Post by Hector on May 9, 2019 9:50:42 GMT
inducks.org/story.php?c=I+TL++368-A
One of the worst versions of Scrooge McDuck ever appears in this story. For a long time, I thought it was written by Martina.
Donald hates Duckburg's cold winter and craves a chance to spend that period in a hot, tropical place. Such a chance comes up when
Scrooge visits his nephews and moans about his profit not increasing as much as it used to be. Notice: It's not that his businesses
are not profitable. It's not even that his profit has stopped increasing either. It's that it doesn't increase as much as it used to be!
That classifies as a reason for depression in the tycoon's sick mind!
Anyway, Donald decides to exploit that opportunity and suggests that Scrooge buys a tropical island and turns it into a luxurious
resort. Scrooge is convinced and sends Donald (who offered to work for free) to the island so that he negotiates with the natives. Of
course, the other three nephews come along.
The natives are surprisingly meek and even more surprisingly fat. (I mean, seriously, where do they get so much food under primitive
conditions?) They seem cool with the plans Donald's uncle has for the island. There is just a (not so) minor problem. A giant occassionally
shows up and destroys everything in his way with a club. Why? Well, why not? He's a giant; who's gonna stop him anyway?
Donald recalls the biblical story of Samson and foolishly believes that cutting off the giant's hair is all it takes to solve the problem.
And that's exactly what he does! He goes to the giant's hut at night and cuts off his hair. Then he calls Scrooge and says that all the
issues have been solved.
Scrooge arrives soon, bringing along construction equipment. The giant appears and, predictably, destroys Scrooge's presumably
really expensive machinery. He and Donald's nephews manage to escape, but Donald is captured by the giant. When the other three
nephews explain to their senior uncle what has happened, Scrooge is like 'serves him right to be eaten by the giant' and does not
bother with that any further!
Now it's all up to the three little nephews to save their uncle. They soak some candies into sleeping potion. They got the sleeping
potion from Uncle Scrooge; they inform us that he always carries that stuff with him, because he has no other way to sleep, thinking
about his money all the time (so sad).
The scene where Scrooge is moaning about his damaged stuff while (in the very same panel) the three little nephews are running
to save their uncle is the darkest thing I have read in a Disney story. In that panel, one of the nephews says, 'it seems Uncle Scrooge
cannot help us.' That line contains the whole saddening message. No matter how angry Scrooge's attitude makes you, you cannot
help feeling a little sorry for this miserable creature as well, a person who (as the nephew put it) cannot feel any sympathy for anyone,
because the thought of money dominates anything else inside him, a person who is depressed because his profit does not increase
as much as he wants it to, a person who, despite being the richest one in the world, has to drink sleeping potion to get some sleep.
Nevertheless, the nephews' plan is successful. As soon as Donald has been saved (and he's like, you know, 'woo hoo, now I can
enjoy sitting on my butt all day in this tropical island'), Scrooge brings him back to reality; he has to work for a really long time in
order to pay for the stuff the giant has broken.
What I didn't really get is the way the three little nephews are wordlessly jumping around in joy in the last panels of the story.
Are they happy that their uncle was saved? Are they happy that he was punished for having tried to fool Scrooge in the first
place? Is this just some sort of symbolism that denotes the contrast between their childhood carefreeness and the adults' misery?
(Donald is miserable for having to work to pay his debt, Scrooge is miserable because he'll never be content with anything.)
Whatever positive traits this story might have are overshadowed by that dark version of Scrooge, so I cannot give this story
a single point! I'm not against dark stories, but this isn't supposed to be what Disney is about. Children read that stuff! When I first
read it (I was 10), I did not have any fun at all; on the contrary, I was seriously upset.
I envy those lucky enough not to have read this story in their childhood. If a volume containing that story falls in your hands, rip it to
shreds, open the window and scatter the shreds in the wind. Just make sure there are no passers by down below, for very few people
enjoy being showered with makeshift comfetti.
Rating: 0/10
