Thursday, August 17, 2017

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 2

Sphinx for the Memories


 
 
 
 
 
 
Since this show focuses on Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s adventures with Uncle Scrooge, it’s not surprising that we don’t see much of Donald.  This episode is an exception to the premise, and boy do we get quite an adventure starring him on a brief leave from the navy.  Taking place in Egypt, the adventure kicks off in typical Donald Duck fashion with him ending up in a crazy and stressful situation while just simply trying to go about his business.  In this case, Donald just innocently checks out some Egyptian knick-knacks in a gift shop, and that makes two customers in the shop believe that he’s the reincarnated form of their people’s original leader from centuries ago, the Garbled One.  Donald gets captured and taken to the middle of the desert where he’s treated like a king to the civilization of Garbabble.  Watching Donald go about the whole situation provides the bulk of the episode’s entertainment.  Whether he’s enjoying being pampered by the people of Garbabble or using his wits to try and escape the position of royalty when the people won’t let him return to the navy base, the way Donald observes and reacts to the world around him is full of energy and gives off a believable response.  In fact, the moments with Donald seem to overshadow what we see of Scrooge and the boys who set out to try and rescue him, which is especially clear when during their search for Donald, they end up in a pyramid cellar where they have to get through a maze to escape, yet we never see exactly how they get through the maze.  Thankfully, Scrooge and the boys get a lot more active towards the third act of the episode where the stakes really start to increase when Donald is possessed by the ancient spirit of the Garbled One, causing him to forget who he really is, including being unable to fully recognize his uncle and nephews.  What really stands out is the cleverness of how Scrooge and the boys find solutions to the problem such as suggesting building a pyramid to buy themselves time, fending off a mummy assigned to silence Donald by a sorcerer named Sarkus, and noticing that Donald’s real spirit is still intact from him struggling to hold on to navy mannerisms.  What could have made these characters too perfect and uninteresting actually leaves a strong impact of astonishment of how they were able to figure all this out.  Then it all ends with Garbabble in good, unsuperstitious hands, and one last bit with Donald that’s both funny, and also worthy of sympathy for him.  From this episode, I can tell that this show knows how to make an adventure exciting with interesting settings, great character moments, and lots of creativity. 9/10
The Ranking
1.      Sphinx for the Memories
2.      Send in the Clones
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is the show's first space-themed episode that takes us "Where No Duck Has Gone Before."
If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.

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