Richie Rich (comics)



Richie Rich, often billed as "The Poor Little Rich Boy", debuted in 1953 as a backup character in Little Dot. He soon became Harvey Comics' flagship character, appearing in as many as 32 Harvey titles monthly and often crossing over with Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Derivative works include two Animated Series, the first of which, produced by Hanna-Barbera, had better character designs and marked the voice acting debut of Nancy Cartwright as Gloria Glad, and a 1994 feature film. The film cast Macaulay Culkin as Richie and Stephi Lineburg as Gloria. The film only earned $38,087,756 in the United States market. It was the 37th most successful film of its year, but just barely covering its budget. After the movie was released, the Richie Rich comics just stopped being published.

A direct-to-video sequel to the movie was later released, Richie Rich's Christmas Wish (1998). It cast David Gallagher as Richie and Michelle Trachtenberg as Gloria.

More information here.


 * Alliterative Name: Richie Rich, Gloria Glad. Freckles Friendly. Possibly Jackie Jokers.
 * Arbitrarily-Large Bank Account: Both the Rich family and Rich Enterprises have an endless supply of money.
 * Betty and Veronica: Subverted. Gloria's the sweet, kind, middle-class Betty. Mayda Munny's the vain, selfish, foul-tempered, wealthy Veronica. But Richie only has eyes for Gloria. Awww.
 * FemBot: Irona, Richie's robot maid.
 * Fiction 500: The Rich family.
 * Fiery Redhead: Gloria Glad
 * Gem-Encrusted: Richie's mother, in the comic book. She doesn't load herself down with too many jewels, but she collects them -- fully cut, faceted and polished emeralds, diamonds, rubies, aquamarines the size of baseballs -- and displays them on her dresser like Fabergé eggs.
 * Gentleman Adventurer: Richie, often accompanied by his father, Richard; his butler, Cadbury, or both. Also, Cadbury's former employer Sir Ruddy Blighter, in flashback stories.
 * Gold Makes Everything Shiny
 * Grade School CEO: Richie, perhaps. In the film version, at least, he has substantial power within his parents' company.
 * Hair of Gold: Richie
 * Happily Married: Mr. and Mrs. Rich
 * Honest Corporate Executive: Mr. Rich.
 * It's All Junk: Subverted in the live-action movie. It's not the Rich family who thinks the Vault is full of junk...
 * The Jeeves: Cadbury, Richie's butler.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Richie with Cadbury and Keenbean.
 * Lucky Charms Title: "Ri¢hie Ri¢h"
 * Money Fetish: His Aunt Noovo just loves to swim in her wealth, though she mostly does this for show as she is a very charitable person.
 * Nice to the Waiter: Richie's relationship with Cadbury.
 * Not with Them for the Money: Gloria Glad is notorious for always turning down the luxurious gifts Richie offers her. In fact, she has blown her temper more than once at Richie's more outrageous stunts with his wealth to attempt to impress and he seems unable to remember how much they annoy her. In one story, when she suddenly starts accepting his gift greedily, it's sets off alarm bells with Richie who investigates and learns he is dealing with an impostor who has kidnapped the real Gloria in order to con him out of money.
 * In one story, Mayda Munny secretly gives her rival Gloria Glad gifts that supposedly came from Richie Rich, starting off with an expensive doll, to which she says it's a perfect gift -- not really knowing that all those gifts Gloria received were going to be used for charity.
 * One of the Boys
 * Official Couple: Richie and Gloria.
 * Porky Pig Pronunciation: Richie has trouble pronouncing "ventriloquist".
 * Punny Name: Mayda Munny.
 * Repetitive Name
 * Revival: The Movie sorts of counts, but the new Richie Rich comic definitely counts, and Needs More Love.
 * Road Sign Reversal
 * Robot Maid: Irona
 * Do-Anything Robot
 * Super Powered Robot Maids
 * Screw the Money, I Have Rules: The Rich family are the wealthiest people on the planet, yet they also seem to have the greatest moral compass when it comes to being overall decent.
 * Speech-Impaired Animal: Dollar.
 * Spoiled Brat: Richie's cousin Reggie.
 * Spoiled Sweet: Richie is incredibly kind and generous.
 * Techno Wizard: Professor Keenbean
 * Tomboy
 * Uncle Pennybags: Richie and his parents.
 * The White Prince: Richie

The 1994 live-action film contains these tropes:
"Cadbury: Never attack a man with sensitive teeth!"
 * Absent-Minded Professor: Keenbean, to an extent.
 * Actor Allusion: A sideways one: When Ferguson blasts the nose off of Regina's likeness on Mount Richmore, she reacts be exclaiming, "I look like Michael Jackson!" You wonder how Macaulay Culkin reacted to that line before it was shot...
 * Affably Evil: Lawrence Van Dough.
 * Agony of the Feet: Professor Keenbean suffered from this trope after inadvertently dropping a bowling ball on his foot.
 * Bad Boss: Van Dough becomes this after he takes the helm.
 * Battle Butler: Cadbury, as seen during the scene where he busts out of prison after making quick work of the assassin sent to kill him.

"Regina: Oh Richard, wake up and smell the seaweed!"
 * Benevolent Boss: Richie's dad refuses to fire any of his employees, neither if they do a terrible job or to make sacrifices.
 * Big Eater: Professor Keenbean. In fact, one scene even showed him ordering some Quarter Pounders and a bunch of fries from Richie's personal McDonald's, and claims he working on creating secret sauce. Also, Pee-wee to an extent
 * Book Ends: At the beginning after growing up, Richie is seen playing baseball. At the end of the film, he is playing baseball again, this time, with his new friends and with Cadbury as coach.
 * Bulletproof Vest: Keenbean's Stain-Away turns Richie's clothes into this.
 * And not only does Richie suffer no pain or even much of a response at all, but Van Dough keeps shooting him in the chest at point-blank range rather than at his unprotected head.
 * He did try to shoot right on Richie's face, but he was out of bullets.
 * The Butler Did It: The villains make it appear as if Cadbury bombed the Riches' private jet.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Most of Keenbean's inventions. Which, by extension, makes Keenbean a Chekhov's Gunman.
 * Comic Book Adaptation: Yes, a movie based on a comic book was turned into a comic book. It was also published by Marvel Comics, for some reason.
 * Conveyor Belt O' Doom: The hopper that feeds Richie's friends into Keenbean's molecular reorganizing machine.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Lawrence van Dough.
 * The Dragon: Ferguson to Van Dough's Big Bad.
 * Fake Brit: Brisbane-born Jonathan Hyde plays a very high-British Cadbury.
 * Five-Token Band: Richie's friends, with Richie filling out the rich kid quota.
 * Frame-Up: See below.
 * Good Parents: Richard and Regina make sure they spend time with their son, even as they are working.
 * Grade School CEO: Richie takes over the company with Cadbury's backing after his parents' plane crash. This lasts one highly successful montage, until Cadbury is framed for the Rich's murder.
 * Happily Married: Richard and Regina Rich.
 * Hero with Bad Publicity: Cadbury. But it's likely taken care of by the Riches.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Economist/Actor Ben Stein in his usual boring monotone ways.
 * Richard Rich gets to play another wealthy Richard later down the line.
 * That's Friar Tuck as Professor Keenbean.
 * Cadbury likes to hunt Robin Williams for sport. He also cowardly fled a certain sinking supership with the women and children.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: A rare non-villain example: Keenbean falls into a trap he set for Ferguson involving his super-strength adhesive, with near-disastrous results for Richie and his friends.
 * Horrible Judge of Character: Being the Benevolent Boss he is, Richie's dad is this way at first when it comes to Van Dough.
 * Actually, it seems he's perfectly aware of what Van Dough is like, as his wife pointed it out. Yet he's hesitant at first to fire him.

"Ferguson: It's my job to protect him. Cadbury: Yes very well Mr. Ferguson, but grab him like that again and it is YOU who will need protecting."
 * Humiliation Conga: Both villains get one. Ferguson has a towel superglued to his face, is knocked out, and gets stung in the ass by a robotic bee. Van Dough is left hanging for dear life on a sheer rock face, is fired by a 12-year-old boy, whose father has never fired anyone in his life, and gets punched in the face by the mother.
 * Jerkass: Ferguson.
 * The Lancer: Cadbury.
 * Large Ham: The villains, obviously, especially Ferguson.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Richie.
 * Lost in Translation: A real life positive example. In the French dub, van Dough's line "Thank you, Beavis and Butthead" is replaced with an actually funny line: "Looks like Homer and Marge".
 * A Minor Kidroduction: The beginning of the film starts with the birth of Richie, all the way up to his current age.
 * Mugged for Disguise: Well, actually, Cadbury was the one being attacked, but he still ends up with the thug's clothes anyway.
 * Nice to the Waiter: Richie and his parents's relationship with Cadbury and the other Rich staff. Averted greatly with Van Dough.
 * Office Golf: Ellwood does this in school.
 * Oh Crap: Both for Keenbean and for Richie and his friends when Keenbean gets stuck in his own superglue while trying to rescue them from Ferguson.
 * Richie's parents on the plane when they realize what "trinitrotoluine" is.
 * Papa Wolf: Cadbury when Ferguson manhandles Richie towards the beginning of the movie.

"Van Dough: (after his gun jams at a critical moment) Shit!"
 * Precision F-Strike

"Richie: I don't think so."
 * Product Placement: "You have your own McDonald's?!"
 * Psycho for Hire / Ax Crazy: Ferguson.
 * Reality Ensues: In the movie, the villain's plan displays this. After hearing about the "Rich Family Vault", he immediately assumes that it's where he'll find the family's fortune.
 * Shoo Out the Clowns: Professor Keenbean and the street kids were completely absent during the climatic scene where Richie and his parents are trapped on Mt. Richmore and trying to avoid Van Dough.
 * Shout-Out: Richie's answer to Van Dough's suggestion.

"Van Dough: The money? Where is the money?! Mr. Rich: (in his best are-you-fucking-kidding--me? voice) In banks! Where else? Oh! And the stock market, real estate... Van Dough: Are you kidding me? You mean to tell me that there isn't a single gold bar, or emerald, or thousand dollar bill in this entire mountain?! Mr. Rich: Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you Lawrence, but that's not what we treasure. Van Dough: Shoot them! Shoot them now, please!"
 * Smart People Know Latin: Cadbury is seen to be skilled in reading Latin. Richie himself apparently knows enough Latin to send him a secret message in a greeting card. This may also count as a Chekhov's Skill.
 * Smug Snake: Both of the villains.
 * Songs in the Key of Lock: "Side by Side" in duet.
 * Spoiled Sweet: Richie is stated to the richest boy in the world but is a nice boy who longs to have friends.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Ferguson's attempt to blast the Rich family with a giant laser cannon, which does plenty of damage to Mount Richmore, but none to the Riches themselves.
 * Transformation Ray: The molecular reorganizer.
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm: What Van Dough does with Rich Industries after his assassination attempt on Richie's parents.
 * Villainous Breakdown:


 * Villain with Good Publicity: Lawrence Van Dough after he frames Cadbury for the Riches' disappearance.
 * We Have Ways of Making You Talk: "How would you like to spend the rest of your life as a bedpan?"
 * Would Hurt a Child: The villains are more than willing to shoot children, turn them into bedpans, blast them with a laser, etc.
 * You Have to Believe Me: Van Dough refuses to believe Keenbean doesn't know the vault's location.