Raiders' boulder & Scrooge McDuck

yodazone

Member
Comic Book Resources posted a new article on an "comic book legend" where the rolling boulder scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was an homage an "Uncle Scrooge" comic by Carl Barks:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/12/13/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-133/

unclescroogeboulder.jpg


(y) (y) (y)
 

Blue Jay

Member
that is so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love carl barks so much and his successor don rosa, these are great adventure stories with an actual historic background.

carl barks took everything out of the national graphic for his stories settings and historical background ;)
 

Blue Jay

Member
the other way around there are a lot of homages from don rosa to indy:
for example in the story: The Magnificient Seven (Minus Four) Caballeros

here is a picture ;)

caballeros207mt7.jpg
 

otto rahn

New member
And Scrooge McDuck lends himself to Indy type adventures. After all Scrooge, Donald and the nephews were searching for ancient artifacts long before Indiana Jones was created !
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Another Disney rolling boulder, from 1932, around 6:10 in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn-x4N1jB5E
Now we can see the moment the boulder popped out of Spielberg's head in the story conference transcript. Also, the first Star Wars I documentary featurette shows Lucas procrastinating watching old silent reels instead of writing. I wonder why more filmmakers don't simply repackage this public domain stuff.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
more possible Disney influences

Watched some old Disney shorts, and noted whenever something seemed Indyesque...

Mickey in Arabia - rides a camel to save Minnie (who hides in a pot) from scimitar-wielding villain who collides with a gong. They fall from a building onto an awning, then camel.
Donald Gets Drafted - ant hill, one flees a boulder-like sweat drop. Last shot is Donald working in endless potato warehouse.
Cactus Kid - dragged behind horse, transfer to another horse, to cliff.
Society Dog Show - roller skates on burning planks (similar to mine car chase).
Commando Duck - parachute, raft, waterfall, boulders, widening crevasse.
Chain Gang - Mickey straddles two horses, hit repeatedly in crotch by fence posts.
Dognapper - motorcycle sidecar, rolling sawblade.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Moedred said:
Watched some old Disney shorts, and noted whenever something seemed Indyesque...

Mickey in Arabia - rides a camel to save Minnie (who hides in a pot) from scimitar-wielding villain who collides with a gong. They fall from a building onto an awning, then camel.
Donald Gets Drafted - ant hill, one flees a boulder-like sweat drop. Last shot is Donald working in endless potato warehouse.
Cactus Kid - dragged behind horse, transfer to another horse, to cliff.
Society Dog Show - roller skates on burning planks (similar to mine car chase).
Commando Duck - parachute, raft, waterfall, boulders, widening crevasse.
Chain Gang - Mickey straddles two horses, hit repeatedly in crotch by fence posts.
Dognapper - motorcycle sidecar, rolling sawblade.

This is a really interesting thread, and if it wasn't for Indy's brother's bump I'd never have found it. Even better now that the title is more self-explanatory of the contents.

Moedred, the shorts you refer to are from the pulp era themselves (1930s-40s), so it's a chicken and egg situation. Whether Disney were influenced by the live action serials of their day, or the other way around. Then the same ideas being brought to life again by Lucas and Spielberg.
 

Matt deMille

New member
Definitely glad to have found this thread too.

I've been reading the Barks' (and later Rosa's) Scrooge stories since 1984. Some of the best stories ever put to paper. Any Indy fan should check them out. However, beware:

Read ONLY stories by Barks or Rosa. There's a lot of crap that was made in-between these two, and, well, there's just no comparison. Godforbid that your first exposure to the Scrooge character should be a non-Barks or non-Rosa book.

Since the works of Barks/Rosa has a pretty extensive fanbase (especially in Europe), it should be no problem finding websites dedicated to him and listing his titles, be they singles or in collections.
 

Stoo

Well-known member
You're welcome, Drifter. What I found interesting are these quotes below:
Cracked.com said:
Spielberg and Lucas were separately inspired by two different Scrooge McDuck comics to write two different parts of that scene.
...
George Lucas delivered the second half -- the hall of arrows and the hostile natives chasing Indy through the jungle afterward -- or rather, Scrooge McDuck did, in his 1959 comic, the Prize of Pizarro.
As sketchy as the homage of being chased by hostile natives is, I don't think this comic has been mentioned at The Raven before now.
Cracked.com said:
Spielberg has openly admitted that both the idol Indy is stealing and the boulder that chases him afterward came from the 1954 Uncle Scrooge comic The Seven Cities of Cibola,
...
Unlike Nolan, Spielberg and Lucas have publicly admitted their love of Scrooge McDuck, and were more than willing to give all credit for their greatest creations to a cartoon duck.
Being an Indy-influences freak, I would really like to know when & where they have publicly admitted the above. (Not that I don't doubt it...I just "vant to know".:))
 

The Drifter

New member
Stoo said:
Being an Indy-influences freak, I would really like to know when & where they have publicly admitted the above. (Not that I don't doubt it...I just "vant to know".:))


I would as well. But, surely they must have been fans if they paid homage to the Scrooge McDuck stories in Raiders. Or perhaps they read them in their youth and always thought those little parts would make for good viewing on the big screen?
Whatever the case may be; this thread and doing a little internet research has made me REALLY want to find these old comics and read them.

I can also see the rolling boulder homage clearly from "The Seven Cities of Cibola", but I agree that the supposed homage to "Prize of Pizarro" is a little sketchy.
I'm trying to find more information on the latter.
 
The claim that Scrooge McDuck had any bearing on Raiders is apocryphal.

Lonsome_Drifter said:
...perhaps they read them in their youth and always thought those little parts would make for good viewing on the big screen?
Good luck with that, I'd be interested in your findings, but I'm not holding out any hope. It strikes me as the same type of crap as claims that Lash LaRue taught Harrison how to use a whip.

Likely it's some comic writer or interviewer making an observation that some fan boy took out of context and repeated as fact.

From the transcript:

S — You know what it could be. I have a great idea. He
hears the sand... When he goes into the cave, it's not
straight. The whole thing is on an incline on the way
in. He hears this, grabs the thing, comes to a corridor.
There is a sixty-five foot boulder that's form-fitted
to only roll down the corridor coming right at him.' And
it's a race. He gets to outrun the boulder. It then
comes to rest and blocks the entance of the cave. Nobody
will ever come in again. This boulder is the size of
a house.
G — It mashes the partner.
S — Right. The guy can't run fast enough.

So maybe this narrows your search down to Spielberg...
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
The claim that Scrooge McDuck had any bearing on Raiders is apocryphal.

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

I pondered on this last year:

Smiffy said:
Moedred, the shorts you refer to are from the pulp era themselves (1930s-40s), so it's a chicken and egg situation. Whether Disney were influenced by the live action serials of their day, or the other way around. Then the same ideas being brought to life again by Lucas and Spielberg.

Similar to the theory that Nyoka was a direct influence on Indiana Jones. Sometimes things look so obvious that we expect them to be true.

However, the truth may be far more tangled, and lost in the popular sub-conscious. So it becoems almost impossible to assign influence without finding the creator's own admission (and even then we might not believe the creator's own admission, for a variety of reasons).
 
Montana Smith said:
I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Similar to the theory that Nyoka was a direct influence on Indiana Jones. Sometimes things look so obvious that we expect them to be true.

However, the truth may be far more tangled, and lost in the popular sub-conscious. So it becoems almost impossible to assign influence without finding the creator's own admission (and even then we might not believe the creator's own admission, for a variety of reasons).

Watch enough of those older interviews and documentaries and even things like who came up with shooting the swordsman in Cairo becomes questionable!
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
Watch enough of those older interviews and documentaries and even things like who came up with shooting the swordsman in Cairo becomes questionable!

The dynamic duo were probably so high on laughter during their idea-storming sessions that they'd be hard pressed to remember exactly who said what. Lucky they had the tape recorder running for the Raiders Story Conference.

With the Swordsman it could be a case of who got ill first!
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Lonsome_Drifter said:
I would as well. But, surely they must have been fans if they paid homage to the Scrooge McDuck stories in Raiders. Or perhaps they read them in their youth and always thought those little parts would make for good viewing on the big screen?
Considering Lucas was 10 and Spielberg was 8 when "The Seven Cities of Cibola" was published in 1954, there's a very strong possibility that they read it. Whether or not the idol & boulder sprang from this directly is anybody's guess. (Don't forget that there's also a rolling boulder in 1959's "Journy to the Center of the Earth").
Rocket Surgeon said:
Likely it's some comic writer or interviewer making an observation that some fan boy took out of context and repeated as fact.
That's also a very, strong possibility which is why I'd like to know the whens & wheres of them both 'publicly & openly' admitting the influence. (If it is a false fact then it would be another reason why I hold a very low opinion of *most* internet journalism & blogging.)
Montana Smith said:
Similar to the theory that Nyoka was a direct influence on Indiana Jones. Sometimes things look so obvious that we expect them to be true.
I have little doubt that Nyoka was an influence. Like I've mentioned before in the "Secret of the Incas" thread, both Lucas & Spielberg would have been at the right age to see the re-release in 1952. Spielberg is on record as saying that his first film in the theatre was "The Greatest Show on Earth" which was also released in 1952 so we know that he was starting to go to the cinema at that time.
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Stoo said:
Considering Lucas was 10 and Spielberg was 8 when "The Seven Cities of Cibola" was published in 1954, there's a very strong possibility that they read it. Whether or not the idol & boulder sprang from this directly is anybody's guess. (Don't forget that there's also a rolling boulder in 1959's "Journy to the Center of the Earth").

That's also a very, strong possibility which is why I'd like to know the whens & wheres of them both 'publicly & openly' admitting the influence. (If it is a false fact then it would be another reason why I hold a very low opinion of *most* internet journalism & blogging.)

I have little doubt that Nyoka was an influence. Like I've mentioned before in the "Secret of the Incas" thread, both Lucas & Spielberg would have been at the right age to see the re-release in 1952. Spielberg is on record as saying that his first film in the theatre was "The Greatest Show on Earth" which was also released in 1952 so we know that he was starting to go to the cinema at that time.

I'm sure that the influences would have been rattling around inside their heads at the time of creation, but they probably weren't always conscious of the exact source.

"The Seven Cities of Cibola" presents a neat rendition of the Chachapoyan temple scenes, and it looks as though it must have been the source. Yet the individual elements, as you wrote, can be found in other places. I can imagine Lucas and Spielberg growing up surrounded by a myriad of these kinds of influences during their formative years. They filled them with the wonder and the drive to enter the creative world.

Discovering some quotes or notes from L & S would be a start to pinning down influences.
 
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