The Scrooge Mystery

The Scrooge Mystery, Blu-ray cover

The Scrooge Mystery, Blu-ray disc

The Scrooge Mystery is a documentary film about Don Rosa that got finished this autumn, and I received my copy in the mail a few weeks ago. This documentary started as a Kickstarter project, but now that the project is finished you can also buy it on the The Scrooge Mystery webpage.

The DVD version was sold out last time I checked the webpage, but when I write this it's back for pre-order so they probably ordered more copies to be made. But I recommend getting the Blu-ray edition if you have a player. It might be available for digital purchase at a later date too, at least the Kickstarter backers are supposed to get a digital copy but I have yet to receive any download link for this. But the downloadable (or maybe streaming?) version is probably not going to have all the extra features that the physical "Collector's Edition" has.
 

DVD edition

The documentary features interviews with both Don Rosa and fans and friends around the world. For example Tuomas Holopainen from the Finnish band Nightwish that created a solo album with music inspired by The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, Katja Kontturi that wrote a doctoral thesis about Don Rosa's comics, and maybe the most interesting for me personally an interview with editor Byron Erickson.

And I recommend checking out the bonus features too, because some of the interviews didn't make it to the actual feature and was added as bonus material. Some of those are just as interesting I think.

Lots of bonus features on the disc

Deleted scenes (interviews) that didn't make it to the film

If you have been a Don Rosa fan for a while or read the autobiography and texts in Fantagraphics' Don Rosa Library, The Scrooge Mystery might not have too much new and unknown information. But there are some bits here and there, and it's still interesting to hear what other people have to say.

Compared to earlier films The Scrooge Mystery is a lot more enjoyable to watch than the 2010 Life and times of Don Rosa. That DVD is really depressing to watch, but Don Rosa talks about a lot of the same things in the two documentaries. We also had a DVD with The Don Rosa House Tour in 2011 (it's on Youtube too), that as the title suggest is a tour of Don Rosa's property and collections. We get to see parts of the house and his comic archive in The Scrooge Mystery too, but not as much as in the 2011 tour.

 

"Life and times of Don Rosa" (2010) and "The Don Rosa House Tour" (2011)

To sum up, I enjoyed watching The Scooge Mystery and can recommend it if you like Rosa's comic stories and want to know more about him and the people he has inspired.