24 interesting facts about the cult animated series “DuckTales” that many people don’t know (29 photos)

The adventures of Scrooge McDuck, his nephews and friends are so deeply ingrained in our children's souls that even today, at the mention of this cult animated series, pleasant nostalgic goosebumps will run through many.





1. The main character of the animated series is the richest drake in the world named Scrooge McDuck, who takes care of his great-nephews Billy, Willie and Dilly while his nephew Donald serves in the Navy. But this series was far from the first where Scrooge McDuck would appear.

Scrooge himself as a character first appeared in the pages of the comic book "Christmas on Bear Mountain", which was published back in 1947. Scrooge himself was based on the image of Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character of Charles Dickens's novel A Christmas Carol. From him he received wealth, stinginess, love of money, a top hat and of course his name. And in these comics, he is portrayed as an old Curmudgeon with a cane, who is constantly unhappy, and who does nothing but sit in his chair.



But Scrooge McDuck first appeared on screens back in 1962 in the short film “Scrooge McDuck and the Money.” According to the plot of this short cartoon, Scrooge taught his nephews Billy, Willie and Dilly how to save and invest money correctly. In this short film, Skrj McDuck has a classic comic red frock coat, and his nephews do not even differ in color.





And in 1983, the cartoon "Mickey's Christmas Carol" was released, which plays on "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Here Scrooge plays the role of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, on whom he was actually based.



It was only in 1987 that Scrooge received his own full-fledged animated series, which many of us were crazy about.

2. According to the original idea, the creators wanted to include a cameo (episodic appearance) of such characters as Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck in the animated series, but later it was decided to abandon this idea. Of the entire trio, the only one left is Donald Duck, who enlists in the Navy, so he asks his Uncle Scrooge to take care of his nephews.



However, this is not Donald's only appearance. Donald Duck appeared in several episodes of the animated series as a full-fledged character.

3. In fact, Scrooge McDuck's nephews are not named Billy, Willie and Dilly, but Huey, Louie and Dbuie. This was done within the framework of censorship. Our localizers were afraid that young viewers would begin to distort the name Huey into a well-known swear word of three letters.



In general, this approach is often used during localization. For example, Pongo's wife from the cartoon "101 Dalmatians" is named Perdita, while in our country she was called Paddy for obvious reasons. Roquefort from the animated series "Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers" also has a different name, namely Monterey Jack. True, the reason here is different. The fact is that this type of cheese was not known in our country, but everyone knows Roquefort.

4. Despite the fact that Mother Gavs has a huge number of children, only 7 of her sons appear in the animated series. Moreover, in order not to overload the series with characters, it was decided to divide the gang into two groups (4 and 3 brothers).



Moreover, if you noticed, the two brothers’ prison numbers stand out very much. So, for example, the unkempt Goonie Gavs has a wrinkled number, while Glutton’s has been chewed off.

By the way, in the original the gang of the Gavs brothers is called the “Beagle Boys”. Note that both of these words begin with the letter B. Also, in the original, the name of each Gavs brother begins with the letter B - Bigtime (Chief), Burger (Glutton), Bouncer (Bouncer), Baggy (Goonie), Bankjob (Banker), Bugle (Dancer) and Babyface (Malyavka).



The exception is Megabyte Gavs, who appeared in only two episodes, which were dedicated to the formation of Gizmo the Duckbot.



Moreover, in the comics the brothers did not have any distinct distinctive features, while in the animated series each of them became a separate unique character.



5. By the way, Mother Gavs herself was based on the famous criminal Ma Barker, who led the Barker-Karpis gang.

6. Scrooge McDuck and Flintahrt Glomgold have exactly the same character models. That is, essentially they are twins. If you cut and shave them, no one will notice the difference.



By the way, Glomgold took advantage of this similarity in one of the episodes to frame Scrooge.

By the way, in the animated series the image of Glomgold is very different from his on-screen image. In the cartoon, Glomgold wears a full beard, whereas in the comics he did not have such a beard. Moreover, in the comics, Glomgold is from South Africa, while in the animated series he (like Scrooge) is Scottish.



7. It was originally planned that Magica de Hypnosis would be presented as a creepy old witch, but later it was decided to make her younger and less repulsive.

When creating the character, the author was inspired by such actresses as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. But the image of Magica was largely borrowed from Marticia Addams from the famous “The Addams Family”.



Sophia Loren and Gina Lolobrigida

By the way, initially Magica was helped by her brother, who for some reason was turned into a raven. But in later episodes he no longer appeared, and it was generally unclear where he had gone.



8. Some episode titles refer us to famous cult films and famous phrases, but this reference was lost during localization:

For example, the series “Ducks in the Future” is originally called “Duck to the future”, which is a reference to the film “Back to the future”, that is, “Back to the Future”.

The series "King of the Jungle" is originally called "Jungle duck", which refers us to the work "Jungle book", that is, "The Jungle Book".

Well, the series “Home, sweet Homer” refers us to the phrase “Home, sweet home,” which can be translated as “Home, sweet home.” But we released this series under the title “Welcome back, dear Homer.”

The episode "The Case of 10 Cents" is originally called "Once upon a dime", which is a reference to the phrase "Once upon a time", which translates as "Once upon a time" or "Once upon a time". And the word "Dime" means a 10-cent coin. That is, here we have a kind of play on words, which is very difficult to translate while maintaining the joke.

The series "Quack" is originally called "Earth quack". This is some kind of reference to the word "Earthquake", that is, "Earthquake", but since "Quack" is translated as "Crack", it turns out to be a kind of play on words. And here, I think, our localizers did an excellent job.



9. In order to introduce viewers to all the characters, a full-length cartoon would be required. But in order to fit into the format of the series, it was decided to make five episodes, which are united by a common storyline. This mini-series is called "Treasures of the Golden Suns".



However, in 1990, the first and only full-length film, DuckTales: The Treasured Lamp, was released.

10. After creating the episode “Duck 00”, where ZigZag was recruited into the DRU to destroy the plans of a certain villain Dr. Byaki, the creators decided to make a separate animated series about the superhero duck. Well, as you already understood, this series was “Black Cape”, the actions of which develop in the same universe as “DuckTales”. Moreover, Zigzag plays one of the main roles there, and Gizmo the Duck Robot also appears sometimes.



They also planned to make a separate animated series about Zigzag and his flying exploits, but in the end the concept changed, and the bear Baloo from “The Jungle Book” was taken as the main character. Yes, yes, we are talking about the animated series “Miracles on Bends”.

11. Despite the fact that “DuckTales” was not the first Disney animated series (“The Adventures of the Gummi Bears” came out two years earlier), it was “DuckTales” that became the first Disney project that was shown in our country, and back in Soviet Union.



12. Naturally, thanks to the popularity of the series, video games based on it began to be released, of which there are currently only 4:

Ducktales (1989, NES);

Ducktales: The quest for gold (1990, DOS, Amiga, Apple II, C64);

Ducktales 2 (1993, NES);

Ducktales: Remastered (2013, Windows, PS, Xbox).

13. Famous composer Mark Muller wrote the title track for the animated series "DuckTales". And a little later, he wrote the main musical theme for the animated series “Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers.”

But the background musical themes were handled by another composer - Ron Jones. And it is worth noting that he coped with this task with an A+, creating melodies for all occasions, be it danger, fun, victory theme, mystery, etc.

14. The nephews' parents were never shown in the animated series "DuckTales". They were never even mentioned anywhere. What is known is that their mother's name is Bella Duck (full name Dumbella, which translates to "Dumb") and is the sister of Donald Duck. But you can learn a lot about her in the 2017 reboot of the animated series.



But the father of the nephews is generally a “dark forest.” Only once in the comics was it mentioned that the father of the nephews ended up in the hospital because they made a very bad joke by placing a lit firecracker on his chair.

15. Characters such as Gizmo the Duck and Bubba (the ancient duck) were created specifically for the animated series, and they never appeared in the comics. Gizmo the Duckrobot himself is a kind of parody of RoboCop, the film about which was released a year before the original film, and Iron Man from Marvel comics.



These characters were created by Tad Stones to freshen up the series with something new. And by the way, in addition to these characters, Stones also came up with a certain space duck, which was supposed to become another permanent character. But this idea was eventually rejected.

16. In 2017, a restart of the animated series “DuckTales” was released, which seems to refer us to the original animated series, but is an independent project.



The concept of the characters was changed dramatically. For example, the nephews became more unique and each of them developed distinctive character traits. Mrs. Klyuvdia is a former spy, Zigzag (in addition to piloting) also became a driver, Duckworth appears only as a ghost, and Ponochka is actually a genetic clone of Scrooge (she was created from his DNA).



In addition, the new animated series featured the Rescuers, Black Cape, Nutty and other Disney characters.

17. Although his nephews call Scrooge their uncle, he is actually their great-uncle, since they are the children of his niece Della. And Water Donald is precisely his nephew.



18. At one time, a debate arose between fans of the animated series “DuckTales” and “Black Cape” about whether these animated series took place in the same universe or not.

Some said YES, because in "Black Cloak" there is Zigzag, there is Fenton (Duckrobot), who once worked together in Zigzag, there is a mention of Daxburg, and also Magica, Glomgold and some brother appear in the episodes of "Black Cloak" Gavs, even if only for a second.



But others spoke AGAINST, because the animated series take place in different time periods. DuckTales takes place around the mid-20th century, while Black Cape clearly takes place in the late 20th century.

This question was answered by the creator of "Black Cloak" Ted Stones. He said that Black Cape is not a spin-off of DuckTales. Actions take place in a parallel universe.

19. Scrooge McDuck has one unique superpower. Only he knows how to swim in coins. When others try to do this, they fail and simply hit a hard surface.



20. Many people believe that Ponochka is a mixture of three nieces of Daisy Duck (Donald's girlfriend). But the authors of the series themselves claim that this is a completely original character who was introduced into the animated series to dilute the male company.

21. Duckworth's character was inspired by Bruce Wayne's (Wetman) butler, Alfred Pennyworth. This reference can be seen not only in manners, but also in the surname, or rather in their ending: Duckworth - Pennyworth.



22. Despite the fact that excerpts from various episodes flash in the screensaver, some of them were drawn only for the screensaver. So, for example, there has never been a series of an alien snatching a banknote from Scrooge, or a tiger hugging his nephews, or a mummy chasing the main characters. But for a long time I believed that these episodes existed, and that I simply did not see them.



23. Artist Mike Parusa, who came up with the idea to make Scrooge’s estate exactly as we know it, said that in order to emphasize Scrooge’s obsession with money, he decided to stick a dollar sign on everything he could: on the gate, on the helicopter platform, fountain, etc.

24. Alan Young voiced Scrooge in the cartoon Mickey's Christmas Carol. The authors considered this voice simply ideal, so they invited him to voice Scrooge for the animated series.



Alan Young - original voice actor of Scrooge

But that's not all. Alan Young also voiced Scrooge for the game Ducktales: Remastered, released in 2013.



Alexey Borzunov - voice actor (voice of Scrooge in dubbing)