BrianL
Doom Buggy Driver
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2013
Woo-ooo!
So, I just finished all episodes of DuckTales on Disney+ and thought I'd rundown my thoughts a bit. This is such a classic show and was very good at the time, though it holds up quite well. I was surprised at how many episodes I really remembered and was delighted as I watched them. I did discover interesting things though watching them through a new lens and below are my observations.
So, I just finished all episodes of DuckTales on Disney+ and thought I'd rundown my thoughts a bit. This is such a classic show and was very good at the time, though it holds up quite well. I was surprised at how many episodes I really remembered and was delighted as I watched them. I did discover interesting things though watching them through a new lens and below are my observations.
- The animation quality is pretty high and the voice cast was stellar. I expected of course Disney stalwarts like Russi Taylor, June Foray, and Alan Young, but I was surprised to find Tress MacNeil of The Simpsons . I also never realized how much Frank Welker and Peter Cullen were in it - such great voice actors! The casting was by Andrea Romano of Batman: The Aniamted Series fame, so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise at all.
- While they are few and far between sometimes the show would have a real zinger - a very pointed joke about society or the government. These are a delight and I really don't remember them, probably because I didn't understand them.
- Scrroge's character is a little softer in this show than his original portrayals, but not that much actually. He really is miserly, though he always shows through a heart of gold in the end - though he needs to go a little money crazy first. Hey, it was the 80's and rampant capitalism was the lesson of the day. Sometimes I am surpirsed at just how much the show leans into the idea of money solving problems. It does, but we usually don't teach that to kids. Love and family are always shown to be more important in the end, but that doesn't always come up in every episode.
- Signs of the times - sometimes I was surprised at some of the things shown that they wouldn't put in cartoons today, like treating Mrs. Beakly and Doofus as clowns with many jokes about their weight. It's not overly mean, but just kind of is, but it rings a little distasteful. While there were allusions to smoking, it almost never happened, until it did. Many unlit cigars would be shown, but in a later episode there is in fact a character smoking. I'm surprised the entire series didn't get slapped with the D+ tobacco use warning.
- Guns, guns, guns! Wow does this show depict a lot of firearm usage! The go-to is to blast someone with a shotgun. The threats are real, though nobody is ever actually hurt by them. Still, it's a little surprising how embraced that is and the good characters get in on the action. This isn't really a problem to me, it's just an interesting observation.
- On the subject, there are two episodes of DuckTales that do not appear on D+ - one, Sphinx for the Memories, I can't figure out why but the other, Launchpad's Civil War, depicts a Civil War reenactment with everything that entails. I am not surporsed it was stricken from the record but it's too bad because it's a good episode and even slightly educational.
- Just a warning too to anybody, the episodes are all out of order on D+ so you might want to use a good episode list. Most are in order or don't matter but you may see a new character before they are introduced properly.
- Speaking of, the later new characters, Bubba Duck and Fenton Crackshell a.k.a. Gizmoduck are interesting additions. I found Bubba kind of grating but I enjoyed Gizmoduck. Fenton can be somewhat annoying but not as much as bubba. They definitely used Launchpad less after they were introduced and Donald never shows up again either. I'm not sure why.
- The multi-part episodes are so epic! Many of them originally aired in prime time which is how big the show was. From the origin, to the great cash weigh-in, to the creation of Gizmoduck, these really work well, even the Bubba one. The finale is only 2 parts, but is also suitably epic and may be the best episode of the series.
- The theatrical movie is not bad either, though it really just feels like regualr episodes though the animation quality is better. It does have Christopher Lloyd an Rip Taylor as voices, so that's a plus. I can see why it didn't do well though because it was pretty much just like the TV show anybody could watch for free.
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