Parodies/retellings of novels, movies, plays with ducks/mice

[Orora]

A long-running genre in Duck/Mice comics is to make the story a parody/retelling of a famous/classic novel, film, play, folk tale or even historical event, except the characters are Donald, Mickey, Scrooge and many others.

This is especially common in Italian-made comics.

Are there some you especially like? That stuck with you?

As for me (that I can think of at the moment):

- The Story of Marco Polo aka The Million (based on "The Travels of Marco Polo")
Scrooge decides to make a movie based on the Travels of Marco Polo, and decides to use all his friends and family as staff. Mickey has written a script and reads it to them, and the comic is mostly about the Marco Polo journeys with Scrooge, Donald and Ludwig van Drake as the protagonists. Also stars Dickie Duck as a princess and Pete as a bandit lord.
A story I read a long time ago and still has nostalgic value to me. Strangely, my first introduction to Dickie.

- Uncle Scrooge and Duck The Great (based on "Nineteen Eighty Four")
Scrooge wants his office staff to work harder and decides to put them under heavy pressure, making them feel watched at all times. Huey, Dewey and Louie criticize him and compare what he does to Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty Four". Scrooge reads the book and dreams he is a great dictator in the future, 2084, while Donald is a regular citizen who slowly rebels and falls in love with Daisy, an officer working for the dictatorship.
The story has almost nothing to do with the novel but is very nice on its own right. The real book actually being mentioned made me want to read it, and so I actually did hereafter. What a great novel! But very creepy and intense.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

I really like the Radice/Turconi Treasure Island story. (Mind, the Bottaro classic is pretty damn good, but it has very little to do with Treasure Island, and I'd hesitate to even really call it a literary parody.)Beautiful art, and an extremely charming story that is both very faithful to the original in surprising ways, and a legitimate parody at times (the tea! the tea! that had me chuckling all the way through). The cast is also very good; Peg-Leg Pete as Long-John Silver might seem a shoe-in, but the wonderful thing is it is not done to the detriment of the original Silver's complexity and endearing qualities; we get the watch a (unique?) sequence of events where Pete becomes a warm father figure to Mickey and it's wonderful. The incidental characters all have memorable designs, Prof. Plottigat Portis is always a nice face to bring back and he's in his place as an old comrade of Pete/Silver (e.g. Billy Bones)… and the Sleuth. In what other story are you going to see the Sleuth, these days?

 



I also really like The Tragedy of Dr Donaldus Faustus, as I have ever since I first saw it. Bottaro is at his peak, the story is simultaneously its own thing and a recognizable riff on the Faust story (I always like those; René Clair's Beauty of the Devil is one of my favorite feature-length pictures, after all), both the humor and the drama work… Mephistopheles is hardly complex, but he is quite memorable for a one-shot villain. And the story is framed as a story that happened to one of Donald's ancestors, which is usually a good thing in my book; sure, it kind of strains belief that someone's ancestor and their nephews/girlfriends/etc. would all be so similar across the centuries, but it's an acceptable fact to pay to avoid a tendency I have to get constantly taken out of a story that I know from the start to be "imaginary" (a play the characters put on, a dream, etc.).



And finally, Goofy Frankenstein. It's in the same vein as A Very Goofy King Midas and other similar stories, shortened version of which were, I believe, printed in the U.S.A. at one point in rapid succession. I, however, got the French translation as a hardback, and I was blown away. The absurdist humor, the inventive layout, the art… it's a lot of fun. As I said, maybe not actually the best of the many "Goofy as historical people" stories that team made, but I saw that one first, and it's still objectively good enough that nostalgia gives the final push to skyrocket it on my favorite list. 

[Hyaroo]

I've mentioned this one elsewhere, but I really like Paperino in: Il mondo perduto, by François Corteggiani and Giorgio Cavazzano, which is inspired by The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story is by no means a faithful adaptations of the original book, but it's really fun to read. You get Donald, Fethry, Scrooge and Ludwig along on the journey, and all of them have great moments.

I also have fond memories of Paperino e il vento del Sud, even if I never actually read Gone with the Wind. Or maybe that's just why, since I can't compare it either positively or negatively to the original.

Also, quite a few of the "Goofy as historical/famous fictional people" comics are really inspired, like the Frankenstein one that Scrooge MacDuck mentioned, or the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde one.

[Orora]

Jul 31, 2018 15:36:03 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

I really like the Radice/Turconi Treasure Island story. (Mind, the Bottaro classic is pretty damn good, but it has very little to do with Treasure Island, and I'd hesitate to even really call it a literary parody.)Beautiful art, and an extremely charming story that is both very faithful to the original in surprising ways, and a legitimate parody at times (the tea! the tea! that had me chuckling all the way through). The cast is also very good; Peg-Leg Pete as Long-John Silver might seem a shoe-in, but the wonderful thing is it is not done to the detriment of the original Silver's complexity and endearing qualities; we get the watch a (unique?) sequence of events where Pete becomes a warm father figure to Mickey and it's wonderful. The incidental characters all have memorable designs, Prof. Plottigat Portis is always a nice face to bring back and he's in his place as an old comrade of Pete/Silver (e.g. Billy Bones)… and the Sleuth. In what other story are you going to see the Sleuth, these days?

 



I also really like The Tragedy of Dr Donaldus Faustus, as I have ever since I first saw it. Bottaro is at his peak, the story is simultaneously its own thing and a recognizable riff on the Faust story (I always like those; René Clair's Beauty of the Devil is one of my favorite feature-length pictures, after all), both the humor and the drama work… Mephistopheles is hardly complex, but he is quite memorable for a one-shot villain. And the story is framed as a story that happened to one of Donald's ancestors, which is usually a good thing in my book; sure, it kind of strains belief that someone's ancestor and their nephews/girlfriends/etc. would all be so similar across the centuries, but it's an acceptable fact to pay to avoid a tendency I have to get constantly taken out of a story that I know from the start to be "imaginary" (a play the characters put on, a dream, etc.).



And finally, Goofy Frankenstein. It's in the same vein as A Very Goofy King Midas and other similar stories, shortened version of which were, I believe, printed in the U.S.A. at one point in rapid succession. I, however, got the French translation as a hardback, and I was blown away. The absurdist humor, the inventive layout, the art… it's a lot of fun. As I said, maybe not actually the best of the many "Goofy as historical people" stories that team made, but I saw that one first, and it's still objectively good enough that nostalgia gives the final push to skyrocket it on my favorite list. 

Those stories sound real good! I should try them someday.

Aug 2, 2018 14:18:17 GMT Hyaroo said:

I've mentioned this one elsewhere, but I really like Paperino in: Il mondo perduto, by François Corteggiani and Giorgio Cavazzano, which is inspired by The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story is by no means a faithful adaptations of the original book, but it's really fun to read. You get Donald, Fethry, Scrooge and Ludwig along on the journey, and all of them have great moments.

I also have fond memories of Paperino e il vento del Sud, even if I never actually read Gone with the Wind. Or maybe that's just why, since I can't compare it either positively or negatively to the original.

Also, quite a few of the "Goofy as historical/famous fictional people" comics are really inspired, like the Frankenstein one that Scrooge MacDuck mentioned, or the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde one.

I had this Lost World comic for some time, and yet I barely remember anything in it. I wonder why? I should try it again.

As for the "Goofy as historical people", one that especially stands to me is the one where he is Christopher Columbus. It takes a lot of liberties with the real stories (and Columbus stories are already infamous for being overly romanticized): for starters, Goofy-Columbus is shown as deciding to take his journey because... he wants to prove the Earth is round, and "everybody" thinks the Earth is flat.
Even back then, as a kid, I knew Columbus definitely didn't go on his journey for this.
Although it has a funny ending where 

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
the Earth is indeed shown as actually being flat!! And Mickey telling Goofy "I told you so!".

[Hyaroo]

The "Goofy as Columbus" story was one I didn't really like all that much, largely because the ending was so abrupt and anticlimatic. It felt like they were gearing up for a longer story and then... nothing. The fact that it had nothing to do with the real Columbus didn't bother me much, since none of the stories in this series were the slightest bit accurate with the source material and just treated the setting as an excuse for a lot of puns and surreal jokes. ^_^

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 2, 2018 14:30:48 GMT Orora said:

For starters, Goofy-Columbus is shown as deciding to take his journey because... he wants to prove the Earth is round, and "everybody" thinks the Earth is flat.
Even back then, as a kid, I knew Columbus definitely didn't go on his journey for this.

It is irritating, but it's not really the story's mistake (not that the story was aiming for any degree of accuracy). It's a surprisingly common misconception. For instance, it's central to the phenomenally weird, but rather endearing, German animated film The Fantastic Voyage (Pico et Columbus en Français ; oui, le traducteur a gardé Columbus au lieu de mettre Christophe Colomb…). If you can find nothing else online, there's a Nostalgia Critic review of it, watching it quickly should give you an idea of what the movie is.

[Orora]

Aug 2, 2018 21:22:52 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Aug 2, 2018 14:30:48 GMT Orora said:

For starters, Goofy-Columbus is shown as deciding to take his journey because... he wants to prove the Earth is round, and "everybody" thinks the Earth is flat.
Even back then, as a kid, I knew Columbus definitely didn't go on his journey for this.

It is irritating, but it's not really the story's mistake (not that the story was aiming for any degree of accuracy). It's a surprisingly common misconception. For instance, it's central to the phenomenally weird, but rather endearing, German animated film The Fantastic Voyage (Pico et Columbus en Français ; oui, le traducteur a gardé Columbus au lieu de mettre Christophe Colomb…). If you can find nothing else online, there's a Nostalgia Critic review of it, watching it quickly should give you an idea of what the movie is.

I saw the movie, I didn't like it, I thought it was a pile of obnoxious nonsense. The only thing I liked was the Al Jarreau song at the end credits.

[crazycatlord]

• Lo strano caso di Topo Jekyll e Mister Mike, other parody of Jekyll and Hyde
• Topomouche, storia di amori e di spada, parody of Scaramouche
  
• Miseria e nobiltà, parody of the play of Eduardo Scarpetta
• Zorro, O Justiceiro Panacão, more one "version" of Zorro
• Le avventure di Paperin-Simbad, version of Simbad
• The Hound of Basketville, parody of the  Hound of Baskerville
• All "Disney Theater" series, btw
• Um Caso Macabro, inspired also by the Hound of Baskerville
• As Aventuras de Pen Hur, parody of Ben Hur
  

[Matilda]

The Hound of Basketville--Lockman/Strobl, parody of the Hound of the Baskervilles

the only such story I remember reading as a child in the USA in the mid-1960's, and happily it was parodying a story I had in fact read!

Moby Dick--Artibani/Mottura

especially for Mottura's aMAZing art--so glad this is going to be published in the USA! I'm looking forward to the Radici "Treasure Island" which I haven't seen at all, and which will also be published by Dark Horse

Il mistero dei candelabri--Carpi

again, love the art--those happy chimney sweep urchins!

La leggenda di Paperin Hood--Scarpa

Daisy has a nice role here!

Generally speaking, I avoid the "literary parody" stories, as I prefer to the Ducks to be Themselves. In Paperin Hood, they are Themselves putting on a show, so you get both the real Ducks and the roles they play. In Moby Dick and Il mistero dei candelabri, the art won me over.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 3, 2018 2:14:00 GMT Matilda said:

The Hound of Basketville--Lockman/Strobl, parody of the Hound of the Baskervilles

the only such story I remember reading as a child in the USA in the mid-1960's, and happily it was parodying a story I had in fact read!

Moby Dick--Artibani/Mottura

especially for Mottura's aMAZing art--so glad this is going to be published in the USA! I'm looking forward to the Radici "Treasure Island" which I haven't seen at all, and which will also be published by Dark Horse

Il mistero dei candelabri--Carpi

again, love the art--those happy chimney sweep urchins!

La leggenda di Paperin Hood--Scarpa

Daisy has a nice role here!

Generally speaking, I avoid the "literary parody" stories, as I prefer to the Ducks to be Themselves. In Paperin Hood, they are Themselves putting on a show, so you get both the real Ducks and the roles they play. In Moby Dick and Il mistero dei candelabri, the art won me over. 

And also, in Candelabri, it's not the real Ducks per se, but it's their ancestors, in the "real world" — not some sort of alternate universe. To me, like with Faustus, this makes a world of difference.

I rather liked Hound of the Basketville upon reading it, too, but I'd be hesitant to call it a "literary parody" as such. About the only plot beat the two have in common is a monstrous hound haunting the moor; that's about it. Barks's Hound of the Whiskervilles is, by this standard, also a "literary parody", and a closer one than Basketville at that. 

And of course, Moby, Mistero and Hood are all very good stories. Not quite among my favorites emotionally, but critically speaking, undoubtedly excellent.

[crazycatlord]

Aug 3, 2018 7:07:47 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

I rather liked Hound of the Basketville upon reading it, too, but I'd be hesitant to call it a "literary parody" as such. About the only plot beat the two have in common is a monstrous hound haunting the moor; that's about it.

The original and this story don't have both also something with a shoe?

[RobbK1]

I always liked the 1932 film "Most Dangerous Game", about an insane, villainous man who lives on an Island in The South Seas, who rescues shipwrecked Humans only to hunt them with guns as prey, for his amusement. I remember a 1990s Uncle Scrooge story drawn by Vicar, where Scrooge and his nephews are the prey.

[crazycatlord]

Sir Peninhoé, and more some Brazilian stories with Fethry

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Aug 4, 2018 8:25:56 GMT RobbK1 said:

I always liked the 1932 film "Most Dangerous Game", about an insane, villainous man who lives on an Island in The South Seas, who rescues shipwrecked Humans only to hunt them with guns as prey, for his amusement. I remember a 1990s Uncle Scrooge story drawn by Vicar, where Scrooge and his nephews are the prey.

I believe The Most Dangerous Game is actually based on a novel or short story… There's no telling which the story is actually based on, I think. Though it is indeed a good story. 

[RobbK1]

Aug 4, 2018 16:49:19 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Aug 4, 2018 8:25:56 GMT RobbK1 said:

I always liked the 1932 film "Most Dangerous Game", about an insane, villainous man who lives on an Island in The South Seas, who rescues shipwrecked Humans only to hunt them with guns as prey, for his amusement. I remember a 1990s Uncle Scrooge story drawn by Vicar, where Scrooge and his nephews are the prey.

I believe The Most Dangerous Game is actually based on a novel or short story… There's no telling which the story is actually based on, I think.

The film story was based on a 1924 novel.