Les Miserables—1991 Disney Comic Book

Les Misérables—1991 Disney Comic
Donald Duck Pocketbook 138: The Mysterious Candlesticks

Valjean: Scrooge McDuck—Javert: himself (as a raven)—Fantine: none

Special Guest Stars: Donald Duck as Marius, Daisy Duck as Cosette, Huey/Dewey/Louis as Gavroche and his two brothers, and the Beagle Boys as the Thénardiers and gang

No art credits

Character Checklist:

Eponine: unnamed, as a child

Gavroche: yes

Enjolras: no

M. Gillenormand: no

Both Mlle. Baptistine and Mme. Magloire: no (how about Mrs. Myriel!)

Thénardiers, after the inn: yes

Sister Simplice: no

Azelma: unnamed, as a child

Gavroche's brothers: yes

Fauchelevant: no

Mme. Victurnien: no

Petit Gervais: no

M. Mabeuf: no

Toussaint: no

Events Checklist:

Hugo's original preface used

Valjean is in prison at the beginning (as a flashback)

Bishop Myriel remains asleep during the robbery (seems to be)

Fantine sells her teeth
Fantine becomes a prostitute
Valjean buries his money (well, he hides it in a tree)

Fight at Fantine's Deathbed
The Ship Orion

Valjean meets Cosette at the well

First incident at Gorbeau House

Javert chases Valjean and Cosette

Through Paris

On foot

Car(riage) chase
The second incident at Gorbeau House
Valjean and Cosette see the chain gang
Lamarque's funeral is shown or mentioned
Chase through sewers (yes, but not the one you think!

Story continues after Javert's suicide (Suicide? What suicide?)
Marius, after learning Valjean's history, treats him badly

Details Checklist:

Valjean branded
Correct number
Works in the galleys
The factory makes glass beads (textile factory again!)
The doll, Catherine
The garden at Rue Plumet
Correct address
The Luxembourg Garden

The town's name is Montreuil-sur-mer

The man Valjean saves in Arras is named Champmathieu
Valjean's name becomes Fauchelevant (no, Leblanc!)
Eponine/Gavroche as Thénardier's child (Eponine yes, Gavroche no, but Eponine is only in one frame, so it doesn't count)

Production Notes:

Okay, so much of this has nothing whatever to do with Hugo's intention. So it's basically a vehicle for Donald Duck and associates to do to Les Misérables what Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis did to "The Taming of the Shrew" on the old Moonlighting TV series. So it's cute, silly, and not at all literary.

Bite me. It's funny.

There's no way I can review this comic without providing a synopsis of what is going on in here. Take a read, and then come back. You'll be glad you did. I'd put the whole comic up for everyone to read if I could, but Disney'd sue the socks off me, so I'm only putting up enough to be covered under fair use in a review. Thank god for the first amendment. :-)

I would like to point out that in this review I'm using the English names for the characters. I don't know how many of my readers know that Donald Duck is not called that in Finland, but his name is Aku Ankan. ("Ankan" meaning, literally, "duck"... no doubt from the sound it makes). Not only are the names of the Disney characters different, but the traditional Les Misérables names are changed too... Jean Valjean is "Robert Ankka", Cosette is "Ina", Marius is "Acu" (pun on Aku, Donald, apparently). Only Javert is Javert. Which, if you think about it, is how it should be :-) Anyway, I'm using the English naming conventions for the characters, both Disney and LM, to confuse the least number of people, myself included. That said, read on...

As for the other details of the plot:

Most of the story involves a mystery, and treasure seeking, and a great deal of running around looking for stuff while being chased by both Javert and the thugs. None of which was in the original. But who cares?
Needless to say, there is no Fantine at all. There is also no Champmathieu trial, no convent, no cart, no mention of Valjean's strength, no suicide for Javert, and no barricade!
On the other hand, Valjean becomes mayor of Montreuil, the Thénardiers live in Montfermeil, and there's even a sign that reads Gorbeau House. There's even a take on the St.-Médard incident. Cool!

Cast Notes:

I have to lay this out on the line right now: I've never been a big Disney fan. Sure, there's some movies I really love, but the stable of characters—Mickey, Donald, Goofy, etc.—have never really appealed to me (I'm more a Bugs-and-Daffy-type). Needless to say, although I was aware of certain characters in a vague way, like Scrooge McDuck and the nephews, I wasn't really familiar with their operational specs, in-jokes, relationships, bits of business, etc. So this was a little bit of a research project for me, finding out who these guys are supposed to be, before I merge that onto the parts they're playing! For example, I had no idea who the heck the Beagle Boys were. I still don't know much about them, other than the fact that they are constantly after Scrooge McDuck's money. With all this in mind, the character of Javert was created especially for this story; he appears nowhere else in the canon. This is not a bad thing. Frankly, this Javert rocks. I would not want to ruin that image with the idea that he shows up regularly on Duck Tales :-)

Anyway, here is a cast picture to give you an idea of what's what.

The Best Things About This Version:

There's a few really funny injokes in this thing that you don't even have to be a Donald Duck fan to appreciate. Cosette (Ina) for example, when fetching water from the well, is singing, approximately, "Someday my prince will come." This is an injoke on two levels: of course it references the Snow White song, during which Snow White is drawing water from a well, but it also references the original French musical production, where "Castle on a Cloud" has lyrics referring to a prince that will someday show up to take her away. Anyway, I laughed myself silly.

A lot of the mystery relies on the ability to navigate through the streets of Paris. Several landmarks are noted and mapped, like Notre-Dame, the Place Dauphine and the statue of Henri IV, the Place Royale... all with appropriate picture references. I thought that was kinda cool.

Where's Waldo?

Why Javert keeps running out of walking sticks

The Worst Things About This Version:

Well, it is Disney... but I don't think that qualifies as a "worst." Maybe a half point deduction, but that's about it.

Also the fact that it's not in English, and an English language version probably doesn't exist, does not qualify as a "worst."

So... um... it's printed on newsprint using the old four color process on only some of the pages. I mean really! Either colorize the whole thing or do it all in black and white, don't pull this "color spread every few pages" crap!

You can tell that I'm really stretching, can't you?

The Silver Candlestick Awards ("Stickies®")

And the awards go to....

Best Punchline: Not since Scrooge (the one Dickens created, not the duck) faked out Bob Crachit with the "and therefore I'm about to raise your salary" line has there been such a wonderfully twisted ending such as this one.
Best Escape: Forget Gorbeau House. Let's see them do this on Broadway!
The "See I Told You So" Award: At the end of the tale, Donald berates Scrooge McDuck about how "that's not the way Hugo told the story," to which McDuck replies, "Victor Hugo exaggerated."

and now, a special award...

The Meritorious Order of the Silver Snuffbox is hereby awarded to Carita Nybom who sent me this book in the first place, along with her own translation into English which included explanations of some puns and idiomatic phrases I would never have understood even with a Finnish-English/English-Finnish dictionary... such as the fact that the Thénardiers are called the "Connanen" which comes from the word "konna" or "scoundrel"... which actually makes their last name translate to the "Scoundreliers". Thank you, Carita! Sorry it took so long to get the review posted! Wear your medal with pride!

Where to find this version:

Good freaking luck. Make a friend in Finland and have them buy you one. Other than that, you're on your own.

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Review ©2002 Arlene C. Harris. May be distributed, with this copyright notice intact. Jacket art ©the owner of the work, who is not me; it is provided as a visual aid for those trying to tell the difference between one video and another, so don't sue me. I'm trying to help.