'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 10

Duckman of Aquatraz

Any story that threatens to strip Scrooge of his millionaire status has a lot of potential to turn out great, and the one in this episode fits that bill.  It’s about him being framed for stealing a valuable piece of artwork from Flintheart Glomgold’s art gallery and being sentenced to 15 years in the intensely guarded prison of Aquatraz.  On Scrooge’s end of the story, we’re given a believable look at how one might adjust to prison life.  At first, Scrooge dreads this lifestyle and finds himself getting into conflicts with all the other prisoners.  Through it all, he’s really sympathetic, especially since he never committed the crime in question.  However, as the story goes on, Scrooge slowly adapts to his surroundings, and even befriends his cellmate Mad Dog McGurk.  Actually, their friendship is the strongest part of the episode mostly for how gradually it builds up into something nice.  At first, they don’t get along, but then they bond through the equally admired activity of wrist-wrestling. Then Scrooge does something nice for Mad Dog by not ratting him out for causing a fight even though he had the chance to do so, and then their friendship reaches its strongest point when he arranges Mad Dog’s mother to come to the prison to see her son during visiting hours.  It’s not only a great payoff to everything Scrooge had to put up with at first, but it’s also the makings of a great duo.  It’s a duo so great, it’s easy to root for them when Mad Dog arranges an escape from Aquatraz for him and Scrooge out of respect, and even gets Scrooge to understand his actions when he reveals that he too was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit another reason to get behind this pair of friends.  In addition to the main plot, the subplot involving Huey, Dewey, and Louie trying to prove Scrooge’s innocence really shows off how despite being young and mischievous, they’re really skilled when it comes to solving problems.  They know right away that Scrooge would have no reason to steal a painting since he’s the richest duck in the world, and they confirm this by successfully eavesdropping on a conversation between Flintheart and a henchman that the family portrait Scrooge said he was trying to pick up must not be found.  Also, when that portrait ends up ruined, the boys find another way to solve the problem by closely examining the tape, thus discovering that Flintheart set Scrooge up the whole time.  It leads to a well-deserved pardon for Scrooge and Mad Dog and a humorous sentence for Flintheart, but I really can’t believe that no one else besides the boys thought to closely examine the tape.  Aside from that little bit of head-scratching, I say that this episode represents the show once again showing off some true storytelling greatness. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. Hotel Strangeduck
2. Robot Robbers
3. Magica’s Shadow War
4. Duckman of Aquatraz
5. Armstrong
6. Master of the Djinni
7. Sphinx for the Memories
8. Send in the Clones
9. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
10. Where No Duck Has Gone Before

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the Beagle Boys cause more hijinks when they get a hold of Gyro Gearloose's newest invention and "The Money Vanishes."

If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.