Scrooge McDuck

From The Unofficial DisneyWiki

Scrooge McDuck or Uncle Scrooge is a Glaswegian anthropomorphic duck created by Carl Barks that first appeared in Four Color Comics #178, Christmas on Bear Mountain, published by Dell Comics in December 1947. Over the decades Scrooge has emerged from a supporting character in the comic world only, to one of the most famous and popular Disney Characters. Scrooge is currently voiced by famous celebrity Alan Young.

[edit] Comic History

Scrooge, maternal uncle of previously established character Donald Duck, made his first named appearance in Christmas on Bear Mountain in December 1947, a story written and drawn by artist Carl Barks. His appearance may have been based on a similar-looking, nameless Scottish character from the 1943 propaganda short The Spirit of '43.

In Christmas on Bear Mountain, Scrooge was a bearded, bespectacled, reasonably wealthy old duck, visibly leaning on his cane, and living in isolation in a "huge mansion". Scrooge's misanthropic thoughts in this first story are quite pronounced: "Here I sit in this big lonely dump, waiting for Christmas to pass! Bah! That silly season when everybody loves everybody else! A curse on it! Me—I'm different! Everybody hates me, and I hate everybody!"Barks later reflected, "Scrooge in 'Christmas on Bear Mountain' was only my first idea of a rich, old uncle. I had made him too old and too weak. I discovered later on that I had to make him more active. I could not make an old guy like that do the things I wanted him to do."

[edit] Wealth

Scrooge had worked his way up the financial ladder from humble immigrant roots. Born in Glasgow, Scotland he made a living shining boots, and was enraged when a ditchdigger paid him with a US dime. However, the coin inspired him to take a position as cabin boy on a Clyde cattle ship to the United States to make his fortune. Scrooge is now the richest duck in the world, rivalled only by Flintheart Glomgold, John D. Rockerduck and, less prominent, the maharaja of the fictional country Howdoyoustan (play on Hindustan).

An Uncle Scrooge Comic

He keeps a portion of his wealth, money he has personally earned himself, in a massive Money Bin overlooking the city of Duckburg. In the short Scrooge McDuck and Money, he remarks to his nephews that this money is "just petty cash". In the Dutch and Italian version he regularly forces Donald and his nephews to polish the coins one by one in order to pay off Donald's debts — Scrooge will not even pay them much for this lengthily, tedious, hand-breaking work. As far as he is concerned, even 5 cents an hour is too much expenditure.

A shrewd businessman and noted tightwad, his hobbies include diving into his money like a porpoise, burrowing through it like a gopher, and throwing coins into the air to feel them fall upon his skull. He is also the richest member of The Billionaires Club of Duckburg, a society which includes the most successful businessmen of the world and allows them to keep connections with each other. Glomgold and Rockerduck are also influential members of the Club. His most famous prized possession is his Number One Dime.The sum of Scrooge's wealth is disputed. According to Barks' The Second Richest Duck as noted by a TIME article, Scrooge is worth one multiplujillion, nine obsquatumatillion, six hundred twenty-three dollars and sixty-two cents. Don Rosa's the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck notes that Scrooge amounts to five multiplujillion, nine impossibidillion, seven fantasticatrillion dollars and sixteen cents. In 2007, Forbes listed his wealth at a much more modest $28.8 billion. Barks himself has said that the fortune is five billion quintiplitilion unptuplatillion multuplatillion impossibidillion fantasticatrillion dollars. Whatever the amount, Scrooge never considers it enough: he has to continue to earn money by any means possible.

[edit] Education

Scrooge is not formally educated, as he quit school at an early age. However, he has a sharp mind and is always ready to learn new skills. Because of his secondary occupation as a treasure hunter, Scrooge has become something of a scholar and an amateur archaeologist. Starting with Barks, several writers have explained how Scrooge becomes aware of the treasures he decides to pursue. This often involves periods of conducting research in various written sources in search of passages that might lead him to a treasure. Often Scrooge decides to search for the possible truth behind old legends, or discovers obscure references to the activities of ancient conquerors, explorers and military leaders that he considers interesting enough to begin a new treasure hunting expedition.

As a result of his research, Scrooge has collected an extensive personal library, which includes many rare written sources. In Barks's and Rosa's stories, among the prized pieces of this library is an almost complete collection of Spanish and Dutch naval logs of the 16th and 17th centuries. Their references to the fates of other ships have often allowed Scrooge to locate sunken ships and recover their treasures from their underwater graves. Mostly self-taught as he is, Scrooge is a firm believer in the saying "knowledge is power". Scrooge is also an accomplished polyglot, having learned to speak several different languages during his business trips around the world, selling fridges to eskimos, wind to windmill manufacturers in the Netherlands etc.

[edit] DuckTales

In the DuckTales series, Scrooge has adopted the nephews, and as a result his rougher edges are smoothed out somewhat. While most of his traits remain from the comics, he is notably more jovial and less irritable in the cartoon. In an early episode, Scrooge credits his improved temperament to the nephews and Webby, saying that "for the first time since I left Scotland, I have a family." Though Scrooge is far from heartless in the comics, he is rarely so openly sentimental. While he still hunts for treasure in Ducktales, many episodes focus on him attempting to thwart villains. He remains, however, just as tightfisted with money as he has always been. Scrooge displays a strict code of honor, insisting that the only valid way to acquire wealth is to "earn it square", and he goes to great lengths to thwart those (sometimes even his own nephews) who gain money dishonestly. This code also prevents him from ever being dishonest himself, saying that "Scrooge McDuck's word is as good as gold." He also expresses great disgust at being viewed by others as a greedy liar and cheater. The show fleshed out his upbringing depicting his life as an individual who worked hard his entire life to earn his keep and fiercely defend it against those who were truly dishonest: a value he teaches his nephews. Also it was shown that money is no longer the most important thing in his life. For one episode he was under a love spell, which caused him to lavish his time on a goddess, over everything else. The nephews find out that the only way to break the spell, is make the person realize that the object of their love will cost them something they truly love. The boys make it appear that Scrooge's love is allergic to money; however, he simply decides to give up his wealth so he can be with her. Later, when he realizes he'll have to give up his nephews to be with her, the spell is immediately broken, showing that family is the most important thing to him. On occasion he demonstrates physical fitness by single-handedly beating bigger guys.

[edit] Other Media and Inclusion In Mickey and Friends

he character of Scrooge has appeared in various media aside from comic books. Scrooge's first appearance in animated form (save for a brief cameo appearance on the Mickey Mouse Club television series) was in Disney's 1967 theatrical short Scrooge McDuck and Money, in which he teaches his nephews some basic financial tips.

Scrooge in Kingdom Hearts ll

He later appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), an animated version of the Dickens classic. He appeared as himself in the television special Sport Goofy in Soccermania (the only time when he was voiced by Will Ryan).Scrooge's biggest role outside of comics would come in the 1987 animated series DuckTales, a series loosely based on Carl Barks's comics, his character being voiced by Alan Young. In this series, of which a two-hour premiere aired on , and the regular episodes began September 21, 1987, Scrooge becomes the caretaker of Huey, Dewey and Louie when Donald joins the United States Navy. Scrooge's persona in DuckTales is considerably softer than in most previous appearances; his ruthlessness is played down considerably and his often abrasive personality is reduced in many episodes to that of a crotchety but lovable old uncle. Still, there are flashes of Barks' Scrooge to be seen, especially in early episodes of the first season. After the series Scrooge also appeared in DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. He was also mentioned in Darkwing Duck episode Tiff of the Titans, but never really seen.He has appeared in some episodes of Raw Toonage, two shorts of Mickey Mouse Works and some episodes (specially "House of Scrooge") of Disney's House of Mouse, as well as the direct-to-video films Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. He also makes an appearance in Disney's and Square Enix's video game Kingdom Hearts II as a minor non-playable character in Hollow Bastion, where he is trying to recreate his favorite flavor of ice cream (sea-salt, which is known to be extremely popular among many people). His other video game appearances include the three DuckTales video games (DuckTales, DuckTales 2, and DuckTales - the Quest for Gold), and in Toontown Online as the accidental creator of the Cogs. He is also a secret playable character in 2008 quiz game, Disney TH!NK Fast.

In 2002, Forbes magazine named Scrooge McDuck history's fourth richest fictional character at $8.2 billion but moved him down to sixth place in 2005. In 2006, Scrooge was moved back up to third place, with a worth of $10.9 billion, trailing only Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks and Charles Montgomery Burns. In 2007, the self-made Scottish businessman finally got on the top of the Forbes Fictional 15 with a net worth of $28.8 billion.

Also in 2007, Glasgow City Council added Scrooge to its list of "Famous Glaswegians", alongside the likes of Billy Connolly, Sir Alex Ferguson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

In 2008 The Weekly Standard parodied the bailout of the financial markets by publishing a memo where Scrooge applies to the TARP program.

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