Thursday, January 11, 2018

'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 6: Back to the Klondike

Back to the Klondike
 
In the spirit of character-building, this episode reveals the romantic side of Scrooge McDuck and at the same time makes for an insightful explore of a new location, fast-paced action moments, and background on a couple worth getting behind at the center.  When thoughts turn to Valentines, the kids at the McDuck mansion discover Scrooge with one he got long ago, prompting him to tell everyone about how he uncovered a claim of gold long ago at the Klondike town of White Agony Creek.  This is where Scrooge’s romantic side becomes apparent when he reveals that his discovery of the claim led him to meeting the duck who would become his love interest, Glittering Goldie.  From what we see in the flashback, they both appear to have the makings of a charming couple, and their romantic progression feels natural and believable.  They started out rough as poker rivals resulting in Goldie causing Scrooge to lose the one gold nugget he had at the time through unfair means.  However, over time they grew closer through working together to dig through the rest of Scrooge’s claim where they found even more gold, and Scrooge was even astonished that Goldie could work as hard as he could.  It’s a familiar build-up to romance, but one that works well and gives the couple a lot of charm.  As for why Scrooge looks down on romance now, it’s all because his story ends with him being told that Goldie ran off with the gold from his claim, ditching their plans to move to Duckburg together.  It’s easy to get Scrooge’s feelings with the knowledge he has.  After all the bonding between him and Goldie and the charm from their moments together, it makes sense that he’d feel betrayed.  Still, in the present, he has enough love within him to want to see Goldie again and also retrieve the gold from his claim.  He and the boys then head for White Agony Creek where we see a lot of detail in how it’s changed over the years.  The bustling town is now mostly abandoned, and Scrooge’s home is now inhabited by someone who uses a bear as a guard leading to a lengthy sequence of everyone trying to get it away filled with some effective comedic gags.  In an interesting turn of events, it turns out the bear is the companion guard for Goldie who’s hijacked Scrooge’s claim for all these years to spite him for never showing up to leave for Duckburg with her, and doesn’t get Scrooge’s constant claims that she stole his gold.  However, their appeal as a couple still exists with moments of intimacy and working together to find more gold just as they did before, so they’re still worth getting behind.  Plus, during an exciting, fast-paced climax where a despondent Scrooge takes his gold back to Duckburg without Goldie and has to outrun his old rival, Dangerous Dan, who’s trying to rob his gold train, there’s finally closure to the couple’s conflict.  Dan reveals that he stole Scrooge’s gold and blamed Goldie, and gets his just due when Goldie drops in on him.  The interesting thing about this is that even with the conflict resolved, Scrooge and Goldie actually don’t get together and remain distant lovers, making their romance more true to life in that not all couples become official.  Even if that is the case, if their final moment together is anything to go by, their love is still strong.  Because of that engaging factor and little moments to make the adventure stand as something exciting, this episode is one of the best character-building episodes of the series. 10/10
The Ranking:
1.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing
2.      Back to the Klondike
3.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
4.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
5.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
6.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
 


Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Webby gets a starring role alongside an aspiring racehorse and together they show off their "Horse Scents."
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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