02.06
A wise man who goes by the name of Jerry Seinfeld once said that the older that you get, the funnier the Looney Tunes become. This is undisputable.
As I’ve been getting older and have been looking back on the shows that I grew up with, I notice that when I come back to DuckTales, arguably Disney’s most beloved animated series of all time, that I find it to be fresher each time I see one of it’s 100 episodes. I don’t think it would be crazy to say the same about the Looneys towards DuckTales, but I’m not sure if everyone would agree with me.
Another wise man who goes by the name of Doug Walker stated that the theme song to DuckTales will live on in us forever, like a virus seeping in towards death. This, however, is also undisputable.
Even if you’ve never seen DuckTales, chances are that you can instantly recognize it’s intro. It’s one of the most iconic theme songs in the past few years, on the level of The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo’s classic themes. To the kids who grew up watching it daily in syndication markets, on Disney Channel or Toon Disney, however, all you need to do is play that opening bassline and the lyrics will come right out.
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. DuckTales is as brilliant by today’s standards as it was in 1987. The fact that us Americans might never have a cartoon animated by TMS, especially not one with a love of adventure, such a quick tongue, or a heart as big as this series only confirms DuckTales for legendary status, a gem so bright that age my never touch it.
DuckTales was Disney’s first series set to syndication in 1987, and lasted a long run, impressive run that capped off midway through the Disney Afternoon’s first season. While DT made it to the block’s second season, this time as the forerunner, it didn’t make it to the Disney Afternoon’s third season, but remained on Disney Channel after.
The show was based off of Carl Bark’s great Disney comics of the 40’s and 50’s. Usually, these comics starred Donald and more often than not his lovely little nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie as they go through adventures of either the ordinary or the extraordinary. While he gave Donald and the boys life that Disney’s animators wouldn’t dare try on them, but his greatest contribution to Disney lore was the creation of one particular Dickens-esque character; Scrooge McDuck, Donald’s penny pinching uncle. The richest duck in the world, Scrooge was no fool, and spent many a day earning his fortune. His contributions to his resident Duckburg, as well as the rest of the world were too mighty to ignore. Scrooge eventually became as much of a cultural hero as much as a pariah to the greedy.
Scrooge may have more money than one man could possibly imagine, but he wasn’t ashamed to earn any more, as he took Donald and the boys through some of their greatest adventures to make more cash, as well as protect his prized money bin.
In the 80’s, Disney decided to make an animated series based off of Scrooge’s tales, which have exceeded beyond Barks’ creative control and have had different writers and artists throughout the world take on the characters. One thing the staff decided to do was to cut Donald out of the stories, as to not make his character overshadow Scrooge and the nephews. Donald is a celebrity the world over, while Scrooge’s comics were and still are quite big in most parts of the world, but never quite reached that amount of success over here.
So Donald went to the Navy, while the nephews were sent to live with Scrooge. A few guest appearances aside, Donald doesn’t show up too often at all. It’s at this point that their animated adventures begin.
Taking Donald out of the equation wasn’t the only change the show did. Quite a few new characters were added to the cast, and most of them work. For one, Scrooge was given a butler in Duckworth. His character doesn’t add so much to the show, but he does tend to be quite a sarcastic character, often making his scene worth sitting through. There’s also Miss Beakley, the boy’s nanny. She gets a bit more screen time than Duckworth, but the odd episode aside, such as “Jungle Duck”, which gives us a look at one of her past jobs, she isn’t developed so much. That said, she has some nice dialogue and her animation is typically distinctive, which makes her a good enough character.
Miss Beakley has a granddaughter named Webby, a little girl duck in pink, as opposed to Huey’s red, Dewey’s blue, and Louie’s green. She’s basically treated as Scrooge’s niece, and is kept in as close of a watch as they are. She often tries to plays with them, as much as she can keep up with their boyish games, then reverts back to girl time. Webby isn’t as likable as the boys as a whole, but she has her moments when she can outshine the three of them.
The most popular new addition by far is Launchpad McQuack. Scrooge gets himself a trusted pilot with Launchpad, who may be one of the worst pilots on Earth, but is incredibly loyal to Scrooge and the boys, which is why Scrooge keeps him on staff. Launchpad is one of the wackiest characters on the show, his comic relief being a big part of the show’s appeal. His character proved to be so endearing that Launchpad would be added as a main character of the future hit show Darkwing Duck.
Later in the show’s run, two additional characters were added to the cast, both of which given five-part episodes, just as the series premiered with the five-part “Treasures of the Golden Sun”.
In “Time is Money”, Scrooge, Launchpad, and the boys go back in time thanks to Gyro Geerloose, another classic Barks creation, to claim ownership of an island. However, they go too far back in time, and go to an age where dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. They run into a caveduck named Bubba who befriends the gang and follows them back into the future. Although Scrooge and the gang try to send him back to not mess with the space time continuum, Bubba follows them back anyway and stays with them in modern times. Bubba isn’t too great of an addition., to be honest. Most of the time he’s tagged to the stories as fodder, and his personality isn’t much to make him stand out. Imagine a more persistent Bam-Bam and that’s Bubba.
However, “Super DuckTales” introduced a more entertaining character. Fenton Crackshell, your every day working duck, quits his unglamorous peanut counting job to become Scrooge’s accountant. When the Beagle Boys plan to take Scrooge’s money bin for their Ma’s birthday, Scrooge and Fenton try to protect his cash, but Fenton often gets in the way. One night, he walks into Gyro’s tool shed while he works on a new invention that will make whoever puts on the gear Gyro is working on into a collection of nuts and bolts that can fight off anything. Fenton takes over the contraption and turns into Gizmoduck, who then helps Scrooge keep his fortune.
Both of these five-parters suffer from uneven pacing, but Fenton becomes one of the show’s greatest additions. He’s a laugh riot throughout. Every scene he’s in the special, as well as many a sequence afterwards, Fenton becomes a hilarious counterpart alongside a collection of great characters. He’s also a relatable character, as he tries constantly to prove to his mother that he’s more than just trailer trash. Fenton constantly tries to prove his worth, and near the end of the series has at least guaranteed himself a position into the memories of fans of the show.
With these characters, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, and Louie are given a great supporting cast to join on their riveting adventures, some of which come straight from Bark’s comics, others coming straight out of the imagination of the writers.
Two of the series best Barks adaptations are “Back to the Klondike”, in which Scrooge returns to where he earned his first fortune, and reignites an old flame, and “The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan”, where the crew goes to the artic to find the treasure mentioned in the title, and find something else entirely. While not every Bark adaptation was faithful, there was enough merit in the story retelling for that to be okay. These come from the first season, where big adventure was the focus of the show. The series had a great balance of humor and peril that is missing in most kids show’s today.
However, when the show went past the initial 65 episode order and introduced Bubba and Fenton, world-crossing adventures were toned down for more stories that took place among Duckburg . While there are still stories that take place around the world and even a few Barks adaptations to share, the show then spent more time making jokes than anything. If DuckTales didn’t have one of the most talented writing staffs in terms of humor behind it, this wouldn’t have worked, but this change in attention turned out fine. An episode that really works well because of it is “Blue Collar Scrooge”, in which Scrooge loses his memory and end up working for one of his corporations, while Fenton dresses up as Scrooge to keep morale up, while in “Scrooge‘s Last Adventure” have the two team up to regain Scrooge’s money when removed from a machine. Once again, Fenton’s character makes an odd or not as great situation hilarious.
DuckTales also has one of the richest rogue gallerys in animation who attempt to, well, become the richest. We have the Beagle Boys, a group of common thieves who team up to find ways to take Scrooge’s money, to justify their crooked ways. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of Beagle Boys out there, while our attention typically goes to three or four of them, as well as Ma Beagle, the brains of the outlet.
There is Flintheart Glomgold, the second richest duck in the world. He and Scrooge have an unhealthy rivalry with each other, as Glomgold wants to become the richest duck, and will stop at nothing to do so. What makes him and Scrooge different is that Scrooge McDuck would never stoop to thieving or cheating to make his profit, while Flintheart has no standards, and does everything from calling the Beagle Boys up for help or attempting to crash a blimp he’s on to make sure Scrooge doesn’t get his way. There’s an odd chemistry between the two that can be attested only to years of rivalry, which makes Flintheart one of the most distinctive villains on the show.
And then we have Magica De Spell, an Italian witch who thieves to capture Scrooge‘s prized Number One Dime. Unlike the aforementioned villains, Magica doesn’t care much about Scrooge’s fortune, but believes that his dime is magical, and frequently tries to capture it. She has great power which helps her get close to her goal but her magic typically backfires on her if the gang isn’t too cunning to step back from her.
There are other villains who appear in the show, but these are the ones who appear the most frequently, and those who tend to have the best appearances.
DuckTales’ popularity was so big that in 1990, before the final collection of episodes aired, a feature film was released to theaters. DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp went to theaters in August 3, 1990 as the first project of DisneyToon Studios in Australia, who would later work on various other Disney animated series as well as sequels. The film didn’t make a huge profit, but it is still a fine film for fans of the show to watch.
It involves Scrooge and the gang finding the treasure of Callie Baba and his Forty Thieves, which happens early on in the movie. Webby finds an ancient lamp which Scrooge lets her keep. While playing with it one day back in Duckburg, a genie shows up, and grants wishes for her as well as the boys, while also trying to fit in with them outside of the lamp. Scrooge initially doesn’t care for this notion, until the great magician Merlock attempts to take the genie for himself.
This movie is a bit familiar, as the gang have already found a genie’s lamp in “Master of Djinni” and Scrooge’s plight with Genie is reminiscent of his with Bubba in “Time as Money”, not to mention that Disney also made their own adaptation of Aladdin. Although that would not be released for another two years, it’s hard not to recognize the distinction between them. It also suffers from weak animation that jumps from fine and collected one minute, to an awkward mess that has the characters all over the place the next.
That said, this movie actually feels like a movie, and follows it’s story closer than any of the multi-parters do, possibly exempting the “Golden Goose” two-part finale, and also has a mesh of adventure and humor that would be missing in later episodes of the show. Watch out for a Zummi Gummi doll appearance in the movie, or you’ll miss it.
Overall, DuckTales is a grand experience to discover no matter what age you are. For the majority of it’s run, it’s animated as smoothly as a classic Disney cartoon would be, and it’s characters are fleshed out quite well over the show’s run, giving you plenty of choices to pick as your favorite. While the theme song is what most people remember from DuckTales, there’s too much good in it to forget anything else about it.
Woo-hoo!
Disney has released the first three quarters of the series on DVD, and while all it would take is one more volume to finish the show, Disney has stalled it’s releases. Perhaps if you buy these up Disney will realize that there is, in fact, an interest in finishing the show. The movie can be bought if you’re registered on the Disney Movie Club, but isn’t available for wide release stateside at the time. If you are interested in reading some of Carl Barks’ original Scrooge McDuck comics to compare episodes of the show to them, there are two collections out there to check out. I recommend them, as they’re great reads. If you can still find them, anyway.
Originally posted on Tuesday, June 1, 2010.