'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 6

Magica’s Shadow War

In this episode, we’re treated to more reasons as to why Magica de Spell is one of the most entertaining antagonists to come across.  Her plan to steal Scrooge’s Number One Dime this time around involves her bringing her own shadow to life, and command it to steal the dime behind everyone’s back.  The appeal in this plan lies within how creative it is, and the creativity is further enhanced by the mannerisms of the shadow.  They mostly involve her being able to pick things up by their shadow and how well she can easily blend into all the shadows she comes across.  Magica’s shadow also raises the tension by protesting how mistreated she has been as a follower, which you can’t help but realize how much sense these complaints make if you think about it, and actually uses magical spells to break away to hatch her own plan to get all the shadows to team up and take over the world.  From then on, the rest of the episode is an exciting series of attempts by Scrooge and his team to catch the shadow in an attempt to stop it as well as to keep Scrooge’s Number One Dime safe.  What goes on further displays how much of a threat Magica’s shadow is.  Specifically, because she’s a magic shadow, she gets a lot more shadows when a bunch of lights shine on her as opposed to destroying her which is what light would normally do to shadows. This only increases the tension, therefore further succeeding in drawing in the audience.  It could be pointed out that Scrooge’s greed could be going a little too far in this situation. I mean, it’s clear the mess could be solved if he just gives Magica the dime, but he just keeps on stubbornly refusing with the threat of her shadow constantly growing by the minute.  Still, I’m fine with this point because it makes sense for Scrooge’s character, and he does realize that there’s no other way to stop the shadow and comes to his senses near the end.  So, we close things off with an ending that gets the shadow defeated, and strong comedy from Huey, Dewey, and Louie using their classic wits to successfully get Scrooge’s dime back, supposedly further preventing Magica from using it to take over the world herself.  With fun character moments, a creative story premise, strong comedy, and stakes and tensions that just keep building, this is another great, fun episode to allow me and any newcomers to further get attached to this show. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1.      Robot Robbers

2.      Magica’s Shadow War

3.      Armstrong

4.      Sphinx for the Memories

5.      Send in the Clones

6.      Where No Duck Has Gone Before

 Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is Disney's take on Aladdin before the 1992 classic and even Treasure of the Lost Lamp called "Master of the Djinni."
If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.