Plantastic Voyage

Plantastic Voyage is a comic story written by Fabio Michelini and drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano. It features Scrooge McDuck and dream versions of Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck and Gyro Gearloose. Cornelius Coot and Daisy Duck are both briefly mentioned, albeit only in the 2020 American script in Coot's case; the same script also obliquely references the Beagle Boys. Characters exclusive to Scrooge's dream include the Chloroplasts (among them the Chloroplast Commander and Chloroplast Prime), the Bacteria Boys, the Sugars, the Acids, the Proteins and the Mitochondria. 
==Plot==
Within what is eventually be revealed to be a nightmare sent to a sleeping Scrooge by his conscience as he prepares to order a wide deforestation enterprise, Scrooge takes a trip with Donald and the triplets into the heart of a plant cell thanks to Gyro's latest invention: the Shrinking Machine. Scrooge's plan to discover the true secret of photosynthesis and bring it back to the macro-scale world as a new and profitable energy source, however, goes awry when it turns out the microcosm of the oak leaf is inhabited by sentient, ambulatory Chloroplasts, Proteins… and Bacteria!
===References===
* Within the dream, Scrooge drives a rickety old Spymobile.
* Huey, Dewey and Louie mention having their “Junior Woodchucks Medals for Leaves and Petals” and holding the title of G.R.E.E.N.S.P.R.O.U.T.S., for “Gallant, Redoubtably Enriching Earth Nurturers of Seed, Plant, and Root-type Objects Under The Soil”.
* Donald also claims not to have had a bike since fifth grade.
* The Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook contains information on chloroplasts, explaining that they “use chlorophyll to absorb light and convert it into energy”.
* The Chloroplasts use the Chloroplastic Cookbook as reference for how to prepare the photosynthetic solution.
* Until his dream makes him think better of it, Scrooge was planning to have the Mount Lushmore Woodlands deforested to make way for “luxury condos catering to wealthy retirees”.
===Continuity===
* Two stories were later written as sequels to this story, featuring the Ducks enjoying similar, whimsically educational voyages through the inside of a cactus and a mushroom, in 1993 and 2012. Neither follow-up was drawn by Cavazzano, but they shared the writer of Plantastic Voyage, Fabio Michelini.
* In the 2020 English scripts, Huey quips that they should “follow the cell-o brick road” while the Ducks are traipsing through the strange miniature environment of the cell, in an allusion to The Wizard of Oz (1939). Donald Duck also later quips that he “isn't in Kansas anymore” to much the same effect.
* Also in that same script, the horde of bacteria are referred to as “the Terrible Bacteria Boys”, mimicking the form of address used by Scrooge McDuck in many of their appearances, starting with their debut in Terror of the Beagle Boys (1951). The implication is thus that an echo of Scrooge's constant worrying about the Beagles influences the worldbuilding of his dreams.
==Behind the scenes==
This comic was first printed in 1983 in the Italian Topolino in two parts: the first chapter in Topolino #1455, and the second in #1456. It was finally printed in English in 2020 in Volume 12 of the Disney Masters line, which was dedicated to Giorgio Cavazzano; in this instance, it was translated and localised by Joe Torcivia. One of the minor changes introduced by Torcivia, beyond the general sprucing-up of the dialogue, was the notion that the Park in which the story opens (merely Duckburg Park in the original Italian) was in fact called called “Cornelius Coot Park”.
Category:Stories
Category:Comic Stories
Category:Fabio Michelini stories
Category:Giorgio Cavazzano stories
Category:1983 stories
Category:Scrooge McDuck stories
Category:Donald Duck stories
Category:Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck stories
Category:Gyro Gearloose stories
Category:Cornelius Coot stories
Category:Daisy Duck stories
Category:Chloroplasts stories
Category:Chloroplast Commander stories
Category:Chloroplast Prime stories
Category:Bacteria Boys stories
Category:Sugars stories
Category:Acids stories
Category:Proteins stories
Category:Mitochondria stories
Category:Beagle Boys