Scrooge McDuck

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Background information

Feature films

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse
Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas
Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers (cameo)

(cameo)

Short films

The Spirit of ’43 (precursor)
Donald-Scrooge Opus (unproduced)
Scrooge McDuck and Money
Mickey’s Christmas Carol
Sport Goofy in Soccermania
Chibi Tiny Tales

(precursor)(unproduced)

Shows

The Mickey Mouse Club (cameo)
DuckTales
Darkwing Duck (cameo)
Raw Toonage
Aladdin (cameo)
Mickey Mouse Works
House of Mouse
Mickey Mouse
DuckTales (2017)
Legend of the Three Caballeros
The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse

Video games

DuckTales 1 & 2
DuckTales: The Quest for Gold
The Lucky Dime Caper
QuackShot (cameo)
Deep Duck Trouble
Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers! (mentioned)
Disney Sports Football
Disney’s Party
Toontown Online
Kingdom Hearts series
Disney TH!NK Fast
Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion
DuckTales Remastered
Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (cameo)
Disney Infinity series (townsperson)
Disney Magical World
DuckTales: Scrooge’s Loot
Disney Magical World 2
Mickey’s Typing Adventure
Disney Tsum Tsum
Disney Crossy Road
Disney Emoji Blitz
Disney Magic Kingdoms
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode
Disney Sorcerer’s Arena
Roblox
Disney Mirrorverse
Disney All-Star Racers
Disney Dreamlight Valley

Park attractions

Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday Parade
Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade
Dreaming Up!
Mickey Mouse Revue
Mickey’s Starland Show
A Christmas Fantasy Parade
Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!
Light Magic
Disney Dreams!
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights
Mickey’s Dazzling Christmas Parade
DuckTales World Showcase Adventure

Animators

Ward Kimball (Scrooge McDuck and Money)
David Block (Mickey’s Christmas Carol)[1]

David Block

Designer

Carl Barks

Voice

Dallas McKennon (1960 record)[2]
Bill Thompson (Scrooge McDuck & Money)
Alan Young (1974-2016)[3]
Jack Wagner (A Magic Kingdom Yuletide Special)
Will Ryan (Sport Goofy in Soccermania)
John Kassir (Mickey Mouse, 4 episodes)
David Tennant (DuckTales reboot, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers)
Eric Bauza (Legend of the Three Caballeros)
Enn Reitel (Disney Parks, Kingdom Hearts III and Dreamlight Valley)

Inspiration

Ebenezer Scrooge
Uncle Bim from The Gumps[4]
John D. Rockefeller[5][6]

Uncle Bim from

Honors and awards

[7]
Named the #1 in Forbes magazine’s Top 15 Richest Fictional Characters in 2007, 2011, and 2013.
NAVGTR nomination (Alan Young)[8]

Grammy nominationNamed the #1 in Forbes magazine’s Top 15 Richest Fictional Characters in 2007, 2011, and 2013.NAVGTR nomination

Character information

Other names

Mr. McDuck
Uncle (or Unca) Scrooge
Mr. McDee
The Richest Duck in the World
Skooge
Scroogey/Scroogie
The Masked Mallard (superheroic alter ego)
Uncle Moneybags
Lammiekins
The Neverrest Ninny
Millionaire Miser
The Richest Man in the Cemetery

Occupation

Business tycoon
Treasure hunter
Banker

Affiliations

McDuck Enterprises (Founder and CEO)
The Billionaires Club of Duckburg

Home

McDuck Manor, Scotland (birthplace) Duckburg (current residence)

Likes

Money, his family, his Number One Dime, ice cream (especially sea-salt flavor ), playing the bagpipes, swimming in his money bin, treasure-hunting, adventure, hard work, nutmeg tea, trapping guests at the ground floor of his money bin

Dislikes

Spending and losing money, threats to his family, dishonesty, Donald’s temper, his nephews causing trouble, rivalries, luck, laziness, gambling, Launchpad’s crashing

Paraphernalia

Number One Dime

His cane

Status

Active

Family information

Parents

(father)Downy McDuck (mother) Fergus McDuck (father)

Siblings

(sister)
(brother)
(half-brother)Hortense McDuck (sister) Matilda McDuck (sister) Gideon McDuck (brother) Rumpus McFowl (half-brother)

Other relatives

Donald Duck (nephew)
Douglas McDuck (cousin)
Pothole McDuck (uncle)
Jake McDuck[9] (uncle)
Titus McDuck (grandfather)
Molly Mallard (grandmother)
Della Duck (niece)
Huey, Dewey, and Louie (grandnephews)
Silas McDuck (great-great-grandfather)
Seafoam McDuck (ancestor)
Catfish McDuck (uncle)
See Duck Family

Partner(s)

(self-proclaimed fiancée)Glittering Goldie (old flame) Brigitta MacBridge (self-proclaimed fiancée)

Children

DuckTales reboot only)
(biological daughters; DuckTales reboot only)Webby Vanderquack (biological daughter;reboot only) May and June (biological daughters;reboot only)

Pets

[10]
Baron Itzy Bitzy (flea)
Lucky (lemming)
Clementine (cat)[11]

Polly (parrot)Baron Itzy Bitzy (flea)Lucky (lemming)Clementine (cat)

Source

“After all, adventure is the mother of industry!”

―Scrooge McDuck[src]

Scrooge McDuck (also known as Uncle Scrooge) is a Scottish duck created by Carl Barks. Named after Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel A Christmas Carol, he is Donald Duck’s rich and miserly uncle, whose primary character trait is his extreme thriftiness. Scrooge first appeared in Four Color Comics #178 in the story Christmas on Bear Mountain, published in December of 1947.

Scrooge is the richest duck in the world, an achievement he credits to having been “smarter than the smarties, tougher than the toughies, and making it square.” Identified by his stately attire (including his frock coat, top hat, pince-nez spectacles, spats, and cane), Scrooge’s money is not only a symbol of his frugality, but also his resilience and industriousness. As such, he prides his fortune to the point of being an avaricious tightwad, though he is honorable at his core. A portion of Scrooge’s wealth remains vaulted away in his Money Bin, the amount of which is so great that Scrooge can literally swim in it.

As the character was further developed, Scrooge would become Barks’ most famous creation. He was eventually given his own comic book series in 1952 titled Uncle Scrooge, which chronicles McDuck’s globe-trotting adventures in pursuit of wealth. In 1967, Scrooge made his animated film debut in the featurette Scrooge McDuck and Money, in which he starred alongside his grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Scrooge would later find success across multiple mediums, most extensively in the critically-acclaimed television series DuckTales, and its extended franchise.

Background

Scrooge was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Fergus McDuck and Downy O’Drake. He was the eldest of four children, consisting of himself, his younger brother, Gideon, and two younger sisters, namely Matilda and Hortense; by the latter, Scrooge would have his closest nephew, Donald Duck. As the story goes, Scrooge’s first encounter with money came as a young shoeshiner. After completing his first shine, Scrooge was rewarded with an American dime. This birthed Scrooge’s business philosophy of working hard and honestly, while the dime itself would become the foundation of Scrooge’s wealth and his most cherished possession. Scrooge was further inspired to emigrate to the United States in search of his fortune. He would eventually find a home in the city of Duckburg.

Following Scrooge’s leave from Scotland, he would embark on numerous adventures across the globe in search of treasure, and other ways to expand his wealth. He would garner numerous rivals during his adventures, including his arch-nemesis Flintheart Glomgold, Glittering Goldie (with whom Scrooge would develop an ambiguously romantic relationship), and a large organization/family of crooks collectively known as the Beagle Boys.

As the years passed, Scrooge became increasingly obsessed with his wealth. So much so, that he gradually lost contact with his family and social circle. Despite having earned an honest living, Scrooge’s reputation was that of an excessively shrewd and sometimes ruthless businessman who puts money above all else. His living conditions vary between stories, but he is most famously depicted as living in McDuck Manor. The bulk of Scrooge’s wealth (mainly gold coins) resides in his Money Bin; when not tending to his business endeavors, Scrooge spends his free time diving into his bin and swimming about its golden depths as if it were a pool.

Age

Scrooge is depicted as an elderly duck. The only time a specific age was stated was in the 1955 one page comic, Watt An Occasion (Uncle Scrooge #12), by Scrooge’s creator Carl Barks, where Scrooge celebrates his 75th birthday. According to the comic Zio Paperone e l’oro del Klondike (“Uncle Scrooge and the Gold of the Klondike”), by noted Disney artist Romano Scarpa, Scrooge was born in 1897, making him 73 years of age when the story was first published in 1970. However, in Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge celebrates his 10th birthday in 1877 (according to the cover of the comic book), thus making him 80 years old when he meets his nephews in the last chapter of the series. In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp he refers to 40 years as “most of his life”, placing his age under 80 years. In the 2017 incarnation of DuckTales, Scrooge was born in 1867, as in Don Rosa’s stories, but through various adventures involving such things as being frozen, trapped in alternate dimensions, or discovering the fountain of youth, ended up extending his life significantly and well into the modern-day, putting him chronologically around 150 at the show’s beginning (allowing the writers to maintain his 19th-century origins from Barks’ classic comics created in the 1940s-60s), while maintaining an ambiguous elderly but fit physical age.

Personality

“No man is poor who can do what he likes to do once in a while! And I like to dive around in my money like a porpoise! And burrow through it like a gopher! And toss it up and let it hit me on the head!”

―Scrooge McDuck[src]

Scrooge McDuck’s prestigious title of the “richest duck in the world” was earned through years of hard work, well-utilized intelligence, honesty, and perseverance, and, extreme thriftiness. He is an adventurer and opportunist, having trotted some of the most exotic corners of the world in search of treasure and wealth. Scrooge’s expertise and lucrative business methods have put him leagues beyond his competition, and he carries this reputation knowingly and with pride. He has a great love for money, gold, and other valuable treasure, and experiences great distress when his money is in danger, and goes to great lengths to spend as little money as possible and protect his beloved fortune from getting stolen or otherwise harmed. In doing so, Scrooge constantly has to protect his money from countless threats like the Beagle Boys, who keep trying to break into Scrooge’s Money Bin and rob him of the hoards of cash stores inside, and the conniving sorceress Magica De Spell, who is determined to steal Scrooge’s Number One Dime, in order to melt it into an amulet that will grant her the Midas Touch.

In putting so much time and dedication into increasing his wealth, Scrooge has become somewhat of a lone cheapskate over the years. Cold and nearly unforgiving, he is deathly protective of his fortune, and seldom spends any more of it than he has to. When asked to donate to the poor, Scrooge exclaimed, “They’re not worth it!”. Like his nephew Donald, Scrooge has also a temper, and rarely hesitates to use violence against those who provoke his ire (often his nephew Donald, but also bill and tax collectors as well as door-to-door salesmen). As such, he is extremely mistrustful of anyone trying to enter his office in his Money Bin; a common running gag is that he welcomes visitors with a cannon and a lit matchstick, ready to fire if whoever is at the door is not welcome. Similarly, Scrooge’s office has a trap door (which is located opposite Scrooge’s desk and often covered with a rug), which Scrooge activates whenever he wants his visitor to leave immediately. Upon activation, the door opens and the baffled intruder falls into it, passes through all the floors via an ejection chute, and usually lands in a trash can outside the building.

For a long period of time after gaining his extensive wealth, Scrooge practically lived alone and had little contact with his family. This would partially play into his bitterness, though things would slowly change as he opened himself up to his nephews Donald, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Scrooge would grow increasingly more compassionate as he spent more time with his nephews, going as far as to regularly invite them on his international treasure hunts as partners and loyal sidekicks. Like Donald, Scrooge is still greedy and hot-tempered at times. A majority of his employees and business associates still consider him an imposing figure even, but he is essentially good-hearted and well-meaning. He values honesty and fair play, firmly believing that great fortune should be squarely earned. Furthermore, while he can be undoubtedly selfish at times, Scrooge will never leave behind someone in urgent need and has even rescued some of his most formidable foes from certain death.

Beyond obtaining wealth, Scrooge’s exploits also provided valuable lessons in both a practical and moral sense, which he would make certain to reflect on in his following years. With age, Scrooge became wise and knowledgeable, and regularly puts this wisdom to good use when raising his nephews, specifically Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and has shown pride in their eagerness to learn the value of a dollar.

Wealth

Scrooge has worked his way up the financial ladder from humble immigrant roots. Spending his youth in Glasgow, Scotland, he made a living shining boots. His “Old Number One” is his most famous prized possession, and has been considered to be the source of his immense fortune, However, Scrooge has privately confided to Donald and the nephews that the dime’s “great luck” may only be a superstition. In 1964’s Getting That Healthy, Wealthy Feeling, drawn by Tony Strobl and written by Carl Fallberg (Uncle Scrooge #50), Scrooge reveals that he earned his first dime when he was a shoeshine boy in his youth, a concept that originated from Carl Barks’ and Vic Lockman’s 1963 comic The Invisible Intruder (Uncle Scrooge #44), and would later reappear in the DuckTales episode “Once Upon a Dime”, as well as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. In Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies (Uncle Scrooge #297), it was revealed to the reader that the dime originated from the wealthy and boastful American Howard Rockerduck, father of Scrooge’s future business rival, John D. Rockerduck.

Touring through Glasgow, Howard tossed pocket money to some playing children, where the particular dime was caught by Scrooge’s sister Matilda, who gave it to her father, Fergus McDuck. In an attempt to get Scrooge to set his mind on serious business, Fergus handed the dime to his friend, Burt the ditch-digger and asked if he would go to Scrooge’s street shoeshine business to shine his filthy boots. Getting paid with the worthless American coin after his hard work, Scrooge decided to “be smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies, and make [his money] square”. The dime also inspired him to seek his fortune in America.

Scrooge is now the richest duck in the world, slightly surpassing that of Flintheart Glomgold, who is second only to Scrooge, resulting in their enmity, John D. Rockerduck, and, less prominently, the Maharajaja of the fictional country Howdoyoustan (a play on Hindustan).

Scrooge is said to own “three cubic acres of cash”, a phrase that originated from Barks’ stories. He stores his wealth in a massive Money Bin overlooking the city of Duckburg. In the Dutch and Italian Disney comics, 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 thirty 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 that 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. The sum of Scrooge’s wealth is disputed. According to Barks’ The Second Richest Duck, Scrooge is worth “one multiplujillion, nine obsquatumatillion, six hundred twenty-three dollars and sixty-two cents.” The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck notes that Scrooge amounts to “five multiplujillion, nine impossibidillion, seven fantasticatrillion dollars and sixteen cents”. In “The Menehune Mystery”, Donald gives the only time Scrooge’s net worth has been mathematically represented, saying that Scrooges wealth amounted to $500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.16 (five hundred quattuorvigintillion dollars and sixteen cents). Notably, this is not only more money than exists on earth, it is more money than could be stored on earth, or in the solar system. In 2007, Forbes listed his wealth at a much more modest $28.8 billion, and in 2013 it was recounted again to $65.4 billion.[12] Whatever the amount, Scrooge never considers it enough; he always wants to continue earning money by any honest means possible. He is also extremely unwilling to spend any of his fortune, and always thinks of plans to decrease his expenses as much as possible, and lives an overall frugal lifestyle.

History

Creation; 1940s-1950s

Scrooge, an elderly 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 Disney Legend 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 his debut, 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.”[13]

Although initially only intended as a one-off character, Barks found more use for the character, and Scrooge returned the following year in the 1948 Barks comic The Old Castle’s Secret, where Scrooge calls upon his nephews to help him find Sir Quackly’s treasure at his ancestral castle in the fictional Scottish village of Dismal Downs. It marked the first time Scrooge’s Scottish ancestry was first established, as well as the first time that Scrooge took his nephews on a treasure hunt, which would become a recurring theme for the many comics that would follow.

While Barks was developing Uncle Scrooge’s character, he also introduced numerous aspects of Scrooge’s character that have since become iconic of the character. In Voodoo Hoodoo (1949), Scrooge could be seen bathing in his money for the first time, while in Billions to Sneeze At (1951), the idea of Scrooge swimming in his money was introduced. Scrooge’s Money Bin made its first appearance in 1952’s The Big Bin on Killmotor Hill, and Scrooge’s characteristic Number One Dime first appeared in The Round Money Bin (1953).

1950s-1970s

The Magic Hourglass, first published in September 1950, was one of the first stories to change the focus of the Duck stories from Donald to Scrooge. During the story, several themes were introduced for Scrooge.

Donald first mentions in this story that his uncle practically owns Duckburg (a statement that Scrooge’s rival John D. Rockerduck would later put in dispute). Scrooge first hints that he was not born into wealth, as he remembers buying the Hourglass in Morocco when he was a member of a ship’s crew as a cabin boy. It is also the first story in which Scrooge mentions speaking another language besides his native English and reading other alphabets besides the Latin alphabet, as during the story, he speaks Arabic and is able to read the Arabic alphabet.

The latter theme would be developed further in later stories. Barks and current Scrooge writers have depicted Scrooge as being fluent in Arabic, Dutch, German, Mongolian, Spanish, Mayan, Bengali, Finnish, and various dialects of Chinese. Scrooge acquired this knowledge from years of living or traveling to the various regions of the world where those languages are spoken.

In The Magic Hourglass, Scrooge was shown in a more positive light than in previous stories, but his more villainous side was present too. Scrooge is seen in this story attempting to reacquire a magic hourglass that he gave to Donald, before finding out that it acted as a protective charm for him. Scrooge starts losing one billion dollars each minute and comments that he will go bankrupt within 600 years. This line is a parody of Orson Welles’s line in Citizen Kane: “You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… 60 years.” To convince his nephews to return it, he pursues them throughout Morocco, where they had headed to earlier in the story. Memorably during the story, Scrooge interrogates Donald by having him tied up and tickled with a feather in an attempt to get Donald to reveal the hourglass’s location. Scrooge finally manages to retrieve it, exchanging it for a flask of water, as he had found his nephews exhausted and left in the desert with no supplies. As Scrooge explains, he intended to give them a higher offer, but he just could not resist having somebody at his mercy without taking advantage of it.

In 1952, the first story with Uncle Scrooge as its titular character appeared, called Only a Poor Old Man. With the success of the first tryout issues with Scrooge as its titular character, Scrooge began starring in his own comic book series, called Uncle Scrooge. Ever since, Scrooge, besides being featured in many more Uncle Scrooge-titled adventure comics, has also starred in a large number of one-page gag comics, usually centered around his extreme stinginess.

The above-mentioned stories all being written and drawn by his creator Carl Barks, Scrooge was never used by any other writer or artist until his appearance in a 1950 comic called Trail Blazer by Bob Moore, followed by many more artists and writers who picked up the Scrooge character for their own stories. Barks kept writing and drawing Uncle Scrooge comics until his retirement in 1967.

Late in 1954, Barks (who had worked as a story writer on the Donald Duck theatrical cartoons shorts at the Disney Studios from 1935 to 1942, before starting his work on the comic books) was asked by the Disney Studios if he would be free to write a script for a Scrooge McDuck 7-minute animated cartoon.[14] Scrooge was a huge success in the comic books at the time, and Disney now wanted to introduce the miserly duck to theater audiences as well. Barks supplied the studios with a detailed 9-page script, which was accompanied by a synopsis telling the story of the happy-go-lucky Donald Duck working for the troubled Scrooge who tries to save his money from a hungry rat.[15] Barks also sent some sketches of his ideas for the short, including a money-sorting machine, which Barks had already used on the cover of one of the Uncle Scrooge issues.[16] The script was never used as Disney soon after decided to concentrate on TV shows instead.

Scrooge’s first appearance in animated form (save for a brief cameo appearance on the Mickey Mouse Club television series) was in the 1967 theatrical featurette Scrooge McDuck and Money, in which he teaches his nephews some basic financial tips. In this featurette, Scrooge was voiced by veteran voice actor Bill Thompson, who had previously voiced a number of other Scottish characters, including Jock from Lady and the Tramp. In the short, Huey, Dewey, and Louie come to Scrooge with their piggy bank in hand, wanting advice on how they can save it and one day to become wealthy like Scrooge. Scrooge agrees that the boys should learn more about money, and begins with history, first talking about ancient forms of money. After several other lessons, Scrooge leads the boys into his boardroom and accepts their piggy bank, making them stockholders. Scrooge takes a small fee for his time and consultation, informing the boys that good things are never free. Scrooge was animated by Ward Kimball, one of Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men.

Despite only having made one theatrical appearance at the time, Scrooge was one of the characters who was featured in the popular arena show Disney on Parade in 1969, appearing in a comical segment alongside his nephew Donald.[17]

In the 1970s, a number of years into his retirement, Barks wrote a number of comics centered around the Junior Woodchucks, with shrewd industrialist Scrooge often appearing as the antagonist towards the nature-preserving scouting group.

1980s-1990s

A decade later, Scrooge starred as his namesake, Ebenezer Scrooge, in the 1983 featurette Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Scrooge has the same role as in the original story; a miser enlisting Bob Cratchit (played by Mickey Mouse) but paying him poorly. After being warned by his deceased friend Jacob Marley (Goofy), he is visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Jiminy Cricket), Present (Willie the Giant), and Future (Pete). Scrooge changes his ways and becomes a better person. The feature also marked the first time Scrooge’s voice actor, the late Alan Young, voiced Scrooge in an animated production. Young had previously voiced Scrooge (and various other characters) in An Adaptation of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players, on which Mickey’s Christmas Carol was based. Alan wrote the album along with Alan Dinehart, and both were credited for adapting the story in the featurette, as well. The success of Mickey’s Christmas Carol added to Scrooge’s popularity in the United States, and the character would begin to appear far more frequently in different facets of the Disney company beyond comics, including television and theme parks, such as the Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday event in 1984.

In 1987, Scrooge starred in the television special Sport Goofy in Soccermania, opposite Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Goofy. The special saw Scrooge as the sponsor of the triplet’s fledging soccer team, the Greenbacks, whose game against the Beagle Boys will greatly impact McDuck’s fortune. To win the coveted trophy, Scrooge enlists the help of “Sport Goofy”, who proves to be surprisingly agile and nimble despite his clumsy mien.

That same year, in September, Scrooge would star in what is arguably his most iconic role in animation, DuckTales, a series loosely based on the original Carl Barks comics, that followed the adventures of McDuck and his youngest nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie (now under Scrooge’s care as Donald went off to the Navy). The show went on to become a massive hit and familiarized Scrooge McDuck and his recurring themes with generations of American audiences. In 1990, Treasure of the Lost Lamp, a film based on the series, appeared in theaters, marking Scrooge’s first appearance in a feature-length movie.

1990s-present

From 1992 to 1996, Don Rosa wrote and illustrated The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, a serial detailing Scrooge’s fictional biography from his childhood in 1877 Scotland, to his debut appearance in 1947. The series was published in Uncle Scrooge issues 285-296.

Carl Barks’ wrote his final Uncle Scrooge adventure comic, Horsing Around with History (Uncle Scrooge Adventures #33), in 1994. The artwork was done by William Van Horn.

In the 1990s, several years after DuckTales had ended, the spin-off series Quack Pack was developed, but Scrooge never made an appearance on this show. Originally, however, the series was to be called Duck Daze and was to be a direct sequel to DuckTales. The show would detail Donald being discharged from the Navy and raising the nephews again, who have now grown into teens. Scrooge was also planned to be featured in an important role on the show. After Donald had returned from the Navy and collected the boys from him, Scrooge wanted Donald to “grow up” and prove himself worthy of inheriting the McDuck fortune. As a test, to see if Donald could handle the job, he had Donald move from department to department in the McDuck corporation, with Donald always somehow messing up, and needing his nephews to help him out of trouble.[18]

Starting in the early 2000s, Scrooge would appear as a recurring member of the Mickey Mouse ensemble cast, making appearances in a number of projects involving Mickey, Donald, and other legacy Disney characters, such as Mickey Mouse Works (1999), House of Mouse (2001), Mickey Mouse (2013), and a slew of video games. His comics would also remain popular around the world and are, by far, his most active medium, even to this day. In the United States, the Uncle Scrooge comic book series is currently being published by IDW Publishing.

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. That same year, 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 2009, Scrooge landed in second place on Forbes‘s list and eventually made it back to first place in 2011, and again in 2013.

In 2017, Disney premiered a reboot of DuckTales, with Scrooge returning as the lead. Along with a majority of the voice talent, Scrooge was recast, with actor David Tennant stepping in to assume the role. In promotion for the 2017 series, Disney released a Public Service Announcement that played in theaters before a few films during the summer movie season. It featured Scrooge and other DuckTales characters reminding audiences to turn off their phones during their screenings.[19]

On August 8, 2017, Disney commissioned for The Film Theorists (a YouTube personality) to create a video analyzing, discussing, and ultimately finalizing just how rich Scrooge McDuck is. By the end of the video, it was estimated that Scrooge owns $333,927,633,863,527.10 worth of gold coins alone, making him a trillionaire.[20]

Films and Television

In the DuckTales series, Scrooge has adopted the nephews, due to Donald leaving home and joining the Navy, 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 series. In the Season-1 episode “Once Upon a Dime”, 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 by depicting his life as an individual who worked hard his entire life to earn his keep and fiercely defends 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 (though he is still extremely rich, and willing to undergo any honest means of keeping it that way). For one episode, he is under a love spell, which causes him to lavish his time on a goddess over everything else. The nephews and Webby find out that the only way to break the spell is to make the person realize that the object of their love will cost them something they truly love. The children 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 that he’ll also 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. Similarly, Scrooge, after regaining his wealth after it got lost in cyberspace (and his nephews unintentionally making their misadventure even worse when they mistook his savings account for a computer game), briefly celebrated his regaining his wealth, although he eventually grew despondent, feeling that there was a “better treasure” where he was going (at the time, due to miscommunication between Scrooge and Dr. Quackerpelt, Scrooge believed that he had been diagnosed as terminally ill, when Quackerpelt was, in fact, trying to tell Scrooge that he had been trying to repair a grandfather clock that his nephews broke).

In the comic book continuation of Darkwing Duck, Scrooge comes in at the end of the first arc to help re-organize the Quackwerks corporation, naming Launchpad its CEO.

Scrooge appeared as the host of the series’ third episode. Here, he has bought an incredibly advanced security system to guard his vault. Although he has been told it’s the best security system known to man, Scrooge first wants it to get the “Scrooge McDuck Seal of Approval”. In order to do so, Scrooge tests the system by using increasingly more extreme ways to break into his own vault.

Scrooge, along with Daisy and Aunt Gertie, visits Donald and the nephews for Christmas Day. After dinner, he sings carols while playing his beloved piano. Like the other adults, Scrooge is oblivious to the repeating Christmas Day. When the boys try to “liven things up”, the piano is destroyed and everything is ruined, leaving the family in despair. The next repeat day, the boys make it the best Christmas ever, even singing the carols with Scrooge.

Scrooge was featured in three cartoons in the TV series Mickey Mouse Works.

In “Around the World in Eighty Days”, he takes on the role of the story’s main antagonist Lord Abermarle, who challenges Mickey (playing the role of Phileas Fogg), who just won a fortune, to travel around the globe in only 80 days and if he fails, the fortune goes to Scrooge. By the time Mickey got from India to America, Scrooge cheats to win by stealing the coal from Mickey’s ship back to England. Despite this, Mickey still manages to succeed and Scrooge is persuaded by his colleagues to hold his part of the deal and give Mickey his fortune.

In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, he plays the role of Donald’s uncle and goes to the duke, played by Ludwig Von Drake, after the woman Donald is betrothed to, Minnie refuses to marry him. In the end, he watches Donald marry Daisy while Minnie marries Mickey.

Scrooge also briefly appears in “Mickey’s Christmas Chaos”, where he and the nephews were carolers as part of Mickey’s over-the-top decorations.

Scrooge appeared in a few House of Mouse episodes.

His most notable appearance is in “House of Scrooge”, where he buys the club from Pete. At first, Mickey was overjoyed with Pete’s departure but became distressed when Scrooge’s new “innovations” began to kick in. Scrooge changed the entire show and even replaced Huey, Dewey, and Louie with a radio. In the end, when he sees that his budget cuts have driven the audience away, Scrooge claims that he cannot stand show business anymore and takes his money back from Pete, making Pete the club’s landlord again.

He also appears in “Snow Day” (where he is seen with a wheelbarrow full of “cold-hard” cash out in the snowy city streets) and “Goofy for a Day” (in the Penguin Waiters advertisement). Furthermore, an advertisement for Scrooge McDuck Savings & Loan is shown in the episode “Rent Day”.

In this CGI-animated Christmas special, Scrooge is the host at his mansion and invites Donald, Daisy, and the nephews over for the season. On Christmas Eve, the boys eat Scrooge’s tasty cookies up and are sent to their room by Donald, who is ready to give them harsh discipline, but Scrooge volunteers to talk to them. In their room, he tells them the tale of Santa Claus and that if you act naughty, you won’t get presents. Scrooge also tells them about his own past and reveals that he never got what he always wanted: getting a place on Santa’s list. He tells them that they must clean up their act if they want a place on Santa’s list.

The boys decide to travel to the North Pole to write their names on the list themselves after realizing how naughty they had been that year. When they finally get to the list, however, they put Scrooge’s name on it instead of theirs, as they knew didn’t really deserve to be on the nice after all the trouble they’ve caused. The next morning, Scrooge finally gets what he always wanted―a pair of bagpipes. Santa also left the boys gifts for thinking of Scrooge instead of themselves. One of the gifts is opened by the nephews right away – earplugs for Scrooge’s poor bagpipe-playing. At the end of the story, Scrooge can be seen wearing his native Scottish costume while playing his bagpipes, while Donald and the nephews try to cover their ears.

Later on, when Pluto goes missing, Scrooge purchases a snow plow company to help find him. After Mickey and Pluto are reunited, Scrooge joins Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, and the others as they sing carols at Mickey’s house.

Scrooge appeared in the episode “Goofy’s First Love”, where Mickey, Donald, and Goofy visit him in his large mansion in hopes of him making Goofy fabulously wealthy. However, in his miserly nature, he immediately denies them, thus letting his butler kick the trio out. He later reappears a few times throughout the episode, being pestered by the trio twice. Near the end of the episode, he can be seen attending Goofy’s “wedding”.

He also appears in the episode “No”, where he asks Mickey if he can borrow five dollars. Later on, however, he returns the money he borrowed, plus interest, out of appreciation for Mickey’s kindness. At the end of the episode, Scrooge and the other characters ask to watch TV alongside Mickey, only to be politely turned away. This was the last episode his original voice actor Alan Young voiced him before he passed away on the same year the episode was made.

In “Duck the Halls”, Scrooge joins his family (Daisy, Ludwig Von Drake, Huey, Dewey, and Louie) as they migrate to the south during the cold winter season. Donald, wanting to experience Christmas, decides to stay behind. Scrooge is upset with the news but suggests that he and the others enjoy their migration in the assumption that Donald will hate the cold and join them shortly. Daisy eventually calls Donald, and it appears he became deathly ill due to the harsh weather conditions of the north. Daisy rallies Scrooge and the others for a rescue mission, but before they leave, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto arrive with Donald. It is then decided that they’ll all spend Christmas in the south, to allow the ducks to enjoy the festivities as well. Santa Claus gifts Scrooge and Ludwig with a telescope and a bag of money respectively, though they quickly remedy the mix-up. Scrooge is last seen on the beach with the rest of the family, playing checkers with Ludwig. From this and onward, Scrooge was now voiced by John Kassir in the series, following the death of his original voice actor Alan Young months before the special aired.

Furthermore, Scrooge made appearances in the episodes “Three-Legged Race”, where he teams up with his nephew Donald to compete in the titular race, and “Year of the Dog”, where he is among the guests at Mickey’s Chinese New Year celebration.

Scrooge returns in the animated reboot of the 1987-90 series, voiced by David Tennant. In this continuity, Scrooge was once a fearless adventurer that partook in daring treasure hunts alongside his nephew and niece, Donald and Della. After exploring virtually every known region on Earth, Della became fascinated with exploring the vast regions beyond, space. Scrooge manufactured a rocket ship to present to Della as a gift in honor of her motherhood, but Della discovered the rocket early (courtesy of an anonymous tip from Scrooge’s chairman, Bradford Buzzard) and stole it, leaving only a note to Scrooge behind. During her voyage, Della was caught in a cosmic storm and was lost. A desperate and panicked Scrooge spent billions trying to recover her, but all attempts ended in failure and nearly resulted in the bankruptcy of McDuck Enterprises. Donald—upon learning Della’s fate—blamed Scrooge for her loss and disowned him. This would leave McDuck in a bitter, lonely state.

Ten years later, Scrooge has since retired from adventuring and settled as a cold-hearted miser. Though his stories remained legendary throughout Duckburg, Scrooge eventually became bored with his domesticated life and longed for the excitement that came with the death-defying adventures of his past. In “Woo-oo!”, Scrooge learns that Mrs. Beakley volunteered him to babysit his grandnephews and Della’s sons: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. During their stay, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby accidentally unleash several ancient spirits that begin to cause havoc. With the help of his nephews, Scrooge manages to defeat each of them, and though initially upset with his nephews disobeying him, Scrooge comes to appreciate the kids for adding some excitement to his life once more and invites them to join his journey to find the Jewel of Atlantis. After the adventure, Donald comes to terms with Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s adventurous spirits, and gives them permission to visit Scrooge from time to time. After Donald’s houseboat catches fire, however, Scrooge invites his nephews to live with him in McDuck Manor while Donald fixes the houseboat. He was able to patch up with his family, especially when Della returned from the moon alive and safe.

In the third season, Scrooge is confronted with the truth that his Board of Directors (led by Bradford) have been conspiring against the McDuck clan alongside an organization of villains known as F.O.W.L.. With his nephews, niece, Webby, and Beakley by his side, Scrooge vows to defeat the organization. In the series finale, not only does he and the rest of Clan McDuck defeat F.O.W.L., but Scrooge learns two things. The first being that Bradford was the one who gave Della an anonymous tip-off and is the reason how she learned of the Spear of Selene. The second being that Webby is his daughter; cloned by F.O.W.L. from his DNA in an effort to find the Papyrus of Binding.

Scrooge is mentioned to be 152 years old.

In the episode “Mt. Fuji Whiz”, Clinton Coot’s collection of frontiersman figurines are of a young Scrooge McDuck at various periods of his life as seen in the Uncle Scrooge comics.

Later, in the episode “Shangri-La-Di-Da”, when Donald is stuck at the Himalayan spa with Daisy, Xandra, Panchito, José, April, May, and June use Clinton Coot’s antiquities to construct a ray gun to break through the mystic barrier that protects Baron Von Sheldgoose’s mansion. When the ray finally breaks through the barrier, it turns out it was too strong, as it proceeds to blast through Sheldgoose’s mansion and travels to Scrooge’s Money Bin, destroying the front wall of the Bin and causing Scrooge’s money to pour out of the bin at a rapid rate. A distressed Scrooge then comes running towards the broken wall and yells: “My money! My beautiful money!” and breaks down crying, while trying to save some of his coins.

Other appearances

Scrooge made an extremely short cameo appearance in the animated opening sequence of the 1950s television series Mickey Mouse Club. He is briefly seen popping out of the hat of the Big Bad Wolf. This is also quite notably his first appearance in animation, preceding Scrooge McDuck and Money.

The opening to the programming block The Disney Afternoon featured multiple characters from the incorporated cartoon series being brought to life from a piece of paper and colored by paintbrushes. These characters included several members of the recurring DuckTales cast, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Webby, Mrs. Beakley, Launchpad, and Scrooge himself. In the beginning, one of the paintbrushes accidentally colors Scrooge’s hat a yellow dotted pink, which is fixed when Scrooge points it out.

Scrooge was briefly seen on a billboard in the Darkwing Duck episode “Tiff of the Titans”.

In the Aladdin episode “The Day the Bird Stood Still” when the sorceress asks Aladdin for a higher price, Genie briefly transforms into Scrooge’s and, imitating Scrooge’s iconic voice, says: “Ah, a woman after me own heart!”

Scrooge briefly appears in the film, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, as a patron of the bath house in which Chip and Dale are investigating. He can be seen swimming in a tub of gold coins, akin to his Money Bin. David Tennant reprised his role as Scrooge for the cameo. During the end credits, Scrooge’s face can be seen imprinted on Toon currency. He is later seen on a mock billboard promoting Disney Afternoon Fight Fest, alongside other characters from the titular block.

Video games

Scrooge appears as a minor character in the Kingdom Hearts series, as the owner of the Sea-salt ice cream business. The flavor had been popular when he was young, and he is trying to get the ice cream to become popular again. He originates from Disney Castle but spent much of his time journeying with King Mickey to expand his business to various worlds.

Scrooge’s first chronological appearance is in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. In during which, Scrooge rewards Ventus for saving him from Unversed by giving him three lifetime passes to Disney Town, telling him to give two to “grown-ups”. He also speaks with Aqua briefly and sells Lea and Isa sea-salt ice cream.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Scrooge lives in Hollow Bastion with his three grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. He is still selling sea-salt ice cream and finally has success towards the end of the game. He also offers a skateboard mini-game. The end credits show him reunite with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, Daisy, Pluto, his nephews, and Chip and Dale at Disney Castle.

Scrooge returns in Kingdom Hearts III. He appears in Twilight Town as the owner of Le Grand Bistro, a restaurant that hosts a mini-game where Sora collaborates with Remy from Ratatouille. He is also a brief employer of Hayner, Pence, and Olette, whom he tasks with promoting a local film festival in his name.

In the Gamecube and Gameboy Advance party game, Scrooge serves as the game’s host where he gives tutorials and instructions. When the player finishes all rounds, he would host a ceremony honoring the player and their party members’ skills and achievements during the game’s run.

Scrooge’s only appearance in Toontown Online is in the game’s original loading video, where he visits his employee Gyro Gearloose. Inside Gyro’s lab, Scrooge finds an inactive “Cog” with a sign saying “Do Not Touch!” As cheap as he is, Scrooge still activates the “Cog” thinking it would be a big “help” to Toontown and would earn him money. However, the big “Cog” starts an endless production of other Cogs, from The Big Cheese to Pencil Pushers and Robber Barons, which makes the machine malfunction and causes the production to speed up. Nervous, Scrooge watched in horror while the Cogs fly away from the first Cog’s orders. The Cog comes up to Scrooge, and the screen fades to black. Scrooge’s current location is unknown, and he cannot be encountered in the game itself.

Scrooge was among the many Disney characters that were taken to Wasteland by the witch Mizrabel in an attempt to drain them of their paint. After Mickey finds him, he serves as the game’s shopkeeper to give Mickey items and power-ups. In addition, Mickey can also summon Scrooge for assistance, and he will attack enemies, using his cane as a pogo stick-like in the DuckTales NES games. He also asks that Mickey calls him Uncle Scrooge, considering him an honorary nephew as Donald’s best friend.

Scrooge makes a cameo appearance in Disney Infinity. In the 3DS version, when he appears on the board, he will say this board needs to be more classy. So, he hides on a space and moves each turn until a player or the CPU lands on it and it gets a large number of coins.

He is also available as an unlockable townsperson costume. In 3.0, he is a sidekick character who can assist in battle in the Toy Box.

DuckWorld Adventures

An online world of interactive games for subscribers of the Dutch Donald Duck Weekly. The game features many characters and locations from Carl Barks‘ comics, including Scrooge and his Money Bin. One of the game’s storylines is centered around Scrooge and Flintheart‘s battle to impress the visiting Maharajah of Howduyustan.

The Duckforce Rises

In the mobile game, Scrooge teams up with Donald and Gyro Gearloose to save Duckburg from an apocalypse caused by Magica De Spell. Scrooge is playable in the game, and with progression, a costume of his Klondike-self can be unlocked.