Yeah, I don't like how Paperinik is translated in English as "Duck Avenger". It just doesn't sound right...
There was a mobile game where his name was "Phantom Duck". I feel it sounds better, especially how it starts with a "P" and ends with a "K", just like his common "PK" nickname.
On a somewhat related note: I hate it when an interesting and important character is in a story and is never given a name!!
Like, there was this Mickey and Iga Biva story "Mickey and the Beta comet" where they fight a flower-themed supervillainess:
I thought she was quite cool... But she is never given a name, and they never even tell if she was a woman in a costume or an actual plant person!! (it's left ambiguous) Quite frustrating.
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I hate "Pulcinella", the official French name of Reginella.
The weird thing is, her stories were printed only once in France (with one untranslated), and she was either called "Brunella" or "Réginella" in the French translation.
You know what a "Pulcinella" actually is? A stock character in Italian classic comedy, a crude and disgraceful man:
Reginella is supposed to be a pretty and graceful girl... I have the feeling modern French translators found a random Italian word and said "Eh, good enough."
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It's odd Miqueu's family tree doesn't include Goofy's wife (from the "George Geef" shorts that also included a prototype of Max Goof) or Glory-Bee, who was Goofy's girlfriend for a long time in the comics.
Some theorize that she is the most likely to be Goofy's wife in the "Goof Troop" or the "George Geef" continuities. (even though the wife's face is never shown, she could be a "dognose" as well as a human... even though Pete's wife is shown as a human, different from Peg)
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A spaceship brings to Earth a strange metallic brick that collided with a satellite.
The object seems to have been designed to be as "useless" as possible. It even has a complex mechanism inside that serves no purpose whatsoever!! An X-ray analysis shows:
Scientist: "You can see colored balls going down a spiral circuit, fueled by a mechanic system! And it starts again from the top!"
People are fascinated by how "useless" an object can be, and strangely, everyone in Duckburg starts feeling cynical, bored, finding everything "useless" and losing interest in anything.
A news reporter talks to a duck guy who likes to own "useless" things (while a pig tries to get attention).
News reporter:"What?" Tin hat guy:"Don't mind him! I am a champion at useless things!"
Tin hat guy: "Did you see that? Ever since yesterday morning, I am tapping my shoe on the same spot of the sidewalk! Can you do better?"
I put the last live-action image as a JOKE. It wasn't a photo in the story!
It is an image from the Village People's music video of their song Macho Man. Do you know this song?
I decided to put it because Donald was doing a commercial for a brand of barbell called "Macho". I think this song is funny, and it shows men doing muscle exercise. Because it's called "Macho Man", I thought many people would recognize it and understand the reference.
It was just a joke from my part!
And to answer your other question, I am French and I can speak both French and English. That's why I could translate it.
I am also learning Italian, and I can understand it moderately.
Hmm... OK! . So that last image was a joke and I knew it before you confirmed it to me. I don't like those kind of jokes and that why I didn't laugh at the last image. I haven't heard of this song before and that why I was not familiar with it. The story itself is fine but it's only the Macho Man image that pissed me off! . I already know that you're a french and there no need to say that again. It's great to hear that you can understand some of the italian words but tell me some of the italian words that you can understand.
Ah? You didn't know that song? The Village People were very famous, and although their songs "YMCA" and "In The Navy" are their most popular songs, the song "Macho Man" was quite popular too, especially after being used in 1990s movies like The Nutty Professor (1996) and In & Out (1997).
But I guess I am older than a lot of you, so I have a different culture...
Oh, there are many Italian words I can understand now, from reading Disney comics in Italian... Like... "Purtroppo": unfortunately "Zitto!": Shut up! "Strega": Witch "Scemo": Idiot "Topo": Mouse "Anatra": Duck (except the Italians use the word "Papero" to talk about the Disney ducks, even though it means a baby goose) "Cane": Dog "Togliati di mezzo!": Get out of here! "Come puoi dire una cosa simile?": How can you say such a thing?
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I put the last live-action image as a JOKE. It wasn't a photo in the story!
It is an image from the Village People's music video of their song Macho Man. Do you know this song?
I decided to put it because Donald was doing a commercial for a brand of barbell called "Macho". I think this song is funny, and it shows men doing muscle exercise. Because it's called "Macho Man", I thought many people would recognize it and understand the reference.
It was just a joke from my part!
And to answer your other question, I am French and I can speak both French and English. That's why I could translate it.
I am also learning Italian, and I can understand it moderately.
What do you mean, you didn't laugh because of the "live action commercial part"? I didn't say anything about "live action", I said that Donald and Fethry were doing a TV commercial "live", as in, the cameras were filming them and the video was transmitted immediately to people's TVs while they were shooting.
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About the live commercials, it's weird how this keeps happening in Disney comics: it's also in "Lentils of Babylons", as Geox has pointed out. Perhaps live commercials is the norm in this world, for some odd reason.
Live commercials are also a convenient excuse to bring conflict in the story.
Of course, back in the 1950s and 1960s, a lot of TV was still being live, even if it was a fiction show. There was that infamous Thomas the Tank Engine show in 1953 that was live: a train derailed, and right on camera, a human hand came in to put it back up!!
Lentils of Babylons was made in 1960, so I guess it still makes sense here.
The Brazilian story I am talking about was originally made in 1980; I am guessing the authors were of an older generation, still viewing TV like this.
In Toy Story 2, the commercials done by villain Al McWhiggin are also done live, which is very clear in the end. The movie came out in 1999. This is kinda forced... but even as a kid back then, I shrugged it off as a necessary trope for children's fiction.
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Donald and Fethry have to shoot a live TV ad for barbells of a brand called "Macho".
Donald's barbells are lifted by invisible strings (because he isn't strong enough) and he is wearing a special bodysuit connected to an air-blowing machine, so that it can simulate growing muscles.
Fethry:"Careful! Three, two, one... action!" Donald: "Are you desperate? You have no muscles? Macho barbells are the right thing for you!"
But the machine is malfunctioning!
Fethry: "Oh, oh! It broke down!" Donald: "...allowed me to get an athlete's torso!"
"Magnificent, dashing muscles! ... that keep on growing day after day!"
After all those years, I have imagined the exact tone of voice Donald is saying those lines...
Fethry: "My god, how horrible!" Donald:"If you want to look like me: d... do what I do!"
I love the contrast between the two speech bubbles!
Fethry:"We can't cut, this is live!" Donald:"Macho barbells..."
Yes, it's almost like it was a bad idea to do a TV ad live, instead of just taping it so that you can avoid this kind of problems.
"An explosion of muscles!"
A terrible pun, but I find this funny!
Macho, Macho Maaaan!
I want to be... a Macho Maaaan!
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How does Scrooge know that the doll will curse the person who touches it into shrinking to the size of a mouse?
Well, Foola Zoola told Scrooge "You'd best depart, infidel, before a nutshell serves you as a hat!" when they first met. And after Scrooge tricked him, Foola said "You have incurred the wrath of the vodoo gods! They will shrink you to the size of the rat you are!" In fact, on the Titanic Scrooge thinks "Bombie wants to shrink me!". It's also possible Crnelius McCobb isn't the only person who was later shrunk by Foola Zoola's vodoo magic, and Scrooge would have hears rumors of these shrunk men by the employees of his rubber plantation.
So, Don Rosa deliberately didn't mention the "shrinking" thing and only implied it in the story so that it wouldn't come off as... silly? To make it more... threatening? Okayy...
Funny thing is, I didn't read the original Voodoo Hoodoo story for years until I was 23. I had only read the Don Rosa story when it came out in France around 1996, only remembering that touching the doll would give a terrifying curse. And a few years later, I also read a kid book about supernatural monsters that mentioned the Voodoo Hoodoo story, saying that Donald, after getting the doll from Bombie, was "sent to a dark and evil voodoo land", which sounded really creepy.
So, when I read the original Carl Barks story, I was a bit underwhelmed. Just shrinking?
Paul Halas and Don Rota also reused the "Donald gets cursed by a voodoo object and shrinks" plot!! In The Incredible Shrinking Duck that I read back in 1994!
Because of this, I felt a sense of "déjà vu" when I read Voodoo Hoodoo.
Yeah, it's not Barks's fault, I know. France has rarely printed this story.
By the way, I think this story had kind of a disappointing ending...
{SPOILER; click to reveal} Donald and HDL just leave Bombie to bounce away, alone and lonely, even though they became friends and Bombie was shown as a sympathetic victim... Scrooge's conflict with Foola Zoola is still unconcluded. After all, Don Rosa has "retconned" this conflict as Scrooge's bottom-down action, and the start of his true darkness. It is an important thing that I think could be developed much more...
But I guess it is as likely as seeing what happened for real to Hortense and Della, or even seeing them interacting with their children!!
It comes out more because of Don Rosa's follow-up to it.
In Don Rosa's Life and Times of Scrooge Mc Duck, Don Rosa decides to "explain" Scrooge's history with Foola Zoola and Bombie.
Because Scrooge having destroyed an African village was considered awful, in Don Rosa's story, it is treated as something indeed awful, the "worst action of his life", which estranges him from his sisters.
And in the story, it is treated more as Scrooge taking revenge in impulse against Foola Zoola who rejected his arrogant offer while humiliating him in front of his sisters.
Foola Zoola summons Bombie the Zombie to give him a cursed voodoo doll...
And that's the last Scrooge sees of Foola! Foola doesn't offer more information on the Voodoo curse.
How does Scrooge know that the doll will curse the person who touches it into shrinking to the size of a mouse?
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I have not read a lot of "Forest universe/Song of the South-inspired" comics, to be honest. In France, the "Forest" comics became rare after the early 1980s, and from then on, it was mostly Donald or Mickey-based universes.
I have read read very little Br'er Rabbit comics, and I didn't even know who Molly was until you showed her now!!
Big Bad Wolf is not Big Bad Wolf without his overalls... I am used to him having only one "suspender".
Lil' Wolf's character trait is that he is good and his father bad. All the classic Lil' Wolf stories I have read was about him protecting his Pig friends from his father, so I am used to that. I don't remember Lil' Wolf being bad.
Was Lil' Wolf one of the original three evil sons of Big Bad Wolf? Who turned good? Or was he another son?
Anyway, while I liked the "classic" look of Lil' Wolf being his father's son and dressing like him, I am strongly attached to his "80s kid" look.
Also, for the "Forest universe" fans (and I am guessing you are a big fan of it, nectaria), what do you think of Br'er Bear and Br'er Fox having sons?
What is your opinion of Mina, the girl wolf who is Lil' Wolf's friend?
She was mostly used by French comics, where she was drawn a lot like Minnie Mouse back then (by the French): overalls, lace-up sneakers along with the bow on her head!
This panel you just saw? That's her first appearance in a French comic, and she is making fun of Br'er Bear Junior by telling him "Hi, you big stupid ugly Fatso!" Thankfully, she is showing more depth later...
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So you were really freak out when you first saw this cover, orora? . Ha! Ha! Ha! . Yes, they looks really scary in this kind of style! . It's great see those duckifyed drawings of the celebrities and I agree that they looks better in cartoony style than in realistic style.
You know this thing called "Uncanny Valley"? It's an easy way to make people creeped out.
Yes, I loved those illustrations in the old French Disney magazines, when they ACTUALLY used Disney characters. And when the artists actually made professional efforts to draw them.
Nowadays, they are using ugly, uninspired, insipid not-Disney-related mascots that I really hate and I think they don't belong at all in the magazine. Let's see "Picsou Magazine" and its new mascots:
Can you stand to look at them??
This guy, "Professor Müller", is shown as the "inventor" of the gadget toys offered by Picsou Magazine. He is a stereotypical mad scientist with a German accent. Isn't that original? Can you see all the effort that has been made to create him? After all, it's not like there is already an inventor character you could use for your Disney magazine...
Ohhhhhhh waiiiiiit...
This is "Morlok". He is the assistant to "Professor Müller". He is the stereotypical "Igor" freaky servant to the mad scientist stereotype. Isn't that original? His personality is that he is stupid. Isn't that original? Can you see all the effort has been made to create and draw him? (1500 hours on the drawing board!!)
This is "Michel Cerveau" ("Cerveau" means "brain" in French). His personality is that he is stupid. Isn't that original? Does his design look familiar? Of course! He is a clone of Spongebob Squarepants except he is a brain instead of a sponge! Kids love Spongebob, don't they? Spongebob is already overly shown everywhere in kid media, but that's no reason! Isn't that original? Can you see all the effort that has been made to create him?
This is the "Masked Octopus". He is an octopus wearing a mask. He is a "superhero". Isn't that original? He appears in the letter corner to answer the kids' letters. After all, it's not like the kids would prefer to interact with Donald, Scrooge, Daisy or Gyro... what do you think this is, a Disney magazine or something? (1500 hours in Photoshop!!)
...
Some would say "But it's to bring in the modern edgy kid crowd!"
My answer: "Well, who would try to read a Disney comic magazine to begin with? Don't you think... oh, I don't know, people who actually want to see mostly classic Disney characters?? You know, beautiful, enchanting, whimsical, professional Disney??"