Scrooge McDuck

**Scrooge McDuck** is a Scottish rich duck of DuckBurg who is the uncle of Donald Duck and grand-uncle of Huey, Dewey, and Louie who made his debut in *Scrooge McDuck and Money* though he made a brief cameo in the Mickey Mouse Club theme song.

He also starred as the main protagonist of *DuckTales (both 1987 and 2017 TV series)* and the main protagonist of *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp*.

Thomas, Twilight Sparkle and their friends along with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck met him and the DuckTales gang in *Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.*

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 top hat, spectacles, spats, and cane), Scrooge's money is not only a symbol of his prosperity, but also his resilience and industriousness. As such, he prides his fortune to the point of being an avaricious tightwad, though he is good-hearted at his core.

As the character was further developed over the years, Scrooge would become Barks' most famous creation, garnering worldwide acclaim and dedicated lore. The character has been commonly referenced in pop culture as a representation for wealth. Though comics are his most fruitful medium to this day, Scrooge transcends his origins as he would find success in other media such as animation and even video games, making him one of the most popular and recognizable Disney characters.

## Background

Scrooge was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Fergus McDuck and Downy O'Drake. He was the eldest of four children, consisting of him, 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 furthered 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-rival Flintheart Glomgold, Glittering Goldie (with whom Scrooge would develop an ambiguously romantic relationship), and a long line of criminals 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 lacked much of a 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 time diving into his bin and swimming about its golden depths as if it were a pool. In the 2017 reboot of Ducktales he tells Dewey he worked hard and built the muscles around his neck to be able to do that without causing serious harm.

### 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 master 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, of which the comic book cover shows the year 1947. 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

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, above all, 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 (But not a strong temper unlike his nephew) and rarely hesitates to use cartoon 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, 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 boot. 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 extra dirty 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, rivaled only by Flintheart Glomgold, 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 which 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*, as noted by a *TIME* article, 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 Scrooges 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", or 500 Quattuorvigintillion dollars, and 16 cents. Notable, 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. 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.

## Trivia

* He is named after the character Ebenezer Scrooge from the novel *A Christmas Carol* by Charles Dickens, whom he fittingly plays in *Mickey's Christmas Carol*.
* He is voiced by David Tennant in the *DuckTales* reboot and John Kassir in the *Mickey Mouse* shorts after his long-time voice actor Alan Young passed away in 2016.
* Scrooge McDuck and the gang guest star in Thomas and Twilight Sparkle's Adventures Series.

## Gallery

Scrooge in his animated debut, Scrooge McDuck and Money.Scrooge portraying Ebenezer Scrooge in Mickey's Christmas Carol.Scrooge in his appearance on House of Mouse.Scrooge with his nephews in the opening to DuckTales.Scrooge trying to save his money in Legend of the Three Caballeros.Scrooge's first animated appearance in the opening sequence to ort cameo appearance.Scrooge with Launchpad and DonaldScrooge with Della and DonaldScrooge McDuck in DuckTales (2017)Scrooge with Ludwig Von Drake
This page is sourced from The Disney Wiki and Pooh's Adventures Wiki respectably.

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