tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post6750267478293535049..comments2024-03-28T03:15:52.497-04:00Comments on Duck Comics Revue: "The Man from Oola-Oola"GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-59369157115624297012016-06-21T13:49:48.414-04:002016-06-21T13:49:48.414-04:00Well, all I can do is thank you for not being offe...Well, all I can do is thank you for not being offended by my dismissive remarks! To be clear, I think that very few Disney stories are *just* "another funny Disney story." Hell, I wrote a Doctoral dissertation, so I definitely am not opposed to mining meaning out of things. In this instance, I just thought that you and Gori put more semiotic weight on the story than it was really able to bear. <br /><br />Anyway, thanks for chiming in! Feel free to stick around.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-81927040512942404182016-06-21T03:29:14.473-04:002016-06-21T03:29:14.473-04:00Hello there.
Only now have I come across your pos...Hello there.<br /><br />Only now have I come across your post about "The Man from Oola Oola," and I just wanted to thank you for not appreciating my "absolutely insufferable little essay." First of all, I would like to specify (which you did not do) that the mini-essay was written in collaboration with Leonardo Gori (who got a co-credit for it). Actually, Leonardo wrote most of it and I translated it into English. This does not mean that I do not share Leonardo's opinions about Scarpa's story.<br />Whereas I agree with you that sometimes comics readers (and reviewers) should not worry too much about a story's inner or hidden meanings, it is also true that analysing Disney stories in the light of one's own knowledge of Disney comics history and an author's personal history is more than admissible. As Oscar Wilde wrote, "All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril." Well, a critic's job is precisely to read and possibly interpret the symbol. Those who prefer having but a superficial view of a work of art can certainly do it. Also, what I have written about Scarpa and his stories has often been the result of my 20-odd-year-long friendship with him. Romano and I used to talk about what inspired him to create specific stories, and of course I would often use those enlightening insights in my articles and essays.<br />Then again, you are perfectly free to disagree with my (and Leonardo's) "exaggerations," thinking that "The Man from Oola Oola" is just another funny Disney story. To me, it has much deeper meanings. You know, a European's view of things (any thing) always seems to be deeper and more complex than the average American's. No offence, it's just a different way of approaching things. And again, to quote Wilde, "Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital."<br /><br />Keep up the good work with your blog.<br /><br />All the best,<br />Alberto BecattiniAlbertohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14098382848831305863noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-30078469660716486112015-12-23T05:36:32.651-05:002015-12-23T05:36:32.651-05:00Concerning Becattini's exaggerations, in the i...Concerning Becattini's exaggerations, in the introduction to Oola Oola in the volume of the Italian library of Scarpa he even compares the narrative idea of the three tales to Rashomon. Which - with all due respect to the man, let me be clear - makes you inevitably suspect that he didn't quite get Rashomon.Monkey_Feyerabendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12573708743732899341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-44867948743920411072015-12-22T21:23:17.394-05:002015-12-22T21:23:17.394-05:00Thanks for clearing all that up! I'm disappoi...Thanks for clearing all that up! I'm disappointed in Scarpa, though: that he wouldn't recognize how completely objectionable it is to have the guy have been essentially kidnapped.GeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-2891104065059603382015-12-22T09:11:17.387-05:002015-12-22T09:11:17.387-05:00GeoX wrote:
"Here's the part I always wo...GeoX wrote:<br /><br />"Here's the part I always wonder about. My assumption has always been that this whole "ceremonial attire" malarkey was added in by Markstein to try to justify the quite unjustifiable fact that Scrooge appears to have kidnapped the guy. But then…I don't know. Given Scarpa's, uh, eccentricities, is it possible that this is his own invention, as a kind of head-fake? I still kinda lean toward the former theory, but I am unsure. No doubt some helpful commenter will clear this up. <br />AT ANY RATE: my only point is, if the former theory is correct, Scarpa fucked up pretty badly here. Yeesh."<br /><br />Hi! The whole thing is due to the American dialogue writer. It is completely different in the original version. Here what Scrooge and Donald say in the two panels you posted right before the quote here above (terrible translation of mine, of course):<br />First panel. <br />Scrooge: I found him in the middle of the jungle. But I can assure you he is meek.<br />Donald: ehm...uhm...very pleased to meet you.<br />Second panel.<br />Scrooge: I guess he learned to be civilized during his stay at professor Ticketaker.<br />Donald: ...and luckily he learned to be civilized! (this line being sarcastic, i.e. with reference to the fact that he still does not look civilized) <br /><br />More generally comparing the original story with the panels that you posted here it looks like no single line was kept as it was. Not saying that it is bad, I do not like much Scarpa's duck stories in general, and his dialogues in particular. For instance the reference to "only a poor old man" by the beagle boys added by the American dialogue writer is nice. And the fact he tried to modernize the story (with the reference to the more modern and performant technology available) may look stupid, but at least saved the ending. Because the original final line in Scarpa's version was quite shitty (uncle scrooge just says something like "it's fine, the professor called me and told that he built for me a new machine that does not require a nice guy to work"). On the other way, some of Scarpa's lines are more effective. For instance instead of Donald's line "I didn't know there were any islands there" in the American version, in the Italian one Paperino gives us a wonderful "but...just a little further from there lives the devil!".<br /><br />Anyway, now I feel so stupid for not having noticed by myself that the damn machine cannot work on the island without electricity! :)<br />Speaking of a more serious inconsistency, I do not like much the fact that the whole thing of the net under the money contradicts in a way Scrooge's habit of swimming in the mass of coins. How could he not realize the problem before? Why he sends the nephews to recuperate the anteater when that is HIS damn peculiar skill? <br />Monkey_Feyerabendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12573708743732899341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-13666685725628280362013-01-27T22:42:30.658-05:002013-01-27T22:42:30.658-05:00@GeoX
I'm right there with you on the fine li...@GeoX<br /><br />I'm right there with you on the fine line. I love analysis, that's why I come here, but sometimes... well, jeez, like you said, sometimes you just gotta accept the joke is all. Nothing wrong with that in the least. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-44282069954372062132013-01-27T17:58:54.314-05:002013-01-27T17:58:54.314-05:00GeoX writes:
“I think it's funny the way th...GeoX writes: <br /><br />“I think it's funny the way the English script--written by the late Don Markstein, who does an exemplary job--tries to mask the fact that this story was written in 1959 with these "ho ho! Technology was SO PRIMITIVE then!”<br /><br />…And, then he writes: <br /><br />“…and I kind of thing that Markstein was aware of this, and therefore added that bit in the narration box. Which is, I suppose, the best anyone could do under the circumstances.”<br /><br />And that illustrates my point (from the previous post) on the necessity to occasionally diverge from “authorial intent”, in greater service to the story one is hired to dialogue, better than a team-up of Carl Barks, Neal Adams, and Rembrandt! Hooray for Don Markstein! Well done! <br /><br />…Riding-off now, on my not-so-dead horse!Joe Torciviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00421096229407174474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-81134643817669639772013-01-27T14:25:32.290-05:002013-01-27T14:25:32.290-05:00@Reviewordie
What you took to be a clunky line co...@Reviewordie<br /><br /><i>What you took to be a clunky line could seem like foreshadowing after the fact with just a short change, "How old fashioned they seem now, with (better name for The Brain here) in the picture!", leaving the time period where it was originally intended.</i><br /><br />I'd go for that if not for the last panel up there, in which he says that "today's computers are faster and less expensive." "Today" is what? A few weeks after he first got the big ol' mainframe?<br /><br /><i>Your reaction to the Becattini essays is exactly the same one I have with some of the haughtier stuff in the Fantagraphics Barks comics.</i><br /><br />It's definitely a fine line to walk. Obviously I think there's a lot to be said about these stories, and there are often some fairly complex thematic concerns under the surface that bear drawing out. On the other hand, it is indeed easy to get carried away, like a kid writing a term paper about his favorite rock lyrics.<br /><br />@Pan Miluś <br /><br />Thanks. That's undoubtedly the most bizarre thing anyone's ever said about this blog :pGeoX, one of the GeoX boys.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14658452994152399308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-27295465442604486972013-01-27T10:42:55.766-05:002013-01-27T10:42:55.766-05:00I wish there was a disney story about Geox so Uncl...I wish there was a disney story about Geox so Uncle Scrooge could review it.... :)Pan Miluśhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01364446151493198587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5423579092779163824.post-29342866731032837472013-01-27T05:14:53.345-05:002013-01-27T05:14:53.345-05:00Whoa! I certainly didn't expect to be named in...Whoa! I certainly didn't expect to be named in the review, that was a pleasant surprise. And in what seems to be a good Scarpa story at that! <br /><br />Your reaction to the Becattini essays is exactly the same one I have with some of the haughtier stuff in the Fantagraphics Barks comics. One of the greatest and most enduring qualities of Disney comics is their emotional simplicity. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, or to imply a lack of depth, just that they are elegant.<br /><br />The best stories with these characters deftly lead you from place to place, emotion to emotion, even if it's just leaving with a little smile at the end of the story. That's my impression anyway. And based on your reaction I'd consider the story wholly successful by those standards, and your criticisms can certainly stand alongside that without a problem.<br /><br />Man, I can see some translation hiccups in these panels though, despite the very well-characterized dialogue. What you took to be a clunky line could seem like foreshadowing after the fact with just a short change, "How old fashioned they seem now, with (better name for The Brain here) in the picture!", leaving the time period where it was originally intended.<br /><br />And the number of times I saw a blatant "As you know" panels even in your review... yikes! But I can easily tolerate that kind of hiccup if it's in such well-drafted dialogue.<br /><br />That said, if the horseradish bit from the octopus scene and the "Only a Poor Old Man" reference from the Beagle Boys' plan weren't added by the Mr. Markstein? I will pull a Rockerduck and eat my hat.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com