'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 7: Horse Scents

Horse Scents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This episode involves a common high-class sport of horse-racing, and with the characters involved, it has its own special, albeit noticeably flawed, feel to it.  The main focus is on the kids meeting a troubled horse called Milady, whose owner, Mr. Merriweather, is struggling to afford as a model for photos.  This is especially a big deal because a man called Boll Weevil wants to put her into harsh field work, and it only gets worse when Mr. Merriweather’s camera is destroyed and he has no way to keep Milady around.  Through it all, it’s not hard to have sympathy for Milady.  Almost everyone is unbelievably mean-spirited towards her for little to no reason claiming that she looks too old or weak for anything useful, and her kind owner doesn’t have the means to keep her with him no matter what he tries.  Because of so little reason for the rudeness she receives, the episode can get a little unpleasant at certain points.  At the same time, this episode is a place where Webby’s cutesy and girlish mannerisms work very well.  Her love of animals inspires Milady to fight back whenever someone like Boll Weevil is unkind to her, and she even throws a few punches (or plumbs) at some of Milady’s bullies.  Basically, what usually is the weak link in certain episodes turns out to be a perfect fit for this story.  Now, Webby’s biggest contribution to Milady’s cause is when she goes up to Boll Weevil’s truck trailer to try and unlock Milady’s door, which inspires the horse to break out on her own and run at great speed, leading the plot’s focus to trying to get her to run fast so to compete in the Kenducky Derby and allow Mr. Merriweather to keep her.  However, much time is spent on how Milady can't run fast under her own choice which can get a little uninteresting.  It honestly picks up when the plot meanders into a subplot of Scrooge and Flintheart Glomgold competing over whose horse is going to win the derby.  It features the usual enjoyable banter and battle of egos we’ve come to expect from the two, so it is highly enjoyable even if it doesn’t mesh well with the main plot.  Back to Milady, we finally get an answer to how she can run fast when she does that at the sound of Mrs. Beakley playing a bugle.  It does serve as a payoff to an earlier gag with her bugle skills, but Mr. Merriweather’s reason for Milady responding this way seems too convenient to show up at the last moment.  Still, when we get to the actual race, it's an exciting climax with Webby as Milady’s jockey which really freaks out Scrooge as the race goes on, some tension when Mrs. Beakley struggles to get her bugle in as it bothers the audience, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie using Boll Weevil’s threats as an effective substitute to have Milady run fast.  There’s also an interesting end to the conflict where Boll Weevil instead decides to have Milady as a racer after seeing her speed, so when she decides to take a fall for a photo and leaves victory to Scrooge and Flintheart’s horses, he forgets buying her entirely.  Milady does still get a happy ending though with the help of Scrooge making her old job popular to tourists again.  Though it does show that such a thing could’ve been done with her in the first place.  The writing for this episode may not be perfect and it can drag at times, but with a good use of characters, especially from Webby, and genuine sympathy, it’s a solid one with a good heart, especially if you’re a horse-lover. 8/10

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

7.      Horse Scents

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where "Scrooge's Pet" named Lucky turns out to not be so lucky after all.

If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.