'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 11

The Money Vanishes

This is a more comedic gag-driven episode, and as such, it’s a strong one for how creative the gags are and how almost all of them successfully bring about a laugh.  The characters that bring about the gags are the Beagle Boys who once again break out of jail with the help of a shovel their ma successfully snuck into a cake which is another nice example of genuine family values coming from a family of robbers that I really appreciate.  For much of the first part of the episode, there’s a lot of humor to be found in a collection of scenes of the Beagle Boys working off each other through character interactions as well as digging to different locations with the shovel.  Then, the plot really gets going when they end up digging to Gyro Gearloose’s barn where they find out that Gyro has invented a ray that can transport anything showered upon with a certain spray to any location.  The way the Beagle Boys get the invention is a good demonstration of Gyro’s appeal where he’s smart enough to create extraordinary inventions yet naïve enough to fall for the ploys of common bank robbers, though in his defense, Scrooge also falls for their tricks.  Speaking of Scrooge, as you can guess from what their main thing to steal is, the Beagle Boys use the invention to steal every last bit of money from his money bin.  However, as was the case with the last episode, it’s Huey, Dewey, and Louie who closely examine the trick that got the Beagle Boys to steal Scrooge’s money, and they’re the ones who find out the truth of the matter, leading to them facing off against the Beagle Boys in the confrontation during the episode’s third act.  It’s filled with a bunch more comedic gags involving the spray and relocation ray mostly involving them being used on animals during a chase through a zoo or everyone running into Gyro who we amusingly see going for a jog and eventually winning a race as a result of the Beagle Boys’ earlier scam.  There are even some fun gags involving the ray and spray as the confrontation reaches its climax when Huey, Dewey, and Louie use them to send the Beagle Boys back to jail.  Then after the money’s returned to Scrooge’s bin, we end on one last humorous confrontation between him and Gyro after the inventor suggests another invention that could potentially cause a rich duck like Scrooge to go through another money-losing ordeal.  While the story is very basic and in a way relies on adults being easily fooled to get things going, the comedy and moments from characters like the Beagle Boys and Scrooge’s nephews make it highly enjoyable and worth a viewing. 9/10

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. The Money Vanishes
11. Where No Duck Has Gone Before

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Gyro gets his own starring role as he goes back in time and becomes "Sir Gyro de Gearloose."

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