Donald Duck universe
The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the Donald Duck universe centers on the city of Duckburg and is a part of the larger Mickey Mouse universe. In addition to the original comic book stories by Carl Barks, the Duckburg cast was featured in Little Golden Books, television series such as DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, and the DuckTales reboot, and video games such as DuckTales, QuackShot, Goin' Quackers, and DuckTales: Remastered.
"Donald Duck universe", sometimes called Duckverse or Scrooge McDuck universe, are unofficial terms used by Disney, but are sometimes used by fans. Disney comics artist/writer Don Rosa has also used the terms Barks Universe and Italian Duck Universe to describe different versions of history. According to Carl Barks, the comic book creator of Scrooge McDuck, Duckburg, and its original cast of characters and themes — "Now we're beginning to read about Batman's universe, the Spiderman universe. All of those guys had their own universe, and so the ducks have their own universe." Barks adds, "Whenever I wrote the script and it was drawn by some other artist... it came out looking so different, it didn't look like it belonged in the duck universe...Didn't look as real, or I use the word, 'sincere'. You couldn't tell whether the guy who drew it was really interested in turning out a nice product or not."
The core Duckverse family dates back to the golden age of American animation, generally introduced in Disney shorts, weekly newspaper comics, or comic books of the period as supporting characters for Donald Duck, who premiered in 1934 in The Wise Little Hen. Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, debuted in 1937 in a comic strip adaptation of an in-production film, Donald's Nephews. Daisy Duck, Donald's on-again-off-again girlfriend premiered in 1940, in Mr. Duck Steps Out. Grandma Duck also appeared in 1940, as a character in the comic strip. Scrooge McDuck, the family's elderly uncle and "richest duck in the world", was created in 1947 by Carl Barks for the comic book story Christmas on Bear Mountain.
Comic books
Other media
appeared in the 1960 Disneyland Records LP, Donald Duck and His Friends, in a plot that involved Donald and the Beagle Boys. With the exception of Scrooge's brief cameo in The Mickey Mouse Club opening theme, this marked the first appearance of a Barks-created character in a medium other than the comics and story books. Later, in 1963, the Beagle Boys played a role in Chipmunk Fun, an LP that also mentioned Scrooge.Most of the characters have appeared in the 1980s Disney cartoon series DuckTales. Disney's Darkwing Duck series is nominally set in the separate DuckTales universe, in a metropolis called St. Canard, although aside from sharing the denizen Launchpad McQuack, and a few crossover episodes involving Gizmoduck, there is no interaction. Much of the DuckTales and all of the Darkwing Duck material do not appear in Barks' comics, as the two TV series were created decades after Barks's active years as a comic artist. Later, a few characters would be the main characters in the show Quack Pack.
However, in the magazine Disney Adventures, there was a five-part crossover/storyline titled "Legend of the Chaos God" which began with TaleSpin, and continued with Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, and DuckTales, then concluded with Darkwing Duck.
Duckburg was the setting of the 1987 animated series DuckTales. The cartoon's version of Duckburg was based loosely on the comics' version. Duckburg appeared in the 1990s animated series Quack Pack. In Quack Pack, Duckburg was populated almost entirely by human beings, with Donald, Daisy, and Donald's nephews as the only anthropomorphized animals that usually appeared. Moreover, the Money Bin is nowhere to be seen. Duckburg was the setting for one of the three initial levels of the video game Quackshot and also for the second level of the video game Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers.
Duckburg was also used for the setting of Mickey's Birthday land at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom from 1988 to 1996. It even included Grandma Duck's Farm and a statue of Cornelius Coot, though it was more of a rural town than a burgeoning metropolis. The connection to Duckburg was removed as the land was renovated in 1996 to become Mickey's Toontown Fair. However, the Cornelius Coot statue remains.
In the 2017 version of DuckTales many elements of the Duck universe from the comics of Don Rosa and Carl Barks were used, alongside elements of others Disney stories. They were brought together into one common global storyline in the manner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Characters
and his maternal uncle Scrooge McDuck received nearly equal exposure in comics. Other primary characters include Donald's three young nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and girlfriend Daisy Duck.Several secondary characters have also achieved star status in certain publications, such as Grandma Duck, Donald Duck's grandmother; Gladstone Gander, Donald Duck's incredibly lucky cousin; Gyro Gearloose, an inventor who is often patronized by Scrooge; and Ludwig Von Drake, a knowledgeable professor. Scrooge also has several enemies, such as the Beagle Boys, a gang of robbers and escaped prisoners; Magica De Spell, an Italian sorceress; and South African Flintheart Glomgold and English-American John D. Rockerduck, both rival business men of Scrooge.
Some characters have appeared alongside Donald primarily in animation, such as chipmunks Chip 'n' Dale and Humphrey the Bear, as well as Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto, who are more often associated with the Mickey Mouse universe.
Fictional locations
Duckburg
Duckburg is the fictional city, located in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, that serves as the home of Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Daisy Duck and most of their supporting cast. Duckburg was first mentioned in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #49 in 1944, and was created by Carl Barks.The city is populated by various anthropomorphized animals, with dogs, different birds and pigs as the most dominant ones. The mayor of the city is often depicted as a pig, whose name most of the time goes unmentioned and is referred instead by readers as the Pig Mayor. However, in some stories the office of mayor is held by various dog characters.
The size and structure of Duckburg varied in the works by Barks: it was adjusted to better fit the story he wanted to tell; it could vary from a small town to a medium-sized city, to a bustling metropolis. Later writers and artists adhere to this tradition recurrently. In one specific story by Barks, Monsterville, Duckburg was even transformed into a futuristic city by Gyro Gearloose, however it proved that the citizens were not ready for the high level of technology that the new city provided. Thus the city was turned back to its old city structure.
In comic writer Don Rosa's stories, Duckburg and the state of Calisota is located on the West Coast of the United States, though Carl Barks himself and other writers often leave the city's location more vaguely defined. However, in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, the author alludes to where exactly he has situated Duckburg: "I won't bother to say precisely where I situated Duckburg and Calisota on America's west coast… but if you get out a good map and compare the coastline, you'll see that I stuck the old gold-prospector's adopted hometown directly across the bay from a very appropriately named actual city." Knowing how Don Rosa used gags, it is likely that this city would be Eureka, California. This fits with the river and a large forest south of Eureka. In the DuckTales episode "Double O' Duck", a map is shown which shows Duckburg as being located somewhere in Virginia or North Carolina.
There are no references to the governor, legislature, Capitol, etc., of Calisota in any of the many stories about Duckburg. However, Duckburg seems to have its own governor, if it is not a sort of city-state. In more than one story a "Duckburg embassy" has been shown, which would place it outside the US at a diplomatic level. In the story Treasure of Marco Polo by Carl Barks, the Duckburg embassy displays a flag of Duckburg, which consists of a white duck over a green field. However, in the Don Rosa story "His Majesty, McDuck" Scrooge gains a short-lived independence from the United States for Killmotor Hill, thus placing Duckburg within the United States.
The most prominent landmark in Duckburg is Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin, a giant building sitting on Killmotor Hill in the center of town. The money bin contains both office space, Scrooge's private living quarters and, most famously, three cubic acres of money, the results of Scrooge's lifetime of business and treasure-seeking adventures. Another major landmark in some stories is a large statue of Duckburg's founder, Cornelius Coot.
Duckburg is a major center for Space exploration, mainly operated and overseen by Gyro Gearloose, and has had expeditions to the Moon, Mars, Venus, the Asteroids, and more remote parts of the Galaxy. The city also features a sea port and is in proximity of a large forest called the Black Forest and to several mountains, the most notable being "Old Demon Tooth", usually depicted as a towering pointed peak leaning slightly to the side. The main river of the city is the Tulebug River, first mentioned in The Money Well by Carl Barks, and it is located near Killmotor Hill.
Duckburg is home to Yarvard University, an institution more notable for its athletic teams than for its academic achievements. It also has had international students, like the bey of El Dagga from Egypt, who is mentioned in Yarvard's first appearance; Donald Duck and the Mummy's Ring by Carl Barks from 1943. One of the things the bey learned at the university was that mummies do not eat. Duckburg is also the home of the Billionaires Club of some of which Scrooge McDuck, John D. Rockerduck and, according to some stories, Flintheart Glomgold are influential members. Duckburg also has a Ritz Hotel, first mentioned in Carl Barks' story Turkey with All the Schemings at which Scrooge McDuck had a business meeting with Donald Duck; who was disguised as the Duke of Baloni, the World's Second-Richest Duck at that time. In the same story Scrooge later buys the Ritz Hotel and he still owns it in Don Rosa's story Attaaaaaack!.
Located near Duckburg is a farm owned and run by Grandma Duck, a direct descendant of Cornelius Coot and Donald's paternal grandmother. Donald's cousin Gus Goose also lives on Grandma's farm as a farmhand. The farm is often a gathering site for various Duck family holiday celebrations.
In other languages, Duckburg is not only home of "the Ducks", but Mickey Mouse and friends live there too. This has occasionally been implied also in English-language publications, as when Super Goof is referred to as "Duckburg's greatest hero" in a poster seen in the initial panel of the 1973 story Galactic Gourmet. The story moreover pits Super Goof against the Beagle Boys, normally portrayed as living and operating in Duckburg.