10/10
Sound Fiscal Advice From Disney's Duck
18 December 2002
A Walt Disney Cartoon.

Huey, Dewey & Louie visit their Uncle Scrooge to seek advice in what to do with their piggy bank savings of $1.95.

SCROOGE McDUCK AND MONEY was another little Disney film which both entertained & educated. Scrooge informs the viewer about the history of the development of convenient currency and gives a brief explanation of inflation, economics and the importance of living on a budget for good household management. He reveals the reason for taxes, explains why money must circulate and advocates the value of making shrewd investments. Throughout, the animation is strictly routine - showing where Disney pinched a few production pennies.

Largely created by the legendary Carl Barks for Disney comic books, this was the film debut for Scrooge, the richest duck in the world. He is voiced here by Bill Thompson.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.
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