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How Old are Donald and Della in Duck Tales (2017)?

posted 6 years ago by MAGolding (1236)
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In "The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!" ( July 21, 2018) Webby reads from a book, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, that Scrooge was born in 1867.

In "The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!" (August 4, 2018) the boys find a paper with the date April 15, 20__, and say that is the week that they hatched. So the boys were born sometime between 2000 and 2099, and turn ten years old sometime between 2010 and 2109, and Scrooge turns 143 to 242 in that year.

The most common assumption would probably be that "The Impossible Summit of Mount Neverrest!" (Dec. 2, 2017). happens over Christmas Vacation in 2017, Scrooge turns 151 in "McMystery at McDuck Manor!" (May 25, 2018) in 2018, "The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!" (August 4, 2018) happens in April 2018, and that "Last Christmas!" (December 1, 2018) happens at Christmas in 2018 (and other years due to time travel). But that is just an assumption.

So Scrooge was born in 1867 (and his sister Hortense a few years before or after) and Hortense became the mother of Donald and Della, and Della became the mother of the boys sometime between about 2000 and 2099.

This makes Scrooge about 133 to 232 years older than than his grandnephews, making an average generation gap about 66.5 to 116 years. So either Hortense was very much older than Donald and Della, or Della was very much older than the boys, or Della was born halfway between Hortense and the Boys, making both Hortense and Della very old mothers by human standards.

In "The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!" (August 4, 2018) it is revealed that Scrooge financed rebuilding Castle McDuck and bought some cheap cursed druid stones, resulting in the castle being cursed so it's occupants are immortal, and the castle can only be visited once every five years. So Donald and Della were at Castle McDuck April 15, 20__, then Della was lost in space, and then the boys were born on or before April 22, 20__.

And I wonder if Donald and Della, and Hortense their mother, spent a lot of time at Castle McDuck and so avoided decades of aging. Possibly Hortense was born in Castle McDuck decades after Scrooge was born in Glasgow.

So possibly Hortense was born about 1911 to 1944, Donald and Della were born about 1955 to 2021, and the boys were born about 2000 to 2099, thus making the chronological but not biological age of Donald and Della about 55 to 88 in Duck Tales 2017.

Or if Hortense was born about 1870, before Castle McDuck was rebuilt, Donald and Della might have been born about 1932 to 1982, thus making the chronological but not biological age of Donald and Della about 78 to 127 in Duck Tales 2017.

Of course it is possible that Donald and Della could be much older or younger - chronogically if not biologically - than calculated by dividing evenly the time between Scrooge's birth year and that of the boys.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MAGolding (1236) 4 years ago

The latest episode "The First Adventure!" (November 16, 2020) has new clues about the birthdates of Donald and Della. The synopsis begins:

In the 1960s, S.H.U.S.H. rejects Bradford's proposal to take over the world and reign in its chaos, which prompts him to co-found F.O.W.L. with Heron. 30 years later, Scrooge is asked to take care of young Della and Donald (Cristina Vee), and is simultaneously tasked by S.H.U.S.H. with retrieving the Papyrus of Binding, a mystical parchment capable of making anything written on it a reality...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DuckTales_(2017_TV_series)_episodes#Season_3_(2020)

So if that dating information is explicitly given in "The First Adventure!" Donald and Della should go on their first adventure with Scrooge sometime during the 1990s.

Donald and Della look smaller and younger than they did in their past Christmas scenes in "Last Christmas!" (December 1, 2018), which happened an unspecified number of years, as far as I remember, before the second season.

Black Heron already has a prosthetic right arm in "The First Adventure!".

"From the Confidential Files of Agent 22!" (July 7, 2018) has flashbacks to the past where Mrs. Beakley fights F.O.W.L agent Black Heron, and scenes in the present of the first season where Scrooge, Beakley, and Webby fight Black Heron again. I don't remember whether Black Heron had her prosthetic arm in both the present scenes and the flashbacks. If she didn't have her prosthetic arm in the flashbacks in "From the Confidential Files of Agent 22!", "The First Adventure!" would be after those flashbacks, but if Black Heron already has her prosthetic arm in the flashbacks there would be no way to tell which was earlier.

Donald and Della seem incredibly young to be the nephew and niece of Scrooge McDuck, born in 1867 about 130 years earlier, leading me to believe that there is some science fiction or fantasy time warping in their backstory in Duck Tales 2017.

I note that in "The First Adventure!" Scrooge's sister Hortense (born in 1876 according to Don Rosa) sends a letter with Donald and Della asking Scrooge to watch them, and the text of the letter is partially based on the letter that Della or Thelma Duck sent with Huey, Dewey, and Louie when asking Donald to take care of them in a October 17, 1937 Donald Duck Sunday comic strip, the first appearance of the trio. Apparently Donald and Della sent their father to the hospital with the same prank the boys used on their father in that comic strip.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_family_(Disney)#Third_generation

So Hortense McDuck Duck is apparently over a century older than her children Della and Donald in Duck Tales 2017, in chronological age if not necesarily in biological age.

[–] MAGolding (1236) 4 years ago

I may add I read that the opening scene has a title saying it is set in the 1960s. So that is definite, although as far as I know there is no explict statement in the episode when the later events happen. So I guess that Scrooge's first adventure with Donald and Della happens sometime during the late 1980s to the 1990s to the early 2000s.

Duckworth the Butler is alive and not a ghost in the scenes set somewhere between about 1985 to 2005. Thus the earliest possible date from Duckworth's death should be about 1985, and it is possible he might have been still alive in and after 2005.

If the later scenes are the first time Donald and Della stay with Scrooge, the scenes where young Donald and Della are staying with Scrooge in "Last Christmass" would have to be after "The First Adventure".

When Scrooge hires Bradford Buzzard at the end he says he say Bradford Buzzard at his Christmas Party, one of several scene in "Last Christmas". Was Bradford Buzzard seen together with Donald and Della at the same party? If so, and if Donald and Della began staying with Scrooge during "The first Adventure", there should be a time skip in "The First Adventure" long enough for Scrooge's Christmass party with Donand and Della and Bradford among the guests.

But if Donald, Della, and Bradford are not seen together at a Christmas party in the same year in "Last Christmas" , or if Donald and Della have stayed in McDuck Manor with Scrooge during earlier Christmases before "The First Adventure", the Christmass party where Bradford attended could have been years before before "The First Adventure" and there would be no need for any lenght of time between the search for the scroll and Scrooge hiring Bradford.

And if Scrooge asks where he saw Bradford before, sometime earlier in "The First Adventure", That would mean the Christmas party Bradford attended was sometime before "The First Adventure".

Continued:

[–] MAGolding (1236) 4 years ago

Continued

Since Bentina Beakley, Bradford Buzzard, and Black Heron are already adults in the 1960s in "The First Adventure" and are still physicially fit and active during the first, second, and third seasons of Duck Tales 2017 those seasons should have fictional dates as early as possible.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie were hatched in the year 20__, sometime between the years 2000 and 2099, and probably turn ten during the first season, putting the first season sometime between 2009-10 and 2109-10. Considering the ages of Beakley, Buzzard, and Black Heron, the first season should be no later than 2017-2018, the second season no later than 2018-19, and the third season no later than 2019-20.

And some fans might consider it more plausible that Huey, dewey, and Louie were born as early as 2000 and that the first season happens in 2009-10, second season in 2010-11, and the third season in 2011-12.

[–] MAGolding (1236) 4 years ago

11-28-2020 I saw "The first adventure" again this mornng. It did say the first scene was in the 1960s but didn't say when the rest of the episode was. On the pirate ship Scrooge says he saw Bradford buzzard at his Christmass Party long ago. Scrooge decides to stop running his busineses and start adventuring at the end. He specifically mentions that when he hires Bradford Buzzard to manage things.

Thus Scrooge saw Bradford at a Christmass party in "Last Christmass" which was long before "The first Adventure" and possibly before Donald and Della were born.

Black Heron has both her natural arms in the first scene in "The First Adventure" but has a prostethic right arm in the fight on the pirate ship. That is before the present day part of "From the Confidential Case Files of Agent 22" so Black Heron should and does have a prosthetic arm in those scenes. I don't remember whether she has a prosthetic arm in the past scenes in "Fom the Confidential Case Files of Agent 22".

This site https://scrooge-mcduck.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Heron#:~:text=Black%20Heron%20is%20the%20main%20antagonist%20of%20the,Bond%20villains%2C%20complete%20with%20a%20%22cool-looking%22%20island%20lair. says that Black Heron lost her arm in the explosion of her lab in the 1960s segment of "From the Confidential Case Files of Agent 22".