L’inferno di Topolino is a comic story, parody of Dante’s Inferno, published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore in the periodical Topolino – from no. 7 to no. 12 – from October 1949 to March 1950. It was created by screenwriter Guido Martina and drawn by Angelo Bioletto.
In addition to the dialogues, Martina is also the author of the captions in verse that accompany the entire story making it similar to a poem in triplets like Dante’s, and this will earn Martina the mention of the name in the first cartoon, which is exceptional given the anonymity in which the authors of the time worked. In addition to being considered one of Martina’s masterpieces, it was the first parody of Disney made in Italy.
SYNOPSIS
The story opens with the finale of a theatrical performance of the Divine Comedy with Mickey Mouse in the part of Dante Alighieri and Pippo in that of Virgil. Envious of the success, Pietro Gambadilegno hypnotizes by an accomplice the two enemies of all time, who continue to behave like Dante Alighieri and Publio Virgilio Marone.
After a big anger of Minnie Mouse, taken by Mickey Mouse for Beatrice, Mickey and Goofy go to the library to learn more about that Dante Alighieri for which they must “suffer so many martyrs”; struggling with a gigantic tome of the Comedy, the two soon fall asleep and Mickey Mouse is captured by the branch of a tree of the illustration (by Gustave Doré) of the forest and immediately taken to Hell … Here he soon meets Pippo-Virgil, and begins their long pilgrimage to the “dark and painful goal” in order to get out of the “painful step”.