Paperin Fracassa.

Archontis Pantsios apantsio at ac.anatolia.edu.gr
Fri Nov 23 10:17:22 CET 2001


DIM:

re: "Paperin Fracassa"
> I had found this storie years before finding "The Blot's Double
Mysterie".It
> is one of the worst stories I have.
> Its plot makes no sence.What is a castle doing in modern U.S.A in distance
> from any citie?And what is Chesire Cat from Wonderland doing in it?
............................................................................
....................................
>   At least the 1973 version I have has something different.Before the
storie
> there are 4 pages by a different artist which explain that this storie is
a
> dream Donald had after he fell asleep while watching
television...............
>Then five more pages from the same,unknown to me,artist have
> Donald waking up and then proceed to link this story with another which is
a
> parody of Cyrano de Bergerac.

The plot would certainly make much more sense if the 4 pages preceding it
had also explained that "Paperin Fracassa" is *also* a parody; more
specifically it parodies "Le Capitain Fracasse" by Theophile Gautier
(1811-1872), a romance novel of the "sword and cape" style. That novel
presents the adventures of Baron di Sigognac, a fallen from grace
aristocrat who lives in his castle with his battler, a horse, and a black
cat
named Beelzebub (now one can see the connection to the Cheshire Cat from
"Alice in Wonderland"). One autumn day a company of comedians appear in his
castle and eventually di Sigognac follows them to Paris and takes Matamoro's
post as "Capitan Fracassa". During the trip to Paris Sigognac falls is love
with Isabella, who will later be abducted by the powerful Duke of
Vallombrosa. Capitan Fracassa and his friends will lay siege to the Duke's
castle to free Isabella. Then....But if you want to find out how it ends, I
suggest you either read the story or rent the French movie from 1961
starring Jean Marais! :-)

"Paperin Fracassa" is considered to be one of the "Great Parodies".


*REFERENCES*: "Le Grandi Parodie Disney: Paperin Fracassa", # 8,  February
1993.

Cheers,

Archontis


--------------------------------------------------
Archontis L. Pantsios, Ph.D.
Assistant Academic Dean & Professor of Economics
The American College of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki--GREECE
Phone #: +30-310-398228




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