Bored and utterly without anything interesting to do your humble writer decides to ponder upon an old favorite television show of his called Ducktales, very seriously.
To his incredibly photographic recollection on face value Ducktales was an emmy award winning animated true to life biopic about an orphaned 3 brother family of ducks called Huebert Dueteronomy and Louis who were emancipated (and subsequently renamed Huey Dewey and Louie, for their protection) from their abusive Uncle Donald's care due to his notoriety as a well known dispute, nudist and advocatest of anger management issues.. not entirely a good combination. Through witness protection they were relocated to live with their wealthy (and kindly) multimillionaire scottish Great Uncle, Scrooge McDuck (voiced by Sean Connery), who just happens to live in a city called Duckburg, which was coincidentally.. filled with ducks. Thematically the series was episodic and groundbreaking by dealing with a series of socio-economic factors imbued into the 1980's by the post-Reagan era.
The Economic Factors
To the casual economist Duckburg was an interesting city to note, the gross per person ratio for the majority of the populus (which were ducks) seemed to be higher then those of the minority of the populus (who happened to be dogs) that often lived below the poverty line and seemed to have an unusually high rate of set blue collar jobs such as Butlering or Burglering. Though the statistics show an oddity and subtle undertones may imply some sort of racial bigotry or caste system in the workplace of this particular city, there is also an argument that the poverty line determined by the different ethnic backgrounds may not be purely racial, but rather cultural, economical and even fashionable... since ducks do not wear pants as part of their culture's customs therefore spend less money on expensive pants. This ever widening gap in the class system between ducks and dogs was discussed extensively in the episode “Down and Out in Duckburg,” here Scrooge is brought down to the dog’s poverty level by a random plot device. After facing a series of trials and tribulation Scrooge realizes his pants taxation program was causing as much a drain to society as Goofy’s sexual ambiguity allowing him to review his program when he inevitably regained his riches.
Edutainment was at times also a driving theme for the show, for example the topic of inflation was discussed by the casual introduction of a sought after commodity into a native culture, bottle-caps. In the “Land of Trala La” Scrooge demonstrates to his nephews how finance, luxury goods and interest are soon devalued through the power of supply and demand once their quantity reaches a state of overabundance, by dropping one billion bottle-caps from a high altitude upon a small nation.
Social Anxiety
For the first time social issues such as dissociative behavioral disorders is recognized in children’s programming.. and accepted by casting protagonists with such disorders as positive role models. Scrooge was an eccentric mulitmillionaire with a fetish for money solely for the benefits of swimming in hard metal, and in later episodes we are introduced to Fenton a man plagued with 'obscure profanity turrets", which happened to be the secret password for a mechanical (iron man style) suit that appeared on him whenever he uttered the words "bladder-skating-bladder-scats," very icky.
In Ducktales even adult education isn’t avoided but rather designed to be subtle and emphasized to be euphemistic, so it’s not surprising that in “Till Nephews Do Us Part” the turmoils of Scrooge’s multiple ‘partnerships’ is riffled with financial innuendos. In the episode Scrooge abandons his long term relationship with 'Goldy' to marry 'Millionairea' often admitting the most attractive aspect of their relationship was the impending ‘merging’ (she’s a Catholic), whereas 'Millionairea’s' interests in Scrooge was later admittedly superficial and financial. Once Scrooge realizes the extent of her romantic interests he renounces polygamy and immediately returns to Goldy, the only one who can epitomize the best of both his interests, a balance between profitability and carnal activity, but understandable scorned.. she attacks him with a loaded shotgun. Metaphorically of course children will understand the significance of being attacked by a phallic weapon in this situation later in life.
The Pinnacle of the Series
Perhaps the most successful episode of the entire series was "My Mother, The Psychic", in this special episode originally aired in September 1989 was a response to the three dominant socially ideological anxieties of the year. The narrative focuses solely on Fenton's unhealthy clingy relationship with his mother, who happens to love TV more then him. The plot revolves around her as she is electrocuted by the television set and is suddenly able to see into the future, Scrooge McDuck the entrepreneur that he is recognizes this business venture immediately by proclaiming in his thick scottish Sean Connery accent "Hmm, I've heard of cases that bad shocks makes people psychics! Work for me and I'll give u a widescreen TV" (which apparently occurred quite often with the mentally ill in the late 80's). Fenton’s mother of course accepts this proposal and abandons her son. This story focuses on the ethical implications of child neglect no matter what age, animal testing and immoral business practices through exploitation of the mentally ill, of course by the end of the episode these issues were all resolved when Fenton’s mother loses her psychic abilities to another bad shock (I suppose this occurred often as well). Scrooge McDuck returns to "Making money the hard way" and Fenton’s mother-child relationship becomes stronger when they reach a compromise, she will go on a picnic with him as long as he brings the TV.
Lost Oppertunities
After such a multitude of different topics covered throughout the series it seems almost ironic that one of the biggest moral panics of the late 80’s/early 90’s was never covered by Ducktales, the topic of HIV, a topic even covered in the ecologically groundbreaking Captain Planet series airing at the time. The portrayal would have probably best fitted the episode “Till Nephews Do Us Part”, especially with it’s emphasis on the variety of Scrooge’s multiple partners, his promiscuity and his polygamous attitude towards relationships, easily constructed by focussing on his relationships with 'Goldy', 'Millionairea' or 'Ma Beagle' to name a few repetitively scorned women in Scooge’s life.
Final Thoughts
The tales in Scrooge’s life is filled with cautionary tales and the realities of economic discourse, self admittedly he was not always the perfect duckling as his past was far from perfect. In “Back to the Klondike” Scrooge recounts his contribution to the historical rise of the American Philanthropist, first through the violent era of the ‘Klondike Goldrush’, then through the ecologically devastating ‘Texas Oil Blooms’ then finally.. ‘conflict diamond’ mining in Africa.. (although he did attempt to conceal certain aspects with an implausible tale involving elephants herding upon a coal pit to crush coal into diamonds). However Scrooge recounts these eras of his life as honestly and as incriminatingly by today’s legal standards as possible, in an attempt to educate and better his nephews and audience, while leaving clues to some of his more illegitimate practices that could not be aired with such discretion (ever notice how his international treasure hunting always seemed to involve private planes, cultural artifacts and a lack of declaration to custom’s officials).
But even with his net worth calculated by Forbe’s magazine to be approximately $44.1 billion in 2011 (Beating legacies Richie Rich, Bruce Wayne and self made entrepreneurs Mr Monopoly, Montgomery Burns) Scrooge admits he did not find his true riches until he ‘appropriated’ his family in the form of his nephews in “Back to the Klondike” and often uses his time travel experiences to divert them from becoming the cold calculating heirs he foresaw in “Ducks to the Future,” a reoccurring fear in Scrooge’s actual life for future generations. And although there are the recently surfaced photos of known employee Launchpad McQuack (the heroic crash lander of the recent Boeing 767 incident) abiding the vigilante Darkwing Duck, leading to speculation of Scrooge’s own financial involvement, there has been no direct correlation between Scrooge McDuck and Darkwing Duck’s criminal activities!! But *ahem* the author digresses..
In conclusion Ducktales is successful for its socio-economic awareness and aptly hailed as a cultural signifier (a “Roots for the contemporary 1980’s malled” if you will), but in reality its allegories actually transcend its generational and cultural boundaries, each and almost every one of its topics can be applied to us. The economic factors (taxation, inflation, animal testing, unlawful business practices, international theft) and social anxieties (the further widening of economic divides, dissociative behavioral disorders, discrimination, child neglect, exploitation of the mentally ill and adult education) covered still exist in society today. Uncle Scrooge produced, starred and executed a show that brutally covered both his and society’s failings in an attempt, in what is seen as unashamedly bearing his past discretions to educate his contextual decedents while he, to confess/in all honesty, make a quick buck... nobody’s perfect