Monday, September 4, 2017

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 18

Much Ado About Scrooge











What we have here is one of the show’s most creative, as well as relatable, episodes.  In my life, I noticed that it’s not uncommon to get enticed into buying things you really don’t need.  Enter Filler Brushbill, a door-to-door salesduck bent on selling all sorts of random merchandise to anyone he comes across with the intent on making some serious cash.  His sales pitches are so enticing that the beginning of this episode features Scrooge and the boys going to big measures of defense to keep Filler away from the mansion to protect their fortunes.  The best part about the sequence is how the whole thing is staged like an army attack, and if you know me, I love it when animated products portray something simple as something bigger.  It just suits the medium.  Now, while the mission to beat Filler Brushbill back is a bust, it serves as a lead-in to the creative center of the episode.  One of the things Scrooge and the boys end up buying is a set of the works of famous playwright, William Drakespeare, and one of the works has a note explaining that there’s a lost play by Drakespeare on the island of Great Written, so they head there to obtain the play so they can sell it.  The adventure to the lost play includes our heroes running into all kinds of creatures like witches, fauns, talking trees, just about any creature that was part of any Shakespeare play.  These creatures try to drive Scrooge and the boys away, but through all the encounters from them, it’s Filler Brushbill who actually gets them out of trouble with his salesduck skills, nicely portraying him as more than a one-dimensional antagonist.  Then, when they eventually find the play, we get a couple twists to the ultimate outcome to aid in the creativity.  It turns out all the creatures were descendants of actors who starred in Drakespeare’s play trying to protect the play.  It would be simple for Scrooge to strike a deal with everyone so to go along with selling the play, but instead things are resolved with the actors performing the play, Scrooge discovering that the play is lousy, and deciding that it’s not worth selling despite Drakespeare’s name.  Even Filler discovers this after trying to steal it for himself.  This ending message of how selling something bad is not a good idea is one I’m all for and one that can relate to the entertainment world.  While it’s true that bad products can be successful, they can hurt the reputation of something like a show or film franchise and eventually turn everyone off altogether.  This is something most people should consider.  It just goes to show that the play, or episode in this case, is the thing because the creativity, relatability, and cast of likable characters make this a great watch.  9.5/10
The Ranking
  1. Hotel Strangeduck
  2. Maid of the Myth
  3. Hero for Hire
  4. Robot Robbers
  5. Much Ado About Scrooge
  6. Magica’s Shadow War
  7. Duckman of Aquatraz
  8. Armstrong
  9. Sir Gyro de Gearloose
  10. Master of the Djinni
  11. Sphinx for the Memories
  12. Send in the Clones
  13. Down and Out in Duckburg
  14. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
  15. The Money Vanishes
  16. Where No Duck Has Gone Before
  17. Dinosaur Ducks
  18. Superdoo!
That's it for disc 2 of the Volume 1 set.  Now we’re left with just one more to cover, so join me next time as we start that disc with a review of "Top Duck."
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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