Sunday, January 7, 2018

'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 2: Treasure of tue Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After getting the first taste of Scrooge McDuck and the nephews in the first part of this story arc, we move forward in the second part that not only has them progress towards a huge stash of gold, but also gives an introduction to Scrooge’s rivalry with Flintheart Glomgold.  As we’ve seen in the first DVD volume of the series, Flintheart’s main objective as an antagonist is to beat Scrooge as the richest duck in the world, and does so in some pretty dastardly moves sometimes going as far as to try and get Scrooge arrested.  Still, the rivalry is mostly comedic through how much banter the business rivals have during constant bets to see who can make the most money.  Such a bet is the major focus of this episode when Scrooge and Flintheart set out to see who can make the most money in two weeks, which Scrooge uses as an opportunity to hunt down the gold.  This also leads to the introduction of another prominent element in the series, Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s expert problem-solving skills, mostly relating to their Junior Woodchucks status achieved in the previous episode, which make them stand out from average kid characters.  It plays a huge role in Scrooge’s hunt for the gold since it’s them who uncover its location in Ronguay, South America, the meaning of the frequently repeated word, “monsapis,” and ways their ship works as a map.  The boys’ moments sell their appeal as competent adventurers especially when it encourages Scrooge to keep going when he’s briefly despondant, and also set up how they’d operate in the episodes to come.  We also get a good sense of the lengths Flintheart goes through just to one-up Scrooge such as rigging his plane to Ronguay with a bomb, leading him into quicksand caused by the torrential downpours that are monsapis, and laying low in the gold ship he eventually finds just to spring on him.  In addition to also giving an idea of what we’ll see of Flintheart for the rest of the show, we see more appeal to El Capitan.  Although he’s a standard greedy villain whose sole motivation is to get gold, his overdramatic tendencies on the subject make his single dimension something to laugh at don’t make this a huge issue.  It all leads up to an exciting climax on the ship of gold, which creatively includes gold planks and gold sails.  Even after apprehending Scrooge and the boys and taking the ship for himself, Flintheart shows some heart by leaving his rival with a single gold coin.  Giving even a bit of the treasure away infuriates the greedy El Capitan which sends him overboard and the treasure is sunk again.  In a clever turn of events though, Scrooge having the one coin Flintheart gave him has him win the bet and brings on a hilarious comeuppance point for Flintheart.  As an episode to set up the adventure norm of the series, this leaves us a lot to take away in terms of comedy, creativity, and character moments. 10/10
The Ranking:
1.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
2.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Scrooge's single coin brings on the next part of the story arc and we meet Launchpad McQuack for the first time in "Three Ducks of the Condor."
If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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