Ducks Part One: The Survey

I held off talking about Ducktales and Darkwing Duck, because I wanted to talk about the shows together, along with the reboot. I feel like there's a lot to say about Disney Ducks. People have very strong opinions on them, there's even a school of thinking about Disney Ducks (Donaldism). Some Donaldists have very strong opinions on what are the best adaptations of Donald Duck. Some people lean towards Carl Barks, others like the animated shorts, people also just enjoy the media they were raised on.

For me, I'm an American in my late 20s. I was raised primarily on Mouseworks shorts, with a hearty side of classic shorts. I watched Darkwing Duck for the first time sometime in college. I watched Ducktales shortly after and found it comparatively underwhelming. I watched Ducktales 2017 when it came out and enjoyed it a bit, which got me into comics, and my 3rd grade French reading level helped me get into Euro comics, something that was hardly available in the American market, and I opted to try and fix for a short time, ultimately stopping due to an incident.

When I was in the duckverse fandom, I noticed a lot of patterns. Usually, American fans were more raised on the animated series (like myself) while European fans were raised on comics. I recall someone being greatly disappointed when I mentioned that, no, Flintheart Glomgold isn't usually in House of Mouse. He's usually not in most things.

So before talking about Disney Ducks, I wanted to give out a survey to see people's opinions on Disney Ducks, and I'm going to go over them here.

I got 40 responses on the survey, which is more than I was expecting, and I got some pretty surprising responses!

Something that surprised me was that majority of my survey takers, 21/40 to be exact, were from the United States. This does make sense as blog and scanlations are meant for an English speaking audience, though I usually noticed a lot more European bloggers. The second most popular country option was Finland, with three (3) people choosing that option.

Going by continent, this was the makeup:

North America: 24
Europe: 12
Asia: 2
Australia and Oceania: 2

All but 5 survey takers were in the 18-34 age range, which I think makes sense, as I'm in this age range, and I primarily advertised on Tumblr and Discord.

That's the easy stuff, let's talk about coding

The first thing I asked was the first thing that came to mind when people thought about Donald Duck. The way I coded this answer was putting in the first piece of media people said. I coded the shows as their own thing. Barks, Rosa, and any other US authors were labelled as US comics. Any comics made by European authors were Euro Comics. Each era of shorts was split into groups, with Mousework shorts being put into the House of Mouse category. Theatrical Movies and DVD movies were also split into groups.

 

US Comics being the highest one isn't too much of a surprise. Barks and Rosa are big names amongst Donaldists. The rest of the options are pretty standard things one would think of. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse getting more than one vote is a bit surprising, but it was after my time.

My next question is a bit more serious: What animated series, animated short, video game, book, or comic do you consider to be the best piece of media featuring Donald Duck?

This one was harder to code. Many people said multiple, so I put them down for several different categories. 

 

I think it's also worth noting a lot of you guys like Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land and a lot of you guys like The Three Musketeers Movie. US Comics and DT17 are particularly popular too!

Next up. What shows the best characterization of Donald Duck?

Worth noting this time: While in the last question people who said multiple went across different, mediums, most people who picked multiple this time went back and forth between US and European comics.

Also, 4 people said something I was not expecting: That there is no such thing as an ideal Donald Duck, and that got me thinking about the survey as a whole. It sort of made me realize that so much Donald Duck has existed over the years that the original character has evolved in multiple ways that damn. There's no such thing anymore as a one true Donald.

Another interesting fact. Everyone who said multiple options was outside the US and everyone who said there is no idea Donald Duck was in the US.

Best overall was interesting because we had some broader answers.

But at the same time, there haven't been a lot of major differences in American and non-American players so far! 

The next question was about childhood. Many people listed many different things for this one, so instead of showing 20 different people who had multiple, I was broader in my answer coding.

If everything listed was a comic, I wrote comic. If everything was animated, I said animated. A mix of both and other things: multiple, and so on.

 To be fair, I was raised on Bellywashers, and now I can't stand food, so I get the orange juice response.

This is also the first question where I've noticed big differences in the US and Non-US crowd in what was considered their childhoods.

Of the people who chose comics, eleven (11) were outside the US and two (2) were in the US. For animation, five (5) were outside the US and  twelve (12) were in the US. Usually the US and non-us groups will have a different of 2-3 in their choices, which I don't think is something to scrutinize over, but this surprises me. It gives me an idea of how a lot of international fans are say, enjoying DT17 and other animated series as they get older, while US fans are learning about the comics through scanlations or learning new languages. Wasn't expecting that, but it's cool to see fans sharing things they were raised on with one another!

Next up! What are Donald's Key traits. No graph this time because people came up with a lot of stuff!

Two answers were given by the majority of survey takers. 27/40 people said some variation of "Donald is angry" and 25/40 survey takers said some variation of "Donald is a family man." I would agree Donald being angry is a key trait in all his appearances, while being a family man is a trait in the majority (Comics, DT17, Quack Pack, any short featuring the nephews). The third most popular answer was only said by 8/40 people, and it was a variation of "Donald has bad luck." Naturally, it is in the song, but probably not as commonly said because it's more a trait of the character rather than a personality trait.

Some other commonly said personality traits were

• Donald has a strong sense of justice
• Donald is very tired
• Donald is very emotional
• Donald is poor
• Donald is flawed, but a good person, and trying to be better
  
• Donald is versatile, usually due to having many odd jobs
• Donald is loyal to those he cares about.
  

But some seemed to contradict one another...

• 6 people said Donald was generally loving. 6 also said Donald was generally mean.
• 3 people said Donald was full of himself. 2 people said Donald had low self esteem.
• 3 people said Donald was persistent. 2 people said Donald was lazy.
• 2 people said Donald was selfish. One person said Donald was selfless.
  
• One person said Donald was a Coward, and another said Donald was brave.

And it has me going back to the question about the best characterization of Donald Duck. There really is no such thing as an ideal Donald Duck. He could certainly be a multifaceted character, with all of these traits, or he could stick to one dimension.

Ducktales has him as a tired old man. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has him as a mischievous little child. In our minds, we accept both of these as Donald Duck. He has a funny voice. He's an angry little ducky. Who else could it be?!

Next question was the best Duck character.... Ha, I could do this like the popularity polls on twitter. So maybe I will!

In 11th place, we got Boyd, Bertie McGoose, Bum Bum Ghigno, Fantomius, Gosalyn Mallard, Grandma Duck, Hortense McDuck, Lena de Spell, Matilda McDuck, OK Quack, Princess Oona, John D. Rockerduck, Ludwig Von Drake, and Zantaf with one vote each!

In 10th place, we got Brigitta MacBridge, Dickie Duck, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, Flintheart Glomgold, Launchpad McQuack, Little Helper, Lyla Lay, Panchito Pistoles, and Reginella with two votes each!

In 9th place, we got Darkwing Duck and Jose Carioca, with three votes each!

In 8th place, we got Daisy Duck, Della Duck, Goldie O'Gilt, Uno, and Webby Vanderquack with four votes each! #girl

In 7th place with got Fethry Duck, with a fitting 7 votes!!!

In 6th place, we have the least favorite duck triplet apparently, Dewey Duck, with 8 votes!

5th place is a tie again! Huey Duck and Gladstone Gander each have 9 votes!

In 4th place, we have the favorite duck triplet, Louie Duck, along with Magica de Spell, with 10 votes!

In 3rd place... the guy I said you did not have to list, but a lot of people did anyway, and he could have won had I not said that... Donald Duck with 11 votes!

In 2nd place, with 12 votes... Gyro Gearloose!

And of course, our winner Scrooge McDuck., almost had half the survey supporting him! He got 19 votes!!! 

A pattern I noticed with these responses is that a lot of people did specify whether they meant comics or animated adaptations. Gladstone and Scrooge got this treatment a lot for the comics, while Gyro and the triplets had preferences both ways!

My last questions was asking what people thought the best traits of their characters were. Some people answered broadly while others answered in detail for each character, so I'll split the answers up like that!

Broadly speaking, it seems most important for the Ducks to be fun, weird, and family oriented! They have to be flawed people with good chemistry. They have to be smart, but more importantly, they have to be stupid. They are good people, but they are also incredibly violent.

Again we have some contradictions, but this is very vaguely discussing the ducks, so it's easy to have both of these things!

In terms of characters, people are a bit more certain. Everyone who described Magica talked about her persistent nature. People agreed that Uno was a caring friend, despite being a little smarmy or full of himself. Gyro was described as kind, but also a little off the shits. Everyone agreed the triplets were mischievous little kids, and adding on clever and morally upright would make sense to most. DT17 Louie finds Spamton gender.

Gladstone and Scrooge had the most people writing about them. So I may go into theirs a little more.

Gladstone Gander is a lucky bastard. Very haughty, dramatic, and foppish. In his own world regarding his luck, but has moments of bittersweet self awareness that almost makes you feel sorry for him. Usually goes out of his way to best Donald.

Scrooge McDuck is rich and greedy, to the point of swimming in money. He's opportunistic and hardworking. He's dramatic as hell and obsessive to a point. He's morally grey, but it's more he has a sense of honor, and goes based on that. (Folks could not tell if he was honorable or a mess but seemed to agree he was morally grey.) If he's mean, it's usually for a good reason considering his values. He's clever and quickwitted, but also stupid. He's rude but caring. Specifically, he cares about family and adventure.

It's worth pointing out that this time, a lot of the contradictions came from people themselves, making Scrooge out to be a multifaceted person. It's also worth noting some of these people based their Scrooge on early Barks while some based it on Ducktales 2017 though, so we have this sliding scale of heroism when it comes to Scrooge.

I learned a lot from this survey! Particularly three things

1. There is a lot more sharing of information and favorite stories between Duck fans than I thought, evidenced by the differences really only seen in Duck media one was raised on.
2. Characterization of the ducks matters not, so long as it makes for good story.
3. You guys like Scrooge a lot and some of you are probably not gonna like my takes on Ducktales.