A lot of entertaining and creative things happen in this
episode, and they’re all made engaging by the characters we
follow. The treasure Scrooge is after
this time around are the artifacts of the lost city of Troy which he plans to
put in his museum. There turns out to be
a lot of ancient artifacts in what appears to be a dark cavern that used to
hold Troy, but as the title implies, the artifact that Scrooge sees the most
value in is a magic harp that belonged to Helen of Troy held in a stone box
that’s in the arms of a Minotaur statue.
The reason why the harp is so special to Scrooge occurs when he finds
that it has the ability to detect when people fib in an operatic voice that’s
set up to be grating but turns out to be hilarious and
gets even more so the more it does its thing.
Scrooge being who he is uses the harp’s trait to his advantage from
small things like finding out if the boys cleaned their room and are doing well
in school, to big things like striking deals, and with the established humorous
effects of the lie-detecting harp it, the episode is always entertaining. It’s not just Scrooge and the harp that make
the episode such a joy though. We also
factor in the antagonist of the episode, Magica de Spell in her first
appearance in a long time (which is even longer if you follow the DVD
arrangement of the series). She
continues to delight in her scenes through her eccentricity and magic powers as
she plots to one-up Scrooge and steal the harp knowing how powerful it made
Helen of Troy. She’s just a full show of
character which makes her a great addition to the cast. Even when she’s completely oblivious to the
reason for the harp’s power, making it easy for Scrooge to detect her when the
harp points out her lies, Magica is still able to put up a good fight to get
what she wants. One particular instance
of this is when Scrooge locks the harp in his desk and Magica turns into a
wrestler to try and beat it out. These
two highly entertaining characters on the opposite ends of the morality scale
have a great sense of banter with each other and that’s all it takes to make
for a great fight sequence that sends Scrooge sliding through Duckburg on his
desk into a bunch of road hazards with big comedic effect. However, even with Scrooge having a major
benefit with the harp and others growing to live with it, Scrooge still comes
through with doing the mature thing.
Throughout the episode, we’ve seen bits of the Minotaur statue from Troy
coming to life as a result of Scrooge taking the harp it was holding. We witness how huge of a threat it is when
the forces are unable to stop it, and all of Duckburg has to evacuate leading
to a vacant museum opening for Scrooge.
Finally, when the Minotaur reaches the museum and Scrooge has to resort
to bubble gum of all things to temporarily stop it, he eventually figures out
what it really wants, and he willingly sacrifices his handy harp for the protection
of the innocent. We’re left with Scrooge
as not just an entertaining character who’s amusingly great with benefits, but
also one who’s smart enough with decisions, making this episode a great example
of a great character he is. His
performance along with many others and the humor from the harp and the ways the
story grows in engagement make this another noteworthy episode for this show
and highlight of this DVD set. 10/10
The Ranking:
1. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing
2. Catch as Cash Can Part 2: A Whale of a Bad Time
3. Catch as Cash Can Part 1: A Drain on the Economy
4. Back to the Klondike
5. Raiders of the Lost Harp
6. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
7. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
8. Time Teasers
9. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
10. Catch as Cash Can Part 4: Working for Scales
11. Ducks of the West
12. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
13. Merit-Time Adventure
14. Back Out in the Outback
15. Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks
16. Scrooge’s Pet
17. Horse Scents
18. The Golden Fleecing
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Launchpad's lack of intelligence shows off its strengths and weaknesses in "The Right Duck."
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