"Tralla La" is a
Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bil ...
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
story by
Carl Barks
Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...
. The story was first published in ''
Uncle Scrooge
''Uncle Scrooge'' (stylized as ''Uncle $crooge'') is a Disney comic book series starring Scrooge McDuck ("the richest duck in the world"), his nephew Donald Duck, and grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and revolving around their adventures in Du ...
'' #6 (June, 1954). In the story, Scrooge searches for a
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
in which money plays no role.
Plot
"Tralla La" begins with Uncle Scrooge having a hard day at his office, and it doesn't get better when he attempts to walk along the street to relax; everyone he meets wants some of his money. The stress of this way of life gets to him and he suffers a
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
. Though he improves, he can't stand to see or hear about money, as he now associates it with all the troubles that got him to this point. In order to heal, he searches for a place where money has no influence. Tralla La may be such a place, where a peaceful society without a monetary system is rumored to exist.
Scrooge and his nephews, who are there to support his healing, finally locate the mythical place in a deep valley high in the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
and arrive by parachute. There, they get acquainted with a more peaceful existence than to which they were accustomed.
However, as Scrooge seems to be healing, he doesn't realize he brought his troubles with him. He brought bottles of his medication along. The
bottle cap
A bottle cap or bottle top is a closure for the top opening of a bottle. A cap is sometimes colourfully decorated with the logo of the brand of contents. Plastic caps are used for plastic bottles, while metal with plastic backing is used for gl ...
s he discards are considered rare treasures in Tralla La and become the basis of a new monetary system. The inhabitants of Tralla La become obsessed with these new treasures. To solve the issue, Scrooge has planes drop one billion bottle caps, but this becomes too many, and the inhabitants become angry, as their fields are now covered with caps. The Ducks must flee, as they apparently cannot find peace even in an Earthly paradise.
Production
In a 1981 interview, Barks said, "The nerve medicine
n ''Tralla La''was a running gag to help pull parts of the story together. I had learned about running gags before I ever worked at Disney. It was a kind of thread or connecting link in stories, such as
Wodehouse's stories, and in the movies:
Chaplin Chaplin may refer to:
People
* Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), English comedy film actor and director
* Chaplin (name), other people named Chaplin
Films
* '' Unknown Chaplin'' (1983)
* ''Chaplin'' (film) (1992)
* ''Chaplin'' (2011 film), Ben ...
and
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were a British-American Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–19 ...
had running gags. I liked those movies more than romantic ones or shoot-'em-up westerns. The running gags were a necessary part of the stories, like a period at the end of a sentence."
Analysis
A number of previous stories by Barks presented Scrooge's way of life as rather stressful, but this is the first story where this seems to be getting on his nerves. This is certainly not the last, but subsequent stories rarely focus on it.
Scrooge's effort this time is not to gain treasure, but find some peace and regain his health. However, as so often presented in Barks tales, in trying to escape his problems he only manages to carry them with him. Tralla La's (based on
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ge ...
) inhabitants prove to share the human characteristic of greed, while Barks is allowed some bitter commentary on human nature and the impact of "inventing" money.
The theme of never finding peace no matter how hard the characters try is a running theme in Barks' tales, but here it takes center place. It is considered among Barks' most memorable because of its view of humanity, paradise, and the vulnerability of his characters.
This story features the first appearance of that inexhaustible font of knowledge, ''
The Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook''.
The story was later adapted into an episode of ''
DuckTales
''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four seas ...
''.
Don Rosa
Keno Don Hugo Rosa (), known simply as Don Rosa (born June 29, 1951), is an American comic book writer and illustrator known for his Disney comics stories about Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, and other characters which Carl Barks created fo ...
wrote a sequel to the story,
Return To Xanadu', in which Tralla La is revealed to be the valley of
Xanadu. ''Return to Xanadu'' was first published in the United States in ''Uncle Scrooge'' #261-262 (October–November 1991) and reprinted in #357 (September, 2006).
See also
*
List of Disney comics by Carl Barks
Carl Barks (1901–2000) was an American Disney Studio illustrator and Disney comic book creator. The quality of his scripts and drawings earned him the nicknames ''The Duck Man'' and ''The Good Duck Artist''.
This list of Carl Barks' Disney sto ...
References
External links
*{{Inducks comic, W+US++++6-02
''Tralla La''in Carl Barks guidebook
Disney comics stories
Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks
1954 in comics
Lost world comics