Now, I’m a big fan of Duck Tales. In fact, I’m a big fan of the old Disney Afternoon in general. Those shows were
practically required weekday afternoon viewing when I was a kid. In fact, I think I may have more nostalgia
for the Disney Afternoon than for Disney’s animated movies.
For the uninitiated, Duck Tales is a cartoon series loosely
adapted from the Uncle Scrooge comic books created by cartoonist Carl Barks
(that’s right, Disney doesn’t even adapt its own stuff all that
faithfully).
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| A couple of collections of Uncle Scrooge comics that were adapted for the show |
The show and comics focused
on Donald Duck’s uncle Scrooge McDuck, the richest and cheapest duck in the
world, as he travels around the world with various family members in tow on
adventures largely aimed at finding treasure and making him even richer.
I recently had the chance to rewatch the original series and
I thought I’d write out a few of my impressions of the original show as well as
first impressions of the new show’s pilot (Yes, I know this is coming right
after my Smurfs post. I promise this
blog won’t be just about ‘80s cartoons.
Well, less than 80% at least).
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| My Duck Tales DVD collection |
First of all, let’s go over some observations I had of the
original show. In the original Duck
Tales, the set up is that Donald Duck has to go off to do a tour of duty in the
Navy and has to leave his three nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie with his own
uncle Scrooge McDuck. Donald would only
appear on the show in a guest star status.
Anyway, this situation leads to the previously mentioned
adventures. One of the things that I
particularly noticed in the old show is how every character is useful to some
extent. Even the characters who don’t
always get the acknowledgement they should.
One of the most notable is Webbigail Vanderquack. Webby gets a lot of flack because she comes
across as a cliché, girly-girl, tag-along type of character that no one wanted
around for the adventures. And that is
true to an extent. However, it also
seems to me that Webby was intended to be younger than the boys early on (in
one episode they ride bicycles while she rides a Big Wheel), so naturally she’d
need a lot more looking after in dangerous situations. That at least explains some of the other characters’
attitudes toward her. But when she was
on adventures, she was usually a big help because of her amazing knack for
befriending animals. Kangaroos, hounds,
baby dinosaurs, etc. In one episode she
even made friends with a yeti. Webby was
always the first character to solve problems through communication and
friendship. While that may be a
stereotypical trait for the “token girl”, it’s also something we could probably
use a lot more of in the world. That’s
not all, though. Mrs. Beakley, the boys’
nanny, is remembered for being a disapproving old woman but she’s shown to be brave,
a quick thinker, former world traveler and an accomplished opera singer (and
yes, that does prove useful in one episode).
Even the butler Duckworth leads a mutiny on an alien spaceship in one
episode. The funny thing is that this is
something fans should have seen all along because it’s the case with a lot of
the characters. Their best traits aren’t
always their most memorable traits. Heck,
one of the most beloved characters on the show is Launchpad McQuack. The defining trait for Launchpad is that he’s
a pilot but a really bad one. He crashes
pretty much every plane he flies.
However, Launchpad is also daring and willing to try anything to get out
of a jam. Those are his good
points. Mainly he’s remembered as a
really bad pilot, though. So, why do
fans love Launchpad so much even though he’s possibly the most dangerously
inept character in the show? I guess
maybe because he was played as the comic relief.
As the show wore on, they tried adding some new characters
to the show. Some worked better than
others. The first one they tried adding
was Bubba Duck. Bubba was a Caveduck
that Scrooge and family brought back from the distant past. Bubba was an okay character, but the problem
was that he didn’t really bring a lot to the show. Bubba was crazy strong and had a pet dinosaur
named Tootsie, but that didn’t necessarily add much story-wise. The other character they added was Fenton
Crackshell aka Gizmoduck. Gizmoduck
worked a lot better. The idea was that
he was McDuck Enterprises’ new head of security and own private superhero. This is kind of neat, because he’s actually
an Iron Man parody from the days before Iron Man had the mainstream popularity
he has now. But the real strength of
Gizmoduck is that it gave Duck Tales another story option before the show
ended. They could still do their
treasure-hunting adventure stories but they could also stay in Duckburg and do
more of a crime-stopping sort of story featuring Gizmoduck. Those two options were now there.
In terms of story, the show was usually really solid. Some episodes are based on Carl Barks comic
stories but a lot aren’t. It’s actually
fun to watch as a culture savvy adult, because a lot of episodes will focus on
one specific type of adventure fiction and drop multiple references to it. For example, there’s one episode that’s
entirely a riff on Alexander Dumas novels.
There are references to The Three
Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask and The Count of Monte Cristo throughout the episode. Another episode does the whole “boy raised in
the jungle” thing and references both Tarzan
of the Apes and The Phantom.
Now, the new Duck Tales is a different matter.
Only the pilot has aired so far, but it shows a different
set up. This time, Donald Duck is trying
to go to a job interview but finds that he can’t leave Huey, Dewey and Louie
alone because their mischief will invariably lead to calamity. So, with no other babysitting options left,
he calls on his Uncle Scrooge who he hasn’t talked to in ten years because of
some mutual bad blood between them. The
Scrooge we see here is someone who, as the boys say, “used to be a big deal”. He hasn’t adventured in a long time and the
boys and Webby manage to draw him into one.
The whole story manages to culminate in Donald and the boys all moving
into McDuck Manor with Scrooge with more adventures surely to follow. The interesting thing about the new Duck
Tales is how well thought out it seems to be.
While family was always present in the show, here it becomes the main
theme of the show and the characters’ personalities are written to emphasize
this and drive character interaction.
Huey, Dewey and Louie, while good characters in their own way, are
usually depicted as being the same in terms of personality. However, that changes in the new Duck Tales
as their personalities are defined by their birth order. Huey is the smart and responsible oldest
boy. Dewey is the eager, adventurous middle child who
wants to stand out. Louie is a laid back
youngest child who embraces the chance to get away with what he can. Other attempts have been made to
differentiate the boys (see Quack Pack), but this seems a lot more deliberate
and intended to drive story and character interaction. Webby is also revamped. Instead of being the little sister who wants
to tag along with the big kids, she’s a peer of the boys who’s spent her life
being prepared for any eventuality by her grandmother while likewise being
sheltered from any danger. So, her
desire to go along on adventures isn’t simply a desire to go along with the big
kids but stems from the frustration of spending your life being prepared for
something that likely isn’t going to happen.
I will admit that I will kind of miss the old Webby and her gentler
ways, but I’m also interested to see what they do with the new Webby. Here’s hoping she still has her way with
animals. Probably the biggest change is
the inclusion of Donald Duck in the main cast, something that was part of the
old Uncle Scrooge comics but not the old show.
Including Donald as well as the bad blood between Donald and Scrooge
adds not only a new dynamic but also provides a mystery that the show can
develop: What exactly happened 10 years ago to drive Scrooge and Donald apart
(there’s a bit more to it, but I’m not going to spoil it).
So, Duck Tales is back and truth be told, it’s just as good
as ever. It’s different but it still has
the sense of adventure the original show and comics had.
So, what could be next for Disney television animation?
Maybe giving a
certain mouse the comedy adventure show he should have had a long time ago?
Who am I kidding?
Disney would never do anything that interesting with Mickey Mouse. But at least we have Duck Tales.
Later.
