The "Big Bad Wolf" evolved from The Silly Symphonies cartoon short, in which he had 3 bad little sons, who were more than glad to help him catch and eat The Three Little Pigs. They had no mother in that first cartoon. The three bad sons were changed to one good one, to add comedy and possibilities for story lines. There was never any reference to a mother.Whether she died or Zeke adopted Li'l Wolf was never stated, as far as I know. Would the adoption authorities find The Big Bad Wolf a "fit parent", especially given that there is no mother around?
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Aug 24, 2016 9:33:36 GMT
Well, I don't think wolves are really part of the Calisotan society, what with their murderous habits. I imagine anthropomorphic wolves just evolved in the forest on their own; when other, less savage species began to settle in town not far from the forest, they picked up the language and some customs, but they still remained animalistic in their total refusal to stop hunting pigs, even anthropomorphic ones. I actually had a story idea based on the whole thing, with the Li'l Bad Wolf trying to argue for wolf rights in town, supported by the Junior Woodchucks, and Zeke making the whole thing fall apart by chasing the Mayor of Duckburg at the summit.
It looks to me, in all thstories I read, that he Big Bad Wolf;s cabin is IN the forest, not in a town. And that town is not Duckburg. Only the Duck Universe characters live in Duckburg. Even the Mickey Mouse characters don't live in Duckburg,
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Aug 24, 2016 14:24:13 GMT
Er… I know? That's what I just said: rather than living in the cities (Duckburg, Mouseton, Omelet, whatever), anthropomorphic wolves still live in the forest.
Sometimes the vintage Wolf and Brer stories refer to the characters' village as the "settlement": literally any built-up community in the forest/swamp, but also implying an attempt to settle or civilize a previously primitive region. That seems to fit: the community is one step more primitive than Duckburg and Mouseton, insofar as its characters have more obvious animal instincts.
And while the "settlement" community has developed to a stage in which eating other characters is perceived as bad/uncivilized, some are still compelled to do it (and some traditional carnivores, like Zeke, treat it as a proud old custom).
As for Zeke's wife, the only reference I know of is in this story, where in the original English, Zeke tells Li'l Wolf:
"I can't figure out where you come from, son, always reading stuff! Friendly with pigs!... Guess you take after your mother! She was always reading or playing with pigs!"
The use of past tense suggests Mrs. Wolf might have passed away or gotten divorced. To be fair, while divorce isn't common in Disney stories, if it could happen to Downy O'Drake and her first husband (i. e. Rumpus McFowl's dad), it's easy to imagine it happening to the relatively dysfunctional Wolves.
As for whether anthro wolves, in general, could also live in the city, there have certainly been occasional wolves among the bit players in Mouse and Duck stories down through the years—for instance, Colonel Rolf Rolfe in this story.
The use of past tense suggests Mrs. Wolf might have passed away or gotten divorced. To be fair, while divorce isn't common in Disney stories, if it could happen to Downy O'Drake and her first husband (i. e. Rumpus McFowl's dad), it's easy to imagine it happening to the relatively dysfunctional Wolves.
Wait, what? Someone somewhere has changed something in either translation of the story, because in the French version, Rumpus is the son of Fergus McDuck and another woman who later divorced him to marry Mr McFowl, and Rumpus was conceived after Downy had passed away.
The use of past tense suggests Mrs. Wolf might have passed away or gotten divorced. To be fair, while divorce isn't common in Disney stories, if it could happen to Downy O'Drake and her first husband (i. e. Rumpus McFowl's dad), it's easy to imagine it happening to the relatively dysfunctional Wolves.
Wait, what? Someone somewhere has changed something in either translation of the story, because in the French version, Rumpus is the son of Fergus McDuck and another woman who later divorced him to marry Mr McFowl, and Rumpus was conceived after Downy had passed away.
Yes, in Van Horn's original, Rumpus is the son of Fergus McDuck and an unnamed sister of Downy (making Rumpus both Scrooge's cousin and his half-brother). And no, there is never any explicit mention of a divorce between Fergus and Downy. If I recall correctly, Van Horn never clearly stated when Rumpus was born vis-à-vis Fergus and Downy's relationship ... there is only a reference to a "brief marriage" between Fergus and the unnamed sister. It seems logical to assume that it was after Downy died, but I suppose there's nothing to prove it wasn't after a Rumpus-Downy divorce (what makes the most sense, of course, is Fergus having had an extramarital affair with his sister-in-law ... and I can't help thinking that was Van Horn's true intention, toned down for a Disney comic, given how scandalous the revelation seems to be and how Scrooge goes out of his way to hide it, as if he wants to protect his family's name from scandal. After all, the marriage of Rumpus and Downy's unnamed sister should have been public knowledge, and guessing Rumpus' true parentage shouldn't have been so hard if there really was a marriage).
Yes, in Van Horn's original, Rumpus is the son of Fergus McDuck and an unnamed sister of Downy (making Rumpus both Scrooge's cousin and his half-brother).
Yowp! I see I should have doublechecked Rumpus' lineage before writing my last reply! I misremembered Rumpus as being Downy's son when he is actually Fergus' son.
OTOH, I'm checking Van Horn's original now, and there is no indication of Rumpus' mother being Downy's sister either, or any relative of Downy at all (indeed, Downy is not mentioned).
The English text simply states that Rumpus' mother—referenced only as "Mother"—was briefly married to Fergus McDuck, then "left" him (the event I presumed to be a divorce), taking their son Rumpus with her. "Mother" didn't want Rumpus to know he was born a McDuck, or that Scrooge was his half-brother.
Depending on when "Mother" decided Rumpus shouldn't know each of these things, her marriage to Fergus could have come either before or after Downy. Since I personally prefer to think of Fergus and Downy having been each other's final partners (NB: Dave the armchair comics theorist here, not Dave the editor!), I'd lean toward "before," but it could technically go either way.
Presumably "Mother" was a McFowl; had she been anything else, I'm not sure how Rumpus would have gotten that surname.
Yes, in Van Horn's original, Rumpus is the son of Fergus McDuck and an unnamed sister of Downy (making Rumpus both Scrooge's cousin and his half-brother).
Yowp! I see I should have doublechecked Rumpus' lineage before writing my last reply! I misremembered Rumpus as being Downy's son when he is actually Fergus' son.
OTOH, I'm checking Van Horn's original now, and there is no indication of Rumpus' mother being Downy's sister either, or any relative of Downy at all (indeed, Downy is not mentioned).
The English text simply states that Rumpus' mother—referenced only as "Mother"—was briefly married to Fergus McDuck, then "left" him (the event I presumed to be a divorce), taking their son Rumpus with her. "Mother" didn't want Rumpus to know he was born a McDuck, or that Scrooge was his half-brother.
Depending on when "Mother" decided Rumpus shouldn't know each of these things, her marriage to Fergus could have come either before or after Downy. Since I personally prefer to think of Fergus and Downy having been each other's final partners (NB: Dave the armchair comics theorist here, not Dave the editor!), I'd lean toward "before," but it could technically go either way.
Presumably "Mother" was a McFowl; had she been anything else, I'm not sure how Rumpus would have gotten that surname.
I don't have the story in front of me, but doesn't it involve Rumpus reading a letter written by "Mother" to "Dear old Aunt Vera O'Drake"? If not, where does the name "Vera O'Drake" come from? I always thought of Vera, Downy and "Mother" as the three O'Drake sisters.
Also, in the same letter, "Mother" has some uncharitable things to say about Scrooge, whom she talks about as if he is at least in his late teens if not older. This suggests to me that Scrooge is considerably older than Rumpus, so "Mother" would have to be Fergus' post-Downy wife, not pre-Downy (unless Fergus married Downy, had Scrooge, divorced Downy, married "Mother", had Rumpus, then divorced "Mother" to marry Downy again, but that seems to be a bit of stretch).
As to why Rumpus is a McFowl, either "Mother" later married a Mr. McFowl who raised Rumpus as his own, or Mother cheated on McFowl Sr. with Fergus when they were both married and the whole "brief marriage" story is a sham (sorry, but the most obvious explanation is usually the right one, and the one we would have accepted had this not been a Disney comic)!
Post by Scrooge MacDuck on Aug 24, 2016 19:42:31 GMT
If I recall correctly, there is a mention of "Aunt Vera's sister", but she is not named "O'Drake" explicitly. We just all assume she is an O'Drake and not a McDuck because gee, if Fergus had been married with his sister Vera's sister, that would be even more scandalous and Disney wouldn't allow it.
As for "before" or "after"… Rumpus seems significantly younger than Scrooge, which is why we always assume it was "after".
I don't have the story in front of me, but doesn't it involve Rumpus reading a letter written by "Mother" to "Dear old Aunt Vera O'Drake"? If not, where does the name "Vera O'Drake" come from? I always thought of Vera, Downy and "Mother" as the three O'Drake sisters.
No—the reference is only to "dear old Aunt Vera."
The idea of Vera being an O'Drake is fan fiction, seemingly invented by Gilles Maurice here in 2001—later copied into one of the online family trees and repeated by Wikipedia, which convinces lots of people that it must be comics-accurate... but it's not (and appears to have confused things quite a lot!)
There is NO reference to "Aunt Vera's sister" anywhere.
"Mother's" letter to Vera DOES say, "Because of additional ties to the McDucks via others of our family, we choose to admit to [Rumpus'] COUSINHOOD." Maybe Gilles interpreted "we" and "our" to mean "Mother" and Vera together; but in English it more clearly just refers to "Mother's" family as a whole, as she informs Vera about them. So there are or were some other McFowls and McDucks who got married, technically making Rumpus also Scrooge's cousin; but we don't know who these others were.
As for "scandalous" stuff, how is any of this scandalous? Either before or after his marriage to Downy O'Drake, Fergus McDuck briefly married "Mother" McFowl and sired Rumpus, who would have been born Rumpus McDuck. "Mother" then divorced Fergus, taking Rumpus with her. "Mother" then retook her original surname of McFowl, and gave it to Rumpus as well. I fail to see what's so shocking about these ideas...
Well, I'm also one of those fans who would like to know what happened to Zeke's wife/Li'l Wolf's mother but there are not many stories that have any mentions of her. It's possible that she either got divorced and never come back to Zeke's house or she either died of a bad disease or in a car crash. In the French "P'tit Loup" series, Zeke has a girlfriend instead of a wife and her name is "Marie-Loup" but she only appeared in French stories.
