) looks up to Donald? Who furthermore never has to deal with Donald's temper and other annoying traits that show up in everyday life in Duckburg? Sometimes Reginella feels too much to me like an eleven-year-old boy's fantasy girlfriend.

From a feminist point of view, I like "the marriage of Reginella" best of the lot, in terms of the courage and agency Reginella shows--though I still wish she could play a more active role in her own rescue. Why couldn't she and Donald have come up with the idea of using the radio together?

[deb]

Personally, as obnoxious as she can be at her worst, I still like Daisy better. In the earliest Al Taliaferro strips with Daisy, she and Donald were both equally as awful to each other. They deserved each other, because who else would have either of them?
Regillina does seem too much like a "fantasy girlfriend", so in a way it's appropriate that at the end of each story, Donald has to give up his fantasy girl and go back to reality.

[rasterax]

I generally enjoyed these stories. They were a little different, mood-wise, from the standard fare. You rarely see romance or wistfulness in Disney comics being played relatively straight, or non-comedic downer endings. I remember the ending of Reginella e la minaccia terrestre, with the kind of disturbing image of her being draped in that black blanket, impressing me as a kid.

However, I don't know how much further they could've gone with those, always coming up with some tragic happenstance to keep them apart without diluting the impact. Also, her latest story before the new one was drawn by Bancells, who ... is not exactly Cavazzano.

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Jul 28, 2017 17:10:31 GMT Orora said:

As for her redesign, I get an Alessandro Barbucci vibe here, for the "manga" side of things...

The drawing is by Giada Perissinotto, an artist who refined her style in the Disney Academy, hence under Barbucci's teaching I guess.

[The KKM]

Daisy is a conundrum to me. I legit can't think of many stories at all where I enjoy her, making it a rare case of a Disney core character where if I think "the best stories of this character", animation comes to mind instead of comics - I really like her depiction of being a sassy angry but still loving girlfriend on the new Mickey Shorts.

[Minotaur]

Jul 29, 2017 9:19:35 GMT The KKM said:

Daisy is a conundrum to me. I legit can't think of many stories at all where I enjoy her, making it a rare case of a Disney core character where if I think "the best stories of this character", animation comes to mind instead of comics - I really like her depiction of being a sassy angry but still loving girlfriend on the new Mickey Shorts.

Second. Love how she is portrayed in Mickey Shorts. While I don't hate her in most of the comics, her appearance in Double Duck is rather unpleasant.

[RobbK1]

I'm not at all familiar with Reginella, as the only Italian stories I ever read were those printed in The Dutch "Stripgoed" magazine (precursor of "Donald Duck Extra"), and the few Scarpa stories printed in Gladstone, Disney Comics and Gemstone, and a few of The IDW Comics. I also read a few special Italian stories reprinted in Dutch books, such as "Mickey's Inferno". I've never read The Pocket Books (Italian, Scandinavian, German, or even The Dutch issues -mainly because I didn't like the general art style). It is interesting to me that Donald would have an alien love interest. Wouldn't that almost as weird as beastiality??? Or is it okay to mate out of species if both partners are "consenting adults"

[The KKM]

I think it follows standard sci-fi "they're similar enough species" logic, like Star Trek.

[RobbK1]

Jul 29, 2017 12:01:15 GMT The KKM said:

I think it follows standard sci-fi "they're similar enough species" logic, like Star Trek.

I don't know about that.  I think I'd think hard and long about jumping into anything like that!