Animation is the perfect medium to portray reasons for
certain occurrences in life. This is
mostly because it goes hand-in-hand with any magnitude of creativity. In the case of this episode, animation is
used to portray a creative reason for why earthquakes happen. It starts off with Scrooge fearing that his
money bin will be deprived of his fortune by earthquakes after bad dreams. When his fears are confirmed, precautions are
set to protect the money bin until the men run away from the project due to
strange voices prompting Scrooge to do some investigations. Following an exciting mine cart ride down
into the caverns that never gets dull, we get the episode’s creative reasoning
for earthquakes. They’re caused by a
race of creatures called Terra-Firmians, big blobs of solid color who can
literally turn themselves into balls and roll and crash into things. Anyway, the earthquakes happen because of
their cultural custom of holding a series of games where they do nothing but
roll around and crash into stone barriers, and their vibrations affect the
ground in the surface world. Despite
their games being the cause of the earthquakes, and by extension Scrooge’s
troubles, the Terra-Firmians are a likable cast of characters. They mean no malicious intent, and simply
want to have fun. Because of this, in
addition to wanting Scrooge to keep his money safe, it’s also fine to want the
Terra-Firmians to have their games.
Plus, there’s also a likability factor in a smaller Terra-Firmian who
wants to take part in the games, but is too small to be any good, yet his
interactions with Scrooge and the boys get him to be the star of the games in
the end. As you can see, both sides are
worth getting behind, which is essential for stories like this. Later on, when a really big Terra-Firmian
game finally gets to the money bin and brings Scrooge’s fortune down, you can’t
help but feel some major sympathy for Scrooge.
Since he’s a likable character as a rich duck, it’s pretty sad to see
him poor after all his efforts to protect his fortune. Still, this is another way to show off the
likability of the Terra-Firmians as their way of life gets them to see little
use in all that money and ultimately send it back to Scrooge before they go to
have their games somewhere else. It’s
great that these creatures are sent off with one more likable moment, but I
can’t help but think of the story potential lost with Scrooge getting his money
back SECONDS after losing it. We
could’ve had a compelling arc of trying to make a fortune again. Still, I call this a good watch for both sets
of characters being capable of getting behind, exciting fast-paced sequences,
and the animation medium being used to its creative potential. 9/10
The Ranking
- The Curse of Castle McDuck
- Hotel Strangeduck
- Maid of the Myth
- Hero for Hire
- Top Duck
- Robot Robbers
- Much Ado About Scrooge
- Magica’s Shadow War
- Duckman of Aquatraz
- Launchpad’s Civil War
- Armstrong
- Sir Gyro de Gearloose
- Master of the Djinni
- Sphinx for the Memories
- Send in the Clones
- Sweet Duck of Youth
- Earth Quack
- Down and Out in Duckburg
- The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
- The Money Vanishes
- Where No Duck Has Gone Before
- Dinosaur Ducks
- Pearl of Wisdom
- Superdoo!
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where even more animated creativity comes alive in the Odyssey-inspired adventure, "Home Sweet Homer."
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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