Friday, February 2, 2018

'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 23: Duckworth's Revolt


Duckworth’s Revolt









Aside from a few little appearances as an obedient, high-class servant, Duckworth has yet to have a chance to shine as a fully fleshed-out character.  That all changes with this episode where we get to know exactly how he feels about serving Scrooge.  Although it seems like he’s harshly put through work that never ends, he doesn’t mind it at all, and feels that it doesn’t matter if he could make as much money as Scrooge with his skills.  As insightful to Duckworth’s character as this reveal is, Huey, Dewey, and Louie see what Duckworth does as slave work resulting in a conversation with him that results in Scrooge overhearing it, taking things the wrong way, and firing Duckworth.  The boys’ mindset continues to be in effect when they and Duckworth are abducted by the creative anomalies of alien vegetables who, in a shocking twist, freely abduct random beings from other planets to force them to work in their garden which is pretty dark considering that this could happen to any being minding their own business.  Anyway, whenever the boys try to rebel against the vegetable overlords keeping them and the other beings against their will, Duckworth instead insists that they obey the orders of the captives, further getting the boys to see his willingness to be a servant as a negative.  While it may seem that they have a point with Duckworth not seeming to want to put up a fight with aliens who really are enslaving him, it’s after that where their butler finally makes a point of devoting his life to serving.  He encourages all the other imprisoned gardeners to fight for their rights since they’re working for aliens forever when they don’t want to, whereas when he usually does his butler thing, it’s his own choice.  Duckworth really makes himself clear with the prisoners and the rest of the episode is them fighting for their rights.  Not only that, but he even gets himself an audience with one of the vegetable overlords in charge, Brigadier Broccoli, where it’s revealed that these aliens aren’t just heartless kidnappers who love enforcing slave labor.  Their home planet was destroyed and they’re trying to start over and recruit beings from other planets for help.  Even if the aliens are in the wrong, it’s good to know that they have believable reasons for their actions, preventing them from being one-dimensional.  The aliens’ motives also help make the conclusion work.  After an exciting climax where Huey, Dewey, and Louie take control of one of the aliens’ vehicles and get Duckworth out of his audience, Duckworth signals the other gardener slaves to start fighting back and the opposing forces are taken out, Duckworth actually trusts Brigadier enough for him to take control of the ship when they’re about to hit an oncoming planet.  Instead of double-crossing Duckworth like you’d expect antagonists to do, Brigadier actually lands the ship safely on the planet and sends the slaves home.  The reveal of the planet is pretty convenient and you have to wonder if it’s okay for the vegetables to inhabit the planet since the possibility of life existing there exists, but those just feel like little, meaningless blips compared to the episode’s many strengths.  Then, everything wraps up as you’d expect with Duckworth willingly going back to work for Scrooge, with everyone aware of the slave vs. servant mentality.  That’s a relatable theme to get across here, and coupled with Duckworth’s character development, other great character moments, and creativity from the concept of the opposing forces, everything comes together to form a great episode. 9.5/10
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. Double-O-Duck
  6. Raiders of the Lost Harp
  7. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
  8. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
  9. Time Teasers
  10. Duckworth’s Revolt
  11. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
  12. Catch as Cash Can Part 4: Working for Scales
  13. Ducks of the West
  14. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
  15. Merit-Time Adventure
  16. Back Out in the Outback
  17. Scroogerello
  18. Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks
  19. Luck O’ the Ducks
  20. Scrooge’s Pet
  21. Horse Scents
  22. The Golden Fleecing
  23. The Right Duck
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode on the Volume 2 DVD which is the only time an episode is composed of two short cartoons.  The first one is about the antics of "Magica's Magic Mirror," and the second one features Duckworth coaching baseball in "Take Us Out of the Ballgame."
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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