Are the Ducks supposed to have teeth?

[Orora]

There is usually a consistent anatomy on the ducks. For example, they always have a pointy tongue (unless there are exceptions).

Usually, the ducks are drawn without teeth. Several times, we see Donald, Scrooge and others with their beaks wide open. All smooth inside. The throat hole and the pointy tongue.

Sometimes, the ducks will have teeth suddenly appearing. This happens mostly (always?) when they are "clenching" them in anger, pain or anguish.

Or when they will be "chewing" stuff, like this illustration I once saw of Donald noisily chewing ice cubes in front of Daisy.

But they are supposed to just be for a quick gag, right?

However, there is a story where Scrooge has a painful tooth so he goes to the dentist who removes his tooth...
A story that is all about teeth, by the way, since they go on teeth-shaped mountains and meet a supernatural Tartar warrior who is the embodiment of tooth tartar!! (forgot the name of the story, but it was in "Super Picsou Géant" in the mid-90s)

Another story has Donald meet a depressed toothpaste advertisement guy (who wears a pink elephant mascot costume). He asks him to say an ad slogan and gives him money for this. He also says about Donald "it's a shame ducks don't have teeth!". (forgot the name of the story, but I think the artist was Daniel Branca, and it was in a "Journal de Mickey" in the mid-90s)


So... are the anthropomorphic ducks supposed to have teeth or not? Are they "retractable" like claws?

Or is it just a form of cartoon physics and I'm taking this too seriously?


Also, thank you very much if you can help me identify those stories on Inducks...

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 15, 2017 22:06:20 GMT Orora said:

There is usually a consistent anatomy on the ducks. For example, they always have a pointy tongue (unless there are exceptions).

Usually, the ducks are drawn without teeth. Several times, we see Donald, Scrooge and others with their beaks wide open. All smooth inside. The throat hole and the pointy tongue.

Sometimes, the ducks will have teeth suddenly appearing. This happens mostly (always?) when they are "clenching" them in anger, pain or anguish.

Or when they will be "chewing" stuff, like this illustration I once saw of Donald noisily chewing ice cubes in front of Daisy.

But they are supposed to just be for a quick gag, right?

However, there is a story where Scrooge has a painful tooth so he goes to the dentist who removes his tooth...
A story that is all about teeth, by the way, since they go on teeth-shaped mountains and meet a supernatural Tartar warrior who is the embodiment of tooth tartar!! (forgot the name of the story, but it was in "Super Picsou Géant" in the mid-90s)

Another story has Donald meet a depressed toothpaste advertisement guy (who wears a pink elephant mascot costume). He asks him to say an ad slogan and gives him money for this. He also says about Donald "it's a shame ducks don't have teeth!". (forgot the name of the story, but I think the artist was Daniel Branca, and it was in a "Journal de Mickey" in the mid-90s)


So... are the anthropomorphic ducks supposed to have teeth or not? Are they "retractable" like claws?

Or is it just a form of cartoon physics and I'm taking this too seriously?


Also, thank you very much if you can help me identify those stories on Inducks...

My take on this is that ducks have teeth all the time, they're just not always properly drawn because that kind of detail would be icky — same reason some of the Italian artists, like Cavazzano, don't draw nostrils on the ducks' even though they're bound to be there. (Also, yeeeeah… I remember that wild, wild story about teeth. Heheheh. Even a bit of a childhood favorite, that one was. So much did I like it, that I created its page on the French Picsou Wiki! Over here!)

[Orora]

Aug 15, 2017 22:09:30 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Aug 15, 2017 22:06:20 GMT Orora said:

There is usually a consistent anatomy on the ducks. For example, they always have a pointy tongue (unless there are exceptions).

Usually, the ducks are drawn without teeth. Several times, we see Donald, Scrooge and others with their beaks wide open. All smooth inside. The throat hole and the pointy tongue.

Sometimes, the ducks will have teeth suddenly appearing. This happens mostly (always?) when they are "clenching" them in anger, pain or anguish.

Or when they will be "chewing" stuff, like this illustration I once saw of Donald noisily chewing ice cubes in front of Daisy.

But they are supposed to just be for a quick gag, right?

However, there is a story where Scrooge has a painful tooth so he goes to the dentist who removes his tooth...
A story that is all about teeth, by the way, since they go on teeth-shaped mountains and meet a supernatural Tartar warrior who is the embodiment of tooth tartar!! (forgot the name of the story, but it was in "Super Picsou Géant" in the mid-90s)

Another story has Donald meet a depressed toothpaste advertisement guy (who wears a pink elephant mascot costume). He asks him to say an ad slogan and gives him money for this. He also says about Donald "it's a shame ducks don't have teeth!". (forgot the name of the story, but I think the artist was Daniel Branca, and it was in a "Journal de Mickey" in the mid-90s)


So... are the anthropomorphic ducks supposed to have teeth or not? Are they "retractable" like claws?

Or is it just a form of cartoon physics and I'm taking this too seriously?


Also, thank you very much if you can help me identify those stories on Inducks...

My take on this is that ducks have teeth all the time, they're just not always properly drawn because that kind of detail would be icky — same reason some of the Italian artists, like Cavazzano, don't draw nostrils on the ducks' even though they're bound to be there. (Also, yeeeeah… I remember that wild, wild story about teeth. Heheheh. Even a bit of a childhood favorite, that one was. So much did I like it, that I created its page on the French Picsou Wiki! Over here!)

Wow, thanks for the answer!

Well, that story certainly hasn't been printed much... 
The comment says it it in the "Cimino" style.
What makes it "Cimino-like"?
Are there specific story elements that make it reminiscent of what Rodolfo Cimino usually writes?
I have several Cimino stories and I don't remember this "Teeth of Justice" story being that close in spirit to those Cimino comics...

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 15, 2017 22:38:19 GMT Orora said:

The comment says it it in the "Cimino" style.
What makes it "Cimino-like"?
Are there specific story elements that make it reminiscent of what Rodolfo Cimino usually writes?
I have several Cimino stories and I don't remember this "Teeth of Justice" story being that close in spirit to those Cimino comics...

I'm not sure. Maybe it's the writing style in Italian itself, rather than the plotting — turns of phrase and expressions commonly used by Cimino?

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

They have teeth only to express anger. In the case of teeth-less characters as the ducks, 'growing teeth just for one panel' is a comics code to express an emotion. Like when in mangas people have drops of sweats when they are embarrassed: you must not think that they are sweating for real. (As a matter of facts, they show no sweat starting from the very following panel/scene.) It is a peculiar comics (and non realistic animation) trick to express emotions.

So the answer to your question is: Disney ducks show teeth, but they have no teeth.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 16, 2017 10:45:19 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

So the answer to your question is: Disney ducks show teeth, but they have no teeth.

What do you make of stories where the fact that they have teeth and, for instance, have to go to the dentist's, though?

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Good point. Well, those stories go more in the direction "people just looking as animals". It sounds as some kind of black-out to me, but in the end I am perfectly ok with that. Since I do not care for any consistency. (If not the logical consistence inside the plot of the specific story.) I mean, I prefer when artists exploit more the animal diversity, like Gottfredson, Hubbard and more recently Turconi. But if I can enjoy ducks with ears in Barks's stories and even Chief O'Hara basically depicted as a man in Cavazzano's art (in some of his stories from early 90's they even colored his nose as the rest of the face, making him more human than doggy-nosed!), well, then I am also ok with Donald going to the dentist.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 16, 2017 11:56:24 GMT Monkey_Feyerabend said:

But if I can enjoy ducks with ears in Barks's stories (…)

I love the "species melting pot" too, but I don't think ear-having ducks are incompatible with it. My take is that birds-with-ears are the result of cross-breeding between ducks and dognoses or other species.

[squeakyboots]

Can the answer just be because they're cartoon characters based off ducks who normally don't have teeth and are only given them for dramatic/comedic effect and when the story calls for it? No, it's not that simple?

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Aug 16, 2017 12:11:19 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

I love the "species melting pot" too, but I don't think ear-having ducks are incompatible with it. My take is that birds-with-ears are the result of cross-breeding between ducks and dognoses or other species.

I agree with this, and it backs up the idea that Duckburg citizens are not separate species but perhaps separate races (in that they can interbreed).

squeakyboots said:

Can the answer just be because they're cartoon characters based off ducks who normally don't have teeth and are only given them for dramatic/comedic effect and when the story calls for it? No, it's not that simple?

I agree with this too. It doesn't bother me any more than dollar signs replacing Scrooge's  pupils when he's overcome by greed, or steam coming out of Donald's ears when he's angry. I think these Ducks are humans and take a serious view of the whole universe, but I do make allowances for standard comic book-style comedic effect (which is why I'm surprised when some state that Rosa having characters making exasperated sidelong glances at the reader is a major reason why they don't like his work).

Rosa considered the Ducks human, but made several jokes about their lack of obvious external ears ... and they were funny! They wouldn't have worked if these were human characters that look like ducks because of a "lens" that we see them through (which is what I believe), but still, these jokes somehow never bothered me (not to the same extent that Donald getting upset about Fethry hunting ducks did).

[Monkey_Feyerabend]

Aug 16, 2017 13:44:48 GMT squeakyboots said:

Can the answer just be because they're cartoon characters based off ducks who normally don't have teeth and are only given them for dramatic/comedic effect and when the story calls for it? No, it's not that simple?

hey, that's what I was saying!

[Orora]

Of course. Although most of the comics usually don't follow cartoon physics to the extent where characters are basically made of rubber and bend with reality. (the ducks still get injured and need medical assistance when falling or fighting, etc)

When Scrooge broke his teeth and had to go to the dentist, it was played completely straight. There was no ''"haha he is a bird and yet has teeth"'' remark.

The "toothpaste mascot" story had the guy say about Donald ''"it's a shame ducks don't have teeth"''.
Okay, fine, but it was kinda inconsistent in the story itself: barely a page earlier, Donald was clenching his very visible teeth in pain after bumping in a street light.
Even as a kid, I was like ''"Inconsistent! Inconsistent!"''.

Oh, and I still think bird characters with ears look too freaky.

[Hector]

If you want an in universe explanation, how about this...
Anthropomorphic ducks are a species that can withdraw their teeth into cavities they
have in their mouth.

[sirredknee]

Let me throw in this Strobl onepager:

inducks.org/s.php?c=W+US+++66-07

HDL each holding their teeth in their hands.

[sirtao]

by the ways

Ducks HAVE teeths in real life.