Mastering the Matterhorn (Larry, Carey, Olivier)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

This email is for Larry Giver, Carey Furlong, Olivier, and everyone 
else interested in this subject about Barks's 8-pager "Mastering the 
Matterhorn" (OS 1025).

CAREY FURLONG to me, 21-07-2003:

>> [] In panel 1.5, Donald says that 
>> somebody else must be using the toboggan. Could the toboggan (or 
>> "Toboggan"?) be a reference to Disneyland? Is (or was) it an 
>> attraction, for example?

> Yes, this is a reference to the Bobsled ride in Disneyland, which 
> opened on June 14th, 1959, the same year the story was published.  
> When Barks wrote "Mastering the Matterhorn" the ride was not yet 
> open, and details about it were obviously sketchy at best.  So, 
> Barks apparently improvised and assumed the ride was about toboggans 
> (in this case one toboggan -- how could he know different?).  As it 
> turned out, the Bobsleds ride more closely resembled a customized 
> roller coaster.

I should have mentioned that Barks only did the art for this story, at 
least officially. Still, this doesn't make clear if it was the writer 
or Barks who invented the design of the story's toboggan. It only shows 
that Barks may not be responsible for the design, or not entirely 
responsible.

On panel 5.3, the toboggan is shown. It looks like a sled. The Beagle 
Boys put rockets on it, so they shot up the Matterhorn with the greatest 
of ease.

I wonder how they could have used this toboggan *without* those rockets. 
The toboggan doesn't look like it can go up by itself alone. And in panel 
7.6, a nephew comments that it's too steep to toboggan back down. Another 
nephew gets the idea of firing the rockets backward, so they can go down 
at a safe speed. But how would they have used the toboggan if it was kept 
standard, *without* these forward/backward rockets?

OLIVIER to me, 23-07-2003:

> Well, the question has already been answered. Seems like I made a 
> mistake back then, and assumed the story took place on the real 
> mountain. Well, at least, apart from this reference, there isn't 
> anything actually setting the action in the park; it can be any 
> mountain.

The story doesn't seem to give information about this Matterhorn being 
for real or not. For a 4478 meters high mountain, the ducks climb it 
rather easily and quickly. But, on panel 5.1, the Beagle Boys refer to 
the snow being everlasting. Would this also be the case on the Disneyland 
Matterhorn?

How high is the Disneyland Matterhorn? Is it an exact (but scaled) copy 
of the real Matterhorn?

Maybe the story just pretends that the Matterhorn in Disneyland is the 
same mountain as the real Matterhorn in the alps in Europe.

(I took the information on the Matterhorn being 4478 meters high, 
from this webpage: http://www.ivo.se/mike/matter.html)

--- Daniël