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| Animated cartoons | Animated movies | Duck Tales | [Unfinished cartoons] | Unfinished movies |
| ANIMATION | Unfinished cartoons |
Additional credits: This film was to star Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Barks submitted a ten-page comic book style sequence of gag drawings dealing with Donald's and Goofy's confusion over mislabeled buckets of paint, water, and paste, with predictably slapstick results. The sketches were crude, but Barks' storyline was logical and revealed an awareness for the way in which small mistakes can escalate into disasters. Some of the ideas were recycled in «Interior Decorators», on which Barks also worked.
Description: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are bumbling interior decorators fixing up a honeymoon cottage for Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow.
Landmark: One of Barks' earliest gag-situation submissions. It was probably his first work on a story with Donald Duck.
Status:
Though "Love Nest" was never produced, the
Backstage: In those days, the story department solicited material from the entire staff, circulating plot outlines for proposed cartoons and requesting gag ideas. Having been a muleskinner, cowboy, and lumberjack, Barks had an eye for humor about the frustrations of manual labor.
Congruences:
Additional credits: Four-page scenario [and/or plot summary] that Barks called «Desert Prospectors», featuring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as gold hunters. This scenario formed the basis for another unproduced cartoon, «Lost Prospectors».
Description: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy discover a ledge of 19-karat gold in the desert with the aid of an automatic gold-finder which has been constructed by Goofy. But the machine goes berserk when it gets too close to Donald's gold belt buckle, attacking the duck and ultimately exploding a stick of dynamite. The trio of prospectors are left in tattered disarray.
Landmark:
Probably Barks' earliest adventure tale.
Barks' first tale built around a treasure hunt.
The first story Barks wrote at the Disney Studio.
Backstage: Besides the gold and treasure hunting, the idea contains a motif that would become central to Barks' animation and comic book work: the use of gags involving mechanical inventions.
A similar gold-finder appeared later in the hands of the nephews in gold-finding machine; the machine also pre-figures Gyro Gearloose's crazy inventions. And the idea of automation gone haywire may well have been the inspiration for the barber chair gag in «Modern Inventions»
Barks' plot outline describes the gold-finder thus: "There are two hands on the thing, like mechanical arms on the barber chair. The arms do pointing tricks like the cuckoo bird in 'Cock Robin'." The wording in the plot outline seems to imply that the barber chair gag in «Modern Inventions» might already have been created; but the story outline is dated "April 1936" in Barks' hand, some months before he would have likely begun work on that later cartoon.
The prospector theme anticipates Barks' interest in the Klondike gold rush.
The Silly Symphony «Who Killed Cock Robin» had been released in 1935.
Congruences:
Additional credits: Intended as a sequel to the Silly Symphony «Elmer Elephant» (1936). Barks wrote a scenario titled «Elmer's Light o'Love». Both Barks and Walt Kelly submitted gag sketches showing Elmer wrestling the gorilla; and Ferdinand Horvath, one of Disney's greatest concept artists, drew model sheets of the gorilla and an owl character. But Barks himself had no contact with these artists.
Description: Tillie the Tiger falls for the balletic charms of Mr. Granville Goat while "fat, oafish, tongue-tied" Elmer looks on helplessly. When a menacing gorilla shows up, the cowardly Mr. Goat runs away, and Elmer must rescue Tillie.
Backstage: In April 29, 1987 notes for "The Carl Barks Library", Barks commented. "I never worked with Walt Kelly or Horvath. They were doing work for Silly Symphonies. Horvath was an eminently respected drawer of cute animals. Kelly was not very well understood by the storymen I was in contact with. Those who had seen his storyboards hoped they wouldn't be called on to attend any of his story conferences. His humor style was quite loquacious."
Correspondence:
Additional credits: Barks typed out a scenario [and/or plot synopsis?] featuring Mickey as an intrepid mountie on the trail of Black Pete. He drew two model sheets of Mickey and Tanglefoot; and over four hundred story sketches. The storyboards comprise two separate stories: Barks' initial version and an alternate chase-and-resque sequence. Many of the storyboard sketches were shaded with colored pencil. The file on this cartoon contains memoranda from other storymen commenting on his work, but it was never taken beyond the exploratory storyboards.
Alternate titles: «Mickey Gets His Man», «Mickey of the Mounted», «Royal Mounted Police», and «Mickey the Mountie».
Description: Black Pete kidnaps Minnie Mouse and tries to force her to disclose the location of her secret gold mine. Intrepid mountie Mickey gives chase but is hampered in his search by the antics of his gluttonous horse Tanglefoot.
Landmark: Unquestionably the most important of Barks' unproduced cartoons. It's the first adventure story he drew and the second he wrote (preceded by a scenario for «Desert Prospectors»). It is also his first gold rush tale set in the Klondike; while the chase into the badlands and the final confrontation between Mickey and Pete is echoed in his Donald Duck epic «in "Sheriff of Bullet Valley"».
Status:
A 32-page section of the official 60th anniversary book
"Mickey Mouse in Color. The Art of Floyd Gottfredson and Carl Barks."
reproduces 212 colored-pencil storyboard sketches by Barks, the vast of a
majority of 219 numbered sequentially. Everything "good" was included except for
two short groupings of four and five drawings that were missing from the Disney
Archives. Only Barks' typewritten
The alternate chase-and-resque sequence of storyboards [not published in "Mickey Mouse in Color"?] are reproduced in "The Carl Barks Library" (01B-255), with the addition of the introductory panels and ending of the first version to make a coherent presentation. The ending, however didn't make sense when tacked on to the alternate scenes, so they were rearranged for inclusiuon. Additional sketches [alternate or original?] are published on other places in "The Carl Barks Library" (01B-377; 07B-438). Tanglefoot drawings "traced from model sheet" made by Barks in 1936 are also published (01B-373).
Backstage: When [Modern Inventions] went into animation, I was put in a little room and told to think up another story. I wasn't getting very far very fast, so Walt [Disney], or Ted Sears, or one of the guys in the department, said, 'Barks is just wasting his time here, he'd better be put with somebody like Harry Reeves, who has had a lot of story experience, and then his wild thoughts will be directed along usable lines.' That's how I happened to be put with Harry Reeves. We worked as a team for a number of years." Detailed information
Congruences:
Correspondence:
Interviews:
Additional credits: Barks and Harry Reeves wrote the scenario and drew most of the storyboards.
Description: As nightwatchman in a department store, Donald is plagued by a playful monkey, who leads him a merry chase.
Congruences:
Additional credits: Barks wrote key sequences for the film and sketched many of the storyboards. The plot recycles ideas from «The Love Nest»'. An eating sequence drawn by Barks, provided the inspiration for Gus' voracious appetite in «Donald's Cousin Gus»
Description: Donald and his dimwitted helper Gus are hired to renovate an old mansion.
Landmark: Had the film been completed, it would have constituted Gus Goose's premiere appearance. Instead, Gus was officially introduced in 1939 in «Donald's Cousin Gus».
Backstage: On October 16, 1937, Disney's staff received Preliminary Outline No. 23 for «Interior Decorators». The plot would revolve around Donald being hindered by a bumbling new assistant, a goose tentatively named Gus. At this time, Gus Goose's name, appearance, and personality were still in the formative stages. Detailed information
Congruences:
Additional credits: This cartoon was to be an adaptation of Floyd Gottfredson's 1933 comic strip serial, "Mickey's Horse Tanglefoot." In the original story, Tanglefoot was a broken down race horse who triumphed despite gangsters' attempts to fix the big race. In the cartoon, he was a more youthful horse whose efforts were sabotaged by Black Pete. The film never got beyond the stage of discussion, and all that remains is a series of transcripts of the story conferences, one of which Barks attended. $backstage Barks was probably called in because of his previous work on Tanglefoot in «Northwest Mounted».
Additional credits: Walt Disney decided to scrap «Yukon Mickey» because he considered it neither original nor funny enough. Later, both he and the storymen thought the plot might be more suited to Donald, and many of the story sketches were redrawn, substituting the duck for Mickey. Barks drew most of the Donald storyboard sketches and a few of Mickey.
Description: Mickey discovers that a mischievous baby walrus has been stealing food from his cache. Chasing the little thief, he runs afoul of the walrus' giant father. When Mickey tries to placate papa walrus with a fish, the baby walrus steals it.
Landmark: This cartoon was the last documented time Barks drew Mickey Mouse until Western Publishing asked him to pen Mickey in «and The Riddle of the Red Hat» in 1945.
Backstage: Story conference notes indicate that this cartoon was inspired by the Donald Duck short «Polar Trappers», in which Donald is plagued by a pesky penguin.
Additional credits:
Based on a plot outline for
«Desert Prospectors».
Barks drew many or most of the storyboards.
Description: Donald and Gus Goose are prospectors lost in Death Valley. Tortured by heat and thirst, they trek across the barren terrain in search of water, encountering various mirages, including a group of Lorelei ducks lounging by a swimming pool. One of the girls sips a cool drink and beckons to them. While Donald investigates, Gus, with the aid of his lucky derby hat, discovers a strange capricious laughing spring and is able to quench his thirst. Donald also tries to trap the elusive water but is unable to get a drop.
Landmark:
The bevy of girl ducks Barks drew for the mirage sequence anticipates his work
on Daisy.
The idea of a lucky foil for Donald resurfaced later in Barks' comics in the
person of Gladstone Gander.
Backstage: This could have been the second release to feature Gus Goose. Detailed information
Additional credits: Barks is known to have drawn only a few sketches for this cartoon, though numerous story notes in his handwriting survive.
Description: Donald tells his nephews a tall tale a la Baron Munchausen, about his adventures as a National Geographic photographer in Africa. He claims to have discovered a lost world of prehistoric creatures, and to have beaten King Kong in feats of strength.
Additional credits: Barks, Jack Hannah, and Chuck Couch all worked on this cartoon, but only a story outline and mimeographed copies of a few drawings (not by Barks) survive in the Disney Archives.
Description: Business is bad at Donald's shooting gallery. He lures the nephews into playing by offering a box of candy as a prize, but tries to bilk them by setting up targets that cannot be knocked down.
Congruences:
Additional credits: Barks drew all the archival storyboards for this cartoon, creating numerous sight gags about man-eating fish and the harvesting of sap from a rubber tree.
Description: Donald tries to put a severely patched tire on his jalopy, but the tire collapses. This angers him so much that he journeys to South America for raw rubber to make a new tire.
Congruences:
Additional credits:
The file for «The Beaver Hunters» contains some of Barks' most
polished story art, as well as his plot outline and lengthy transcripts of
story conferences. Walt Disney abandoned the cartoon because he felt the
gags lacked originality and the personality of the beavers was not adequately
developed.
Barks drew many or most of the storyboards.
Description: Donald and Pluto go hunting for beavers, but the wily rodents foil them, even though Donald disguises himself as a tree and uses ingenious weapons, like a rifle that fires a plumber's helper.
Additional credits: Originally titled "Balloon Race," this story was to feature Mickey, Minnie, Horace, Clarabelle, and Black Pete. The title was changed to "Mickey's Stratosphere Flight," then "Donald's Stratosphere Flight." In the process, it became a story about Donald's problems repairing and launching his hot-air balloon, rather than a racing tale. It's thought Barks drew a large pose of Donald in aviator garb, but no story sketches for the cartoon. The transcript of a story conference attended by Barks and Jack Hannah still exists.
Description:
Original version: Mickey, Minnie, Horace, and Clarabelle in a balloon race
against Black Pete.
Later version: Donald has problems repairing and launching his hot-air balloon.
Congruences:
Additional credits:
Probably the first collaboration between Carl Barks and Jack Hannah.
The extant drawings form a loose storyline, with several alternative
beginnings and endings.
Barks drew many or most of the storyboards.
Description: Donald is a traveling salesman who cons bartender Pete into buying a phony pearl, then becomes the victim of Pete's energetic revenge. The tables are turned when Pete accidentally knocks down a pillar supporting the second story of his saloon and must hold up a heavy safe to keep from being crushed.
Landmark:
Probably the first collaboration of Barks and Jack Hannah.
The first time Barks drew Pete since
«Northwest Mounted».
Congruences:
Additional credits: Barks drew all the story sketches for this cartoon.
Description: Donald enters a contest for the best wax sculpture, but the nephews sabotage his statue with a blowtorch, and it dissolves in a series of humorous forms and faces.
Backstage: The initial statue of a rooster in admiral's uniform, bedecked with medals, prefigures the Junior Woodchuck troop commander in Barks' comics.
Congruences:
Additional credits: Barks drew many or most of the storyboards.
Description: While cleaning an armored tank, Donald accidentally explodes some grenades near his sergeant, Black Pete. To escape Pete's wrath, he takes off in the tank, crashing through the officer's mess and separating a general from his T-bone steak. Donald's problems are compounded when an experimental television monitor inside the tank is activated, and he confuses its telecast for scenes of the passing terrain. Straying across the French line, he spoils a surprise attack on Adolf Hitler's Panzer Division.
Backstage: Barks' portrayal of Hitler as a dyspeptic petty tyrant spewing mangled German shows his growing facility with parody at this time. Soon he would leave the Studio and launch his career in comic books.
Additional credits: Barks drew most of the story sketches for this cartoon, with some assistance from Jack Hannah.
Description: On a mission to deliver secret plans to the war office, private Donald Duck is waylaid by the notorious foreign spy Madame XX. She steals the plans and escapes in a motorboat, but Donald is right behind her, his foot tangled in a rope attached to the boat's stern. An admiral (looking suspiciously like the later Junior Woodchuck troop commander) makes a brief appearance.
Backstage: Madame XX is the precursor of a number of seductresses in the Barks comics. In 1950, Barks created a human temptress called Madame Triple-X for his cold-war parody «in "Dangerous Disguise"». According to Thomas Andrae in «The Carl Barks Library», Scrooge's old flame Glittering Goldie and the sorceress Magica de Spell also have their roots in Madame XX.
Research: Madame XX is a sexy lady duck modeled on screen siren Veronica Lake. Congruences:
Additional credits: Ken Peterson, then head of the story department at the Disney Studio, decided to make an animated cartoon featuring Scrooge McDuck. Barks created a nine-page synopsis for the cartoon, but the project was abandoned.
Description: Donald works at Scrooge's money bin, operating a money-sorting machine that runs by power. When Donald is away for lunch, the radio announces a plague of rats is loose in the city. Scrooge closes and shutters all of his windows and bolts the door. He sits down terrified to eat his cheese sandwich, but before he can begin he is besieged by a determined rat who has smelled the cheese from afar. The rat threatens to destroy a ten-thousand dollar bill, if Scrooge doesn't order the most expensive cheese in the world.
Surviving material: A condensed, typed two-page version of the nine-page synopsis has survived. This condensed version was written as part of the January 10, 1955 letter that accompanied the synopsis. The Disney Archives has preserved a file of correspondence between Peterson and Barks on this cartoon. Status: Barks nine-page synopsis is lost.
CBL-notes: Transcription. No original paperwork is shown.
Backstage: Because of Scrooge's success in the comics, Ken Peterson, then head of the story department at the Disney Studio, decided to make a cartoon featuring the character. Detailed information
Congruences:
Correspondence:
Interviews:
Notes:
Daan Jippes has created a ten-page story, which uses a segment of Barks' idea.
Sources
| Animated cartoons | Animated movies | Duck Tales | [Unfinished cartoons] | Unfinished movies |
| INDEX | ART | [ANIMATION] | COMICS | CHARACTERS | QUOTES | DIARY | PHOTOGRAPHS | BIBLIOGRAPHY | LINKS | SOURCES |
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