Once Upon a Dime

"Once Upon a Dime" is the sixty-first episode of DuckTales.
==Synopsis==
Scrooge wakes up to "dime polishing day", the day where he gives his number-one dime a yearly polish. However, he discovers his beloved dime had been replaced by a quarter and goes into a panic at its disappearance. The nephews cut off his crisis by explaining they took it to play an arcade game and gave him their lucky quarter as a replacement, the dime miraculously returning from the machine each time they played. Scrooge makes the nephews promise never to take his dime again, prompting them to ask why it is so special. Scrooge explains it is responsible for his move to America and his entire fortune. He decides to explain the story while polishing his dime.
In his youth, Scrooge lived in Scotland with his parents, hoping to make a living playing the electric bagpipes, but his father (sick of the noise from his electric bagpipe playing) urged him to go into business. His attempts at getting a high-profile job with benefits ends with him learning that "the bottom is where you start in life" and the only job he could get was at a barber's shop shining shoes for tips. After working hard to clean a customer's extremely dirty boots, Scrooge was rewarded a dime that would become his most prized possession. However, his parents informed him that American money is worthless in Scotland and Scrooge's father got the idea to have Scrooge travel to America to find his wealth. Scrooge wanted to stay behind in Scotland and have the life his father did, but the latter told him that it's hard to make a living that way and he should strive for better things. Scrooge's father tells Scrooge to "work smarter, not harder", words that Scrooge would remember deeply. Scrooge came to believe the dime is a sign to move to America to find his fortune, remembering his uncle Catfish McDuck, a riverboat captain in America, wrote to his family about the abundant wealth available in America, and decided to save his money for a trip to America. Taking his father's advice, Scrooge creates a pulley system that makes shining shoes more efficient and easier and earned the money for the trip in only a few months.
After arriving in America, Scrooge was immediately arrested by a police officer offer under the charges of wearing a dress in public (not caring Scrooge's outfit is actually a kilt). In jail, Scrooge had his first encounter with the Beagle Boys. Posting his dime for bail, Scrooge went to court where the police officer who arrested him insulted his appearance, only for the judge, who is also from Scotland, to sentence the officer to 30 days in a skirt for insulting him and his culture. The judge gave Scrooge his dime back and he traveled to meet his uncle Catfish, hoping the latter's success would rub off. However, Catfish wasn't as wealthy as Scrooge thought when he learned he was disputing the rights towards a plantation that would make him rich with another riverboat captain named Old Man Ribbit. Both claim that the previous owner of the plantation owed them money before he died, and Scrooge offered the two a chance to settle the dispute with a riverboat race. Scrooge worked with his uncle Catfish on his boat while Ribbit hired a group called the Beaver boys to work for his boat. During the race Ribbit cheated with help from the Beaver Boys, but Scrooge used his father's advice to make a similar device he used to shine shoes to shovel coal fast enough to win the race. However, Catfish only paid Scrooge for the race and doesn't give him a partnership in the plantation.
Deciding to go into business for himself, Scrooge traveled to the Klondike to find gold. Despite harsh conditions, Scrooge mined a stockpile of gold to make enough money to send back to his parents (forgetting the American money is useless in Scotland). The nephews ask if the gold was how Scrooge got rich, he explains that while he did make a lot of money, he didn't feel rich yet. Searching for more wealth, Scrooge invested his new money in Oklahoma Timberland. He bought a train to help with hauling the lumber but discovered there were no tracks. Hiring workers to place track, Scrooge traveled towards his purchased land, but was robbed by the Beagle Boys, who took his dime and his clothes. Scrooge reclaimed his dime and clothes by using his terrible electric bagpipe playing to force the Beagle Boys to surrender to the police and finally reached his land, only to discover he had been cheated and the timberland he was sold was barren. The railroad workers came after him demanding his pay, but all Scrooge had was his dime and he wasn't going to give it up. While trying to bury it to keep it safe, Scrooge accidentally struck oil and used the profit to pay off the works and expand his wealth.
Despite making more money, Scrooge still didn't feel rich and decided to expand his business internationally. While speaking to some businessmen about dime mines in Africa, Scrooge learned of a coal field, which was deemed worthless by the businessmen because Africa is too warm for there to be a need to burn it for heat. However, Scrooge bought the fields and came up with a plan to use peanuts to lure elephants across the fields and have them crush the coal on the ground into diamonds, profiting from the diamonds and selling peanuts to the businessmen. He eventually obtained so much wealth, he had to build his famous money bin and gained his hobby of swimming through his treasure. The nephews ask again if Scrooge finally felt rich at that point, but Scrooge explains that without his parents, he felt lonelier than ever. He then realizes that finally felt rich when Donald sent his nephews to live with him and Mrs. Beakly and Webby moved in, giving him a family for the first time since he left Scotland. He declares that having a family to share his wealth with makes him truly rich and invites everyone for swim in his money bin.
==Cast==
*William Callaway as Wild Bill Beagle/Old Man Ribbit/Scotty McGillicutty
*June Foray as Ma Beagle/McMama
*Pat Fraley as Young Scrooge McDuck/Piggly
*Chuck McCann as Duckworth/Butch Beagle
*Don Messick as McPapa
*Pete Renaday as Catfish McDuck
*Michael Rye as unnamed Frontier Beagle Boy
*Russi Taylor as Huey, Dewey, and Louie/Webby Vanderquack
*Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck
==Trivia==
* At the beginning of this episode, Scrooge's calendar declares this episode to take place on a Tuesday that falls on July 1. At the time of this episode's airing, the nearest year that had its month of July start on a Tuesday was 1986, meaning that this episode took place nearly a year-and-a-half before the time of its original airdate. This would also suggest the whole series itself to begin at some point in 1986 rather than 1987.
* The episode was notably based on numerous flashbacks and other references from classic Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge comics, including:
** The Great Steamboat Race (the rivalry of Scrooge's riverboat captain uncle over Cornpone Gables and the riverboat race)
** Hall of the Mermaid Queen! (Scrooge earning a silver dollar in a riverboat race)
** Only a Poor Old Man and/or Back to the Klondike (Scrooge's Klondike days).
** Scrooge working as a shoeshine boy also appeared in The Invisible Intruder, for which Carl Barks did the artwork as well.
** The scene where Scrooge earned his Number One Dime by shining a particularly muddy pair of boots was directly adapted from the comic Getting That Healthy, Wealthy Feeling by Tony Strobl.
* Cottage McDuck, Scrooge's childhood home, reappears in this episode. It had previously appeared in the episode "The Curse of Castle McDuck", where Scrooge and his family visit Scrooge's old childhood home in Scotland.
* This episode marked the animated debut of Scrooge's parents, McPapa and McMama.
* The title of this episode is an allusion to the traditional story opening, "Once upon a time."
* The scene where Scrooge is arrested for wearing a kilt can be seen as a moment that has not aged too well as the officer considers it a crime for Scrooge (a boy) to wear a dress (actually a kilt) and can be viewed as a slant against people who identify as gender nonconforming. On Disney+, the episode is prefaced with a warning card about the dated humor.
==Video releases==
DVD
* DuckTales: Volume 3
==Screenshots==
Ducktales-season-1-61-once-upon-a-dime-scrooge-earns-1-dime-300x229.jpg|Young Scrooge McDuck earns his first dime.
Young Scrooge in Once Upon a Dime 1.jpg
Young Scrooge in Once Upon a Dime 2.jpg
Young Scrooge in Once Upon a Dime 3.jpg
Category:DuckTales episodes