There’s a lot to see in this life. Our time on this planet is limited. And I’m gonna waste some of my valuable time by reviewing Young Donald Duck. But I need to share the pain! I’m reading the Swedish translation, Kalle Anka I Plugget (Donald Duck in School). Now, there are 8 chapters in total, and I’ll post each review soon after I’ve read each chapter. Come and join in on the torture, why don’t you!
First off, the cover. What is this?! I don’t like Donald’s edgy clothing. I don’t like Mickey’s bangs. I don’t like that Goofy is some sort of gamer-stoner or whatever. I’m not a fan of the art in general.
Alright, Part I. Donald is portrayed as a lazy trouble maker. I guess that’s fine. He’s friends with Peter Pig. The fact that this character is present seems to imply that this story acts as a prequel of sorts to The Wise Little Hen. However, that story took place in the 1930s, and now we see Donald and Peter playing Guitar Hero. Smartphones and other futuristic technology will pop up later, so maybe this is some sort of out-of-“continuity” present day retelling of events (please note the quotation marks around the word “continuity”). Donald and Peter think they will be famous by playing video games for long stretches of time and consuming watermelons and soda pop.
Grandma Duck seems to be in regular contact with Scrooge McDuck. Scrooge also seems to be invested in Donald’s upbringing and has “big plans for him”. When Donald screws up, Scrooge counters by sending him to an expensive boarding school. Is it just me, or is that very out of character for Scrooge? Especially before he gets to know Donald. Especially when the only memory he has of the kid, is that Donald kicked him up the arse… I mean, this story probably doesn’t follow Rosa-lore, but whatever. Scrooge should hate Donald – not pay for his education. I think that’s odd.
Another odd thing is Peter Pig’s characterization. In The Wise Little Hen, he was a lazy pig who does everything in order to have to work as little as possible. There’s not too much personality to contradict. Here however, he's a sneaky crook, who lies and cheats in order to have his football player friend give him money. He even throws away the guy’s car keys so that he’ll be forced to use Peter’s boat as transport instead. He might as well be a totally different character.
Speaking of Donald’s friends, this is supposed to be a sequel to Donald Duckling, right? Now, I haven’t read too much of the Duckling-series in my day, but I know that Donald has a few other friends in that series. Where are they? Why is out-of-character-Peter Pig here? How did they meet?
Oh well. “End of Episode I” Finally. Wait – “Episode I”? At the beginning it said “Part I”.
I did not like this. The humor doesn’t work for me, the story isn’t interesting, and the characters don’t act like themselves.
Donald goes to Beaver Creek to Beagleberg’s Boarding School. He immediately meets Mickey Mouse, whom he becomes roommates with. Not 24 hours later he meets Daisy Duck for the first time. This seems like the most obvious and the least interesting way these people could have met. All at the same time, and their dynamic is immediately identical to the one they share in the present day. Three of the most famous characters in all of fiction, and this anti-climactic event supposedly started it all. [sigh] Anyways, after a brief “conversation” with Daisy, Donald is already in love.
We’re told that Donald and Mickey are in the same class, which would mean that they are the same age. I don’t like this, as Donald was clearly portrayed as much younger than Mickey in the old Gottfredson-strips. Donald seemed to be closer in age to Mickey’s nephews.
Anyways, Daisy’s defining character trait in this story seems to be that she is part of the gymnastics team. The timeline of the story is very confusing, but it seems like she will have a rhythmic gymnastics exhibition already on the second or third night of the semester… Okay. A mean girl tries to sabotage Daisy, by playing awful music. However, Donald steps in to save the day, by changing the order of the girls’ performances. Now the mean girl has to perform to the awful music. The principal blames Donald for the incident…even though he’s innocent. But Daisy thanks him with a kiss… even though they’ve only met once before…very briefly.
So that was part II. I guess I didn't have too much to say about this one. It's about as bad as the first one. It's lazy and badly written, the characters doesn't feel right, and I don't feel comfortable referring to the jokes as jokes.
In part III, we of course meet Minnie Mouse. It’s like they have a checklist of things to include, and the story itself is not important. But, okay. How do we introduce Minnie's character in the best way? How did Minnie and Mickey first meet? Well, we're not even told if this truly is their first meeting. Minnie smells Donald’s new perfume, and assumes that it is Mickey who reeks. How embarrassing. Then she leaves. Hmm...
Daisy doesn’t remember Donald anymore, even though she kissed him… I don’t know about you, but if I kissed someone in fourth grade, that would stick in my mind for a while. It would be one thing if they established Daisy as a popular girl, who kisses boys all of the time… but they don’t. She’s just a random girl, not even highest up in the hierarchy.
A group of bully-boys rides up on the playground. Mickey’s first instinct is to run and hide. Our hero, everybody! At this point we meet Trudy, Pete’s future girlfriend. Mickey knows her from theater class. That’s odd, since in her introduction story, The Chirikawa Necklace, she was a few years older than Mickey…and also she kidnapped him when he was a baby and tried to drown him in cement. I’m glad to see that a dozen or so years later, everything is fine between them!
Now, present-day Trudy is a battle-axe of a woman. She’s just as much of a hardened mean criminal as Pete. What’s young Trudy like? She’s the weird cooky girl, with a koala-bag.
Oh, and we also meet young Goofy at this point. He doesn’t get a proper introduction – Donald and Mickey just know him now. The writer’s mentality seems to be that since the reader already knows who he is, the characters do too. For some reason, Goofy briefly takes Trudy’s koala-bag and posts pictures of himself wearing it on Instagram. Also, Daisy is a social media wizard. I want to die.
Because of her bag, Trudy is bullied by the big boys. Why did they decide to make this character a young Trudy? Why not have her be just a random young girl? Maybe it could have been Minnie, and Mickey is the hero of this story. Donald has the idea that every kid in school should wear a koala-bag. The bullies can’t bully everyone else in school right? Somehow, he gets every kid to buy and wear a koala-bag. And for some reason, the bullies are intimidated by this. This is so stupid. However, it does seem like a plan more fitting of Mickey than Donald. Donald would probably have used violence or something instead. But then the principal learns what’s going on and suddenly he forgives Donald for all the troubles he has caused in the past. It appears that that was the reason why it was Donald's idea rather than Mickey's. It doesn't matter that the characters act out of character as long as the story ends the way the writer needs it to... Right?!
I hate more or less everything in this story so far. Now, “hate” seems to imply that I’m angry at it. That’s not the case; I’m not angry. I am however extremely disappointed. Worst of all, there’s still five chapters/parts/episodes left.
For Part IV they went with the artist Francesco D’ippolito. I am immediately not a fan of his work.
Donald and friends has to go on a field trip to the beach in order to study marine biology and surfing. Those two shouldn’t be taught in the same class. When is this story supposed to be set? They are going to the beach, so it should be summer. But if chapter 2 was at the start of a semester, it should have taken place in August. In chapter 3, Mickey says that chapter 2 was a few weeks ago. So chapter 4 can't be earlier than September. I guess Callisota offers surfing-weather longer than what I'm used to.
There’s this teacher who comes with them. There’s a running gag that as soon as he’s on the field trip, he steps out of his professional teacher persona and becomes a rude and edgy surfer dude. In order to sell this, they would have had to establish him as a professional teacher first, as a contrast. However, the story is so rushed that he’s only professional in one panel. This doesn’t work for me. There’s also this panel where he’s surfing and he tells his students to film him and post the video online. This obsession with social media is the same mentally that Donald and the others show throughout these stories. So what are the writers trying to say about this character? I don’t know, I’m really confused.
I also noted that Goofy is no longer a part of the group. Why “introduce” him in last chapter if he’s not going to stay? Well, it’s because chapter 4 is partly about the “romances” between Donald and Daisy, and Mickey and Minnie. Since Goofy doesn’t have a firmly established love interest, his presence isn’t required.
So let’s talk about love. What reasons have we gotten for hoping that Donald and Mickey’s relationships will come to fruition? Nothing! I can count the number of interactions Donald and Daisy has had on one hand. The same goes for Mickey and Minnie. What do they see in each other? What's the reason for them falling for each other? I don’t know, because the story doesn’t tell us! We’re excepted to want to see them together simply because all the merchandise tell us that they’re in love. But comics are a visual media. Show us that they’re in love; don’t just tell us! It’s already chapter 4, and we still know nothing about these characters (except maybe Donald). These stories haven't told us anything about Daisy or Minnie's personalities. And Mickey has several different personalities at once. Apparently, Donald can tell that Mickey likes Minnie, and Daisy can tell that Minnie likes Mickey. Well, it’s always a bad sign when you have to tell the reader how the characters feel. These characters have barely interacted with each other, yet they are already head over heels in love. And somehow, we’re supposed to believe that these relationships will last for years to come. This is supposed to be the revelation of how these super-famous characters truly met and connected for the first time! It’s supposed to be this momentous occasion, and they do nothing with it!
Anyways, the quartet finds a place to sunbathe on top of the life guard’s tower. Donald and Mickey have a poorly written and open discussion about how they like the girls… who are two feet behind them and still cannot hear a single word of this. After this, there is some unintentional humor, as Daisy plainly states out of nowhere that “Excuse us, me and Minnie will leave now!” This dialogue is just so stilted.
We’re introduced to this muscle-hunk of a life guard who makes every girl go crazy. Hearts in dialogue balloons pop up everywhere, and one of the balloons even attacks Donald… What?!
Mickey and Donald are jealous of the life guard, so they try to impress the girls by bringing them over to Tornado Island, where they are not allowed. Breaking the rules like this is of course totally out of character for Mickey. And it’s not like he will learn a lesson from this and develop into the character we know later. No, it’s just bad writing.
Peter Pig is back, and he’s the worst character ever. What does Donald see in this guy? Why do they hang out? Peter takes the group to the forbidden island on a sailboat, and two panels later he abandons them when suddenly a storm approaches. Donald and co are here to surf, yet they’ve brought their cellphones for some reason. Donald is swept up by a tornado, and Mickey calls him while he’s in there… It’s stupid.
Now, in the tornado, Donald has found a shark. Minnie tells us there’s a shark in there. Then Daisy tells us Donald is riding the shark. Then Mickey informs us that he is filming this on his phone. And then, finally, we are shown Donald riding the shark. We don’t see this until the end of the page. This is a minor thing, but it happens all over this story. Once again, comics are a visual media. Show us things when they happen – don’t just tell us about them!
Anyways, the tornado takes Donald back to the rest of the class, and there’s a joke that kinda worked for me. Donald asks the life guards to save his friends, and the muscular one moves out. Donald says “Not you! Can’t he do it?” and points to a slimmer, less ripped life guard.
The muscular life guard saves the others, and Daisy asks him if he’s single… Wait, wasn’t the point of all of this that Daisy would overcome her alleged boy-crazyness and choose only Donald? I thought the shark-riding was supposed to be the moment that would make her forget everyone else and only go for Donald. But now, she’s still after the life guard? The life guard, who is like, twice her age, at least? Okay, so all of this was pointless, I guess.
On the bus ride home, all of the kids watch the video of Donald riding the shark. Mickey notes that Daisy commented with a heart, which is a terrible line of dialogue. I wonder if she still would have done that if the hunk life guard indeed was single and decided to start dating her. Also, it makes me uncomfortable that these characters value social media this much. I get that that’s because this story tries to appeal to the younger audience but… it just makes me sad and feel icky.
Okay, final thoughts. This issue was another dud. Probably the worst one yet. It would have been better if Donald and Mickey tried to be classically heroic, and failed. Then they could have used their specific characteristics to save the day, which would have made their respective crushes attracted to them in a more organic way. Instead we have Donald riding a shark in a tornado, and Mickey doing nothing. The characters don’t even sit next to their future partners on the bus ride home! What are you doing?! It would be easy to make a joke about the series jumping the shark here, but to tell the truth, it already did that a long time ago.
Oh, and weren't the characters supposed to learn about marine biology? All they did was surf!
I have mixed feelings about the series. I'm definitely not a fan of most of the artists, and I think a lot of the humour is rather crude.
This is what Francesco Artibani said about the series' modern setting, by the way:
"The stories about origins have a periodic need to be narrated from the beginning adapting them to the times we live. That's what happens with Batman, Superman and all those characters born over eighty years ago, nothing unusual."
I'll get him off the hook by saying he wasn't the only writer on this, but the question is whether a story like this is really necessary when it can never become canon, even if it's done for Disney Publishing Worldwide...
I have mixed feelings about the series. I'm definitely not a fan of most of the artists, and I think a lot of the humour is rather crude.
This is what Francesco Artibani said about the series' modern setting, by the way:
"The stories about origins have a periodic need to be narrated from the beginning adapting them to the times we live. That's what happens with Batman, Superman and all those characters born over eighty years ago, nothing unusual."
I'll get him off the hook by saying he wasn't the only writer on this, but the question is whether a story like this is really necessary when it can never become canon, even if it's done for Disney Publishing Worldwide...
There's nothing that says that the modern technology has to be as front and center in the story as it is. It seems like the social media-aspect of these stories is the main focus, and the origin-part is secondary. I mean, I don't feel like I've gained anything new by reading this version of the characters' origins. It's like the writers asked themselves "What are kids like these days?" rather than "What was Donald's childhood like?" and I think that's the most glaring flaw of this series.
I disagree with him regarding Batman and Superman. There are different versions of those characters, depending on in which era those comics were published. The Batman of the 40s is from an alternate universe than the Batman of the 90s. Still, I get his point, even if I disagree.
In theory, I can definitely defend the "necessity" for an origin story to Donald and the others... but then I would like there to be effort behind it. Say what you will about Rosa's Lo$, but at least he did a lot of research which he incorporated into his story, in order to make it feel like a proper origin. There's nothing like that in Young Donald Duck. Peter Pig shows up, so I guess the writers watched Donald's very first cartoon. However, neither Peter's personality, looks, or even relationship with Donald is intact. He's there in name only.
This series definitely doesn't feel like anything special, the way a definite origin story should feel. That's a shame.
Anyways, you say you have mixed feelings about this, implying that some feelings you have are positive. What are those positives?
In Part V, Donald is being expelled. But it’s not because he broke the rules and went to Tornado Island, no – it’s because he didn’t sign up for any sport in school! According to the school’s rules, every student has to take part in a sport – and win! That last demand should be illegal. Usually in these kinds of stories, the moral of the story is that it’s not about winning, it’s about doing your best and so forth. But no, in this one, you either win, or your entire academic future is at stake. I haven’t even mentioned how ridiculous it is that there are four gym teachers present in the principal’s office just to intimidate Donald into joining a sport. Don’t they have work to do?
Next up, one of the teachers demand that Mickey beats the world record in rowing. This isn’t a joke either, as Mickey already beat the record the day before, and today he has to do even better. This school is evil. Then Donald is talking to Goofy, who is doing pole-vault. He says “But Goofy, you know I’m right!” Goofy answers “I know…that I don’t have any choice!” I don’t understand the context of this conversation, and the story is moving too fast to have time to explain it.
Donald tries to escape the sports by trying being a ball boy, a cheer-leading mascot, and washing stinky clothes. I just realized how much stink-related humor there is throughout this series. Eventually, Donald realizes that this school offers every sport imaginable. Therefore, he signs up for the fictional sport “wacky-ball”, which is basically five different sports being played at the same time. The principal notes that there is no scheduled match today, yet Donald’s team’s victory still counts somehow…? Also, Mickey and the others have somehow joined the wacky-ball team and abandoned their original sports, which seems like something that would be against school rules.
The principal is furious and there’s smoke coming out of his head. But Mickey tells him that they haven’t had this much fun for a long time! Suddenly, the principal’s mood changes! Now he’s happier than ever before, and all it took was one panel. He even calls Scrooge McDuck to tell him he should be proud of Donald’s initiative.
So this sucked. It’s hard to take seriously. And there’s just nothing here. This story is about nothing. It doesn’t tell us anything new about the characters. It’s just… And that would be fine, if it was a one-off filler episode. But it not – all of this series so far has been like this. I don’t quite understand what the aim was for this series. Is it to show us how these characters first met? No, it can’t be, because every first meeting is super-rushed, and neither original nor interesting. So, what else could it be? Is the purpose of this series simply to tell a number of wacky stories about Donald Duck going to school? Well… at least it does that. It doesn’t do it very well, but Donald is in school. I can’t argue with that.
I hate to say it, because I feel like I've been so very jaded about Disney comics for about a year now, but this sounds like a train-wreck of a story. Even more so than Ultra-Heroes, My First Millions or Donald Quest. I have no idea whether I'm glad I didn't pre-order this or whether I want to read it now to see just how awful it is for myself. (Probably the former.) (Actually, I did like "The Search For the Missing Memories". It managed to overcome a bland and occasionally awkward script to become pretty much the only newer book that will remain in my personal library.)
Another odd thing is Peter Pig’s characterization. In The Wise Little Hen, he was a lazy pig who does everything in order to have to work as little as possible. There’s not too much personality to contradict. Here however, he's a sneaky crook, who lies and cheats in order to have his football player friend give him money. He even throws away the guy’s car keys so that he’ll be forced to use Peter’s boat as transport instead. He might as well be a totally different character.
You sure that's not Argus McSwine? (I'm joking, of course.)
The principal is furious and there’s smoke coming out of his head. But Mickey tells him that they haven’t had this much fun for a long time! Suddenly, the principal’s mood changes! Now he’s happier than ever before, and all it took was one panel. He even calls Scrooge McDuck to tell him he should be proud of Donald’s initiative.
You're joking, right? The transition from fuming with anger to overflowing with joy can't be that quick!
I can't really speak on the story. I haven't read it, and it's not a top priority on my already-long list of Disney comics I hope to buy. From your review (which was well-written and enjoyable, might I add) it sounds... not very fulfilling. I'm okay with putting the characters in a modern setting or aging them down, but only if it's for the purpose of telling a good story! I might be off my rocker, but this doesn't sound like a good story. Maybe it is, but my hopes aren't too high...
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
You're joking, right? The transition from fuming with anger to overflowing with joy can't be that quick!
I can't really speak on the story. I haven't read it, and it's not a top priority on my already-long list of Disney comics I hope to buy. From your review (which was well-written and enjoyable, might I add) it sounds... not very fulfilling. I'm okay with putting the characters in a modern setting or aging them down, but only if it's for the purpose of telling a good story! I might be off my rocker, but this doesn't sound like a good story. Maybe it is, but my hopes aren't too high...
I wish I was joking. The story is so fast-paced that nothing feels remotely real or worth investing in.
I don't think anybody should spend money on this series. It doesn't deserve that. It is good as a "how to not write these characters or comics in general"-story though. Thanks for the kind words about the review! It gives me motivation to keep on writing! But yeah, this story is far from a masterpiece. I prefer to think of these characters as, well, characters as opposed to concepts. What I mean by that is that I like to imagine them aging and living like real people, and therefore I like that they lived in a specific era. That probably wasn't very well explained, but whatever. I don't think there's anything wrong in preferring to think of the Ducks as timeless character-concepts, however. That's just not my thing. So with all that said, I would be fine with a story about the ducks and mice with modern technology, as long as there was proper motivation for it. As long as it contributes to the story. I guess I'm trying to say that I agree with you on that point!
My opinion on the chapters I've read is firmly that, no, this is not a good story.
This time, the gang is suddenly obsessed with this universe's version of Dungeons & Dragons. I’d imagine that’s the sort of thing Donald would mock his nephews for being interested in, but now he’s the nerd instead. Go figure. When Donald sign the group up for a D&D contest, Mickey suggests that they suffocate him with their pillows. That’s dark and not the kind of joke I expected Mickey to make.
On their way to class, Donald complains that he must find a way to double the attack points of his sword before the contest. Now, I’m not super-familiar with the rules of D&D, but I’m fairly certain that doesn’t make any sense. You create a character yourself before the game, and then your stats are controlled by the game master, right? So why is this a problem that Donald tries to work out by himself, like it was a math problem or something?
The teacher has called in sick. We’re told that he ate a bad clam-pudding. Then we’re shown a long line to the school bathroom. This feels like a cheap gag. The substitute writes the name “Morris” on the blackboard and tells the kids to write an essay about this man. Who’s Morris? The substitute never tells us. And we’ve never heard the teacher’s previous lectures, so we don’t know. Donald assumes that they are talking about Morris the Magnificent, the main bad guy from this universe’s version of D&D. We as readers have no reason to doubt this, as we’ve never been introduced to any other character named Morris.
On their way to the library, Donald suddenly teleports for a panel to what I assume is his room, and then back to the library. It’s confusing, and I assume it’s supposed to be a visual gag or something. Alas, it does not work.
There’s an odd panel where Goofy stares at his hand and imagines an X-ray image of a hand… I assume this was a pun or something that was lost in translation. I somehow doubt it was any good.
Donald goes ahead and makes an “interactive essay”, which basically involves him doing a voice-over as Morris the Magnificent over the intercom. He has sewn together some costumes and life-size stuffed-animal-monsters from the game as part of his presentation. Please note that 1) this is a lot of effort coming from a character whose defining character trait has been laziness so far, and 2) they only had one afternoon to prepare for this assignment. There’s also the fact that the monster and the costumes are hidden in the school halls, even though Donald locked the classroom door. How would they have seen the monsters if Trudy hadn’t broken down the door? Also, yes, that is a thing that happens. But, oops! It turns out that the Morris they were supposed to write about was actually another person entirely. Gideon Morris, a local pirate from ages ago.
However, things go well for Donald anyways. Apparently the judges of the D&D contest saw Donald play Morris, so they automatically announce him as the winner of the contest. They don’t tell him that, of course. They simply announce it on their web page, which Mickey reads, and he’s the one who has to inform Donald. The weird thing is that this appears to happen only two or three minutes after Donald’s presentation. This must mean that all of the judges were present in the boarding school for fourth graders at the same time. And then they quickly decided and agreed that “Hey, we don’t even need a D&D contest at all! This guy distorted his voice on the intercom! That means he’s the best at D&D!” So even though there must have been dozens of excited teams who were putting their heart and soul into preparing their best D&D-session (seriously, I don’t know how a D&D contest would work), now all of their effort are for nothing. But hey, at least Donald got the happy ending that he deserved, right?!
This was bad. I feel like a broken record saying that about every chapter, but there’s no denying it. Nothing would make me happier than to feel that “wow, this was great!” … but it’s not. It’s very not.
It’s theatre time at Beagleberg Boarding School. Mickey wants the main role of Houndini, but instead gets cast as “cotton-candy salesman”. Instead, Donald get the part of Houndini. But oh no! Houndini is scripted to kiss Minnie’s character! We can’t have famous Disney character Donald Duck touch lips with mouse lady Minnie! However will they solve this conundrum?
Wait, where’s Trudy? The one thing we know about Trudy is that she and Mickey is in the same theater class… So where is she? And if Donald is in this class too, why didn’t he know her in chapter 3? It’s almost as if they didn’t plan this out and don’t have any idea what they are doing!
Next day, the theatre teacher Flynn takes the kids on a field trip to the same amusement park that is featured in the play. But, oh-oh! Donald has decided to take his acting to the next level. He’s a method-actor and arrives dressed up as his character. A random bully tells him he’s a ridiculous dork. I can relate to this bully.
Flynn tells Donald “You seem to take your role seriously! Good on you!” But just a few panels ago, Flynn said “You’ve got to separate your character and yourself!” So which one is it, Flynn?!
Donald tries to escape the group by disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Flynn comments “I appreciate your initiative, but we can’t use special effects at the theatre!” What do you mean “special effects”?! This is a kid using some sort of smoke bomb! That’s a pretty simple effect! You can do that during a performance, surely? Use a smoke machine or something!
Then there’s a chase scene that goes on forever as Donald tries to escape. Flynn doesn’t like this. He calls Donald a “selfish, thoughtless buffoon”, which I believe would get him fired in reality. Donald is no longer allowed to play Houndini. A random classmate says “Who will take his role? The premiere is in two days!” Wait, what?! Two days?! But you only found out who would be playing who yesterday!! You mean there would only be three days for rehearsals?! And this is probably parallel to a few other classes as well! I mean, Donald still has to play wacky-ball a few days a week!
So the premiere is in two days. To this Flynn replies “I’ll come up with a solution.” WHAAAT?! You can’t fire your lead actor two days before the premiere without a backup plan! That’s irresponsible teaching right there!
Donald gets a hold of cotton-candy and puts it on Mickey’s head. Flynn gets an idea, and promotes Mickey to the new Houndini. Woooow, that wasn’t predictable at all! Finally, it's the day of the performance. Donald sits in the audience and watches the show. So if Donald is here, and Mickey plays Houndini, who will play the role of cotton-candy salesman? That character was said to have a lot of lines! You can’t just ignore that! Oh, I guess they did.
This one wasn’t very good either. It seemed they were at least trying to do something here. When Flynn fires Donald from his role, he says “It might seem harsh, but one day you will understand why I did it!” I thought this would be some sort of setup to Donald realizing and learning something… but no. All we get is Donald saying “I’ll try again next year.”
We open on the principal giving a speech…in the school cafeteria. Don’t you have an auditorium? This is supposed to be a rich and fancy school, right? In the background of the cafeteria we see Peter Pig. Why is he here? Remember, Donald is only at this prestigeful boarding school because his rich uncle sent him a scholarship. Peter Pig is a borderline homeless lazy bum. He shouldn’t be here. …Neither should Mickey, Goofy, or the others for that matter. I’d imagine they come from average middle-class families. They’re not rich folk. Goofy’s father Amos was an explorer. Minnie’s parents were poor farmers and couldn’t even afford ice cream. Mickey probably also grew up on a farm. I don’t know too much about Daisy and Trudy’s backgrounds, but I doubt they would afford this kind of education.
Okay, so every year the Beagleberg students will do a science project, and they’ll have an exhibition. The principal speaks in order to inform everybody that this year, they will have a special guest. The mayor is coming to have a look! Okay, that’s fancy and all, but why would you announce that in the cafeteria? And why the principal? Why couldn’t the science teacher tell the students during class? Sorry, moving on.
How will Donald come up with an interesting project? Why, he goes to partner up with Goofy of course! He says “Goofy, you always have a bunch of crazy ideas!” Now, if you’re a reader who has never before picked up a Disney book, this is of course the first time we’re told/shown this aspect of Goofy’s personality. He hasn’t been goofy or wacky at all in this series. He has barely been in it. Yet, Donald acts as if he’s a super-established character. That would be fine in a regular Goofy-comic, but not in an origin story made specifically to explore these characters’ origins!
So Donald asks what Goofy is doing in his spare time. Goofy replies “I’m writing code in a program for a small robot. Artificial intelligence in my home!” …NOOO! Goofy isn’t supposed to be smart enough to code and do stuff like that! I mean, he’s not alarmingly stupid, but he’s slow-witted and too advanced things will get over his head. This is not his area of expertise! Why is every defining character trait so out of character in this series?! Couldn’t you have shoehorned in Gyro or Doc Static instead?
But okay, so Goofy is an IT-wizard. The two of them decide to build and program the robot as their project. Their science teacher thinks that they’re being too over-ambitious and advises them to pick another project. But Donald says no! He wants to impress the mayor, so he goes to collect all the information about the mayor that he can find. This info will then be programmed into the robot.
Now, in chapter 6, Donald was a frequent Google-user and got a lot of his information of the computer. However, instead of reading the mayor’s Wikipedia page or some juicy gossip magazine, Donald goes straight to the mayor’s nephew, who is of course a student at the school. I don't like this. I mean, sure, he’s related to the mayor, so financially, that’s not a problem. It’s just that it’s so convenient that the mayor has a nephew at the same school. The nephew gives Donald some inside information, in exchange for Donald being his slave until the presentation.
The story wants us to feel that the nephew treats Donald awfully, but the worst thing we see him do is reject the food Donald brings him, because it’s too hot and his apple is the wrong color. I can totally understand not wanting to eat hot food, and I can defend the apple rejection. If I’m going to have a willing slave doing stuff for me for a limited time, I’m going to take advantage of that situation. And red apples do taste different than green ones.
By the way, the kids only had one week to decide on a project and to then create it. We know it’s only one week, because Donald immediately went to the mayor’s nephew when deciding on the robot, and the nephew told Donald he’ll have to be a slave for a week. During his last slave day, Donald said the presentation was tomorrow.
Okay, so it’s time for the presentation. The mayor has arrived, and Donald and Goofy’s robot is now finished. Goofy has created life in only one week. Let’s just stop and think about the implications of that.
During the presentation, Goofy wears a white lab coat… and we’re supposed to take it seriously. No!
It turns out that the nephew lied about everything to Donald. So now the robot has the wrong information about the mayor. Oh no, how silly! The mayor is mad, the science teacher is mad, and the principal is furious. He finally decides to have Donald expelled from the school! Oh my! Will Donald finally learn from his mistakes? Well, technically, all of this was an accident. There was nothing sinister about his plan. He just wanted to impress the mayor by showing off his friend’s scientifically revolutionary AI. But still, Donald must be punished!
But oh, what is this? Duck ex Machina! Albert Quackmore, Scrooge’s butler, arrives and says “My boss would like to meet the genius who created the world’s best body guard!” Donald replies “Oh yeah? I don’t know who your boss is, but I’d love to!” There are at least two problems with this interaction. 1) How is that robot a body guard? It didn’t do anything body guardy! It gave the mayor allergic reactions and pushed him around, but nothing that points to it being interested in protecting him. 2) Why does Donald imply that he’s the genius behind the robot? All he did was give Goofy information about the mayor, which Goofy then programmed into it. Goofy did ALL of the work relating to the robot.
Albert then more or less kidnaps Donald and tells him that Scrooge thinks he should go to school in Duckburg instead. Wow, what a coincidence that a few seconds after Donald gets expelled from one school, a tall lanky man comes along to put him into another school! What would have happened if Donald wasn’t expelled? I mean, he seemed to like Beagleberg just fine. Sure, there’s the constant wacky-ball training he has to do, but otherwise he seems pretty content. But, never mind that. Donald arrives at “Spiggtuna Internatskola”, which I don’t quite know how to translate into English. “Stickleback-Tuna Boarding school” maybe? I don’t know.
Anyways, the story ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger here. Donald says that he has to post pictures of his new adventures on… Insta-quack so that his friends can see what he’s up to. And then there’s this montage of random images with Donald graduating, tying a noose around a cow’s neck, riding a race-car, blowing out birthday candles… I guess these are visions of stories to come, but this volume ends here.
I wanted to mention this translation error. Donald says “Ni betygsätter väl inte projekten, väl?” I know that doesn’t mean anything to people who don’t speak Swedish, but there’s not supposed to be two “väl” in a sentence like that. Choose one or the other. Like this, it just sounds wrong. Most of the Swedish translation sounds wrong, actually.
Alright, so this final story wasn’t too good either. There not much of a story here; Donald wants to do a project, becomes a slave, and then the project backfires. The worst offender is probably Goofy’s character, but even if that was Gyro instead, it wouldn’t have been much of a story. It certainly doesn’t feel like the last episode of a series. There has been no build up, and this one doesn’t pay off anything either. It might just as well have been another filler part, if it wasn’t for the last pages where Albert takes Donald to the new school.
Okay, so final thoughts about the whole series. First of all, Mickey never even wears the plaid flannel shirt from the cover.
0/10
Donald Duck’s school years have rarely been chronicled. And when we’ve seen it, it’s mostly just small glimpses. They could have really done something interesting here. I for one would have loved something like Don Rosa’s Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, but with Donald instead. You know, effort. Maybe the writers could have combed through old Taliaferro strips and found references to Donald's youth that they developed into stories. Stuff like that. Maybe you could have each chapter focusing on Donald’s first meeting with a different character? Like, first he meets Mickey, then the next chapter is about Goofy, and so on. That would really give you time to develop these characters and their relationship with each other. It could tell us what Donald sees in these people and why he still hangs out with them to this day. Instead we get nothing. Every character is introduced at the same time, in the laziest way possible. “What if they were all the same age and met in school?” That’s one of the most overplayed trope in all of the prequel realm. At least it’s not as bad as when they were all babies together.
With Peter Pig we get a pathetic attempt at fan service. But it seems he’s only there because the writers felt that he should be there for some reason. “He’s a part of early Donald Duck, right?” But they have no idea how to use him or what to do with him. His inclusion and portrayal is a red flag from the very start.
So yeah, the writing is bad. The art is bad. The humor, the pacing, everything is bad. The back cover reads “In eight fast-paced chapters we’ll follow [Donald and Mickey] and their new friends.” I definitely agree with “fast-paced”. The stories move very fast and there’s never a quiet moment. This isn’t good. The back continues: “Life in school offers even more pranks, new friends, love troubles, bullies, food fights, detention and field trips mixed with epic school projects.” Okay, some of those are in this series, but not all. Pranks and new friends, sure. Love troubles… I mean, Donald’s relationship with Daisy is complicated and moves both backwards and forward throughout this series, but fine. There were bullies who mocked Trudy’s koala-bag, and the group went to the beach so that Donald could ride a shark. I wouldn’t call any of the school projects “epic”, but that’s just me. However… There is no detention in this entire book, and no food fights to speak of! I mean, I doubt it would have been better with a food fight, but that’s not the point. It’s false marketing! That’s not okay.
In the end, this isn’t a story. This is a product. It's a soulless collection of stories with no passion behind it. This series has nothing to do with Donald Duck. It’s just “look at this kid who does pranks in school. Also he looks like a duck”. I feel cheated. I don’t know what I expected. When I looked at the cover and read the description I had super-low expectations – and yet, I was disappointed. It’s not like the premise of “Donald Duck in school” is the best idea ever that holds the potential for the best stories ever told to humanity… but at least it could be good. If there was effort behind it. But there’s none of that.
The worst feeling I know when finishing a story is when you feel that you yourself could have come up with something better. These writers are payed for this, and yet their work is so sub-par, so unsatisfactory that a reader with no authorial education feels he could do a better job. And that is either a sign of misplaced pride, or a very bad story. In this case, I’m fairly certain that the latter is true.
The back of the book labels this as the first issue in the series ‘Donald Duck’s Best’. If this is the best Donald Duck has to offer, everyone involved is in serious trouble. Young Donald Duck just sucks. And I don’t like it.
