Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Duck in the Iron Mask (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 5) - 'Toon Reviews 25


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Duck in the Iron Mask
Among the strengths of this episode is how it’s the only one in the original series to delve into Huey, Dewey, and Louie being completely alike.  Even in many classic Disney shorts they look and act the same leaving little to no individuality.  This is why I can never name the boys as some of the best in the cast.  An episode addressing how alike they are means a lot. 
The subject is really strong when one of the boys, Dewey, especially has a problem with people calling him the wrong name in everything he and his brothers do.  This problem does partially add up to everyone else’s lack of intelligence since they could just look for splashes of individual color on the clothes the boys wear. In their defense, they’re at least hard to point out on things like their baseball uniforms.  These understandable frustrations are an underlying theme in the featured adventure. 
Scrooge is excited to start an investment with his old friend Count Roy, ruler of Montedumas.  From the featured flashback, it’s enough to see the strong chemistry in their friendship showing promise for great moments between them now that they’re older.  Because of this, when the gang meets Count Roy, it’s a huge sting that instead of being friendly and excited to see Scrooge, he’s cold and doesn’t recognize his old friend at all.  When Scrooge refuses to pay for breaks in unreasonable laws, Count Roy and his associate Captain Pietro, one of this show’s many Pete lookalikes, have them all imprisoned. 
This adventure may seem unrelated to the boys’ problem, but it does have a connection to it when Scrooge and Launchpad encounter the titular duck in the iron mask in their prison.  No time is wasted in showing that duck is the real Count Roy while the one running Montedumas is his twin brother Ray.  He reveals that he and his brother look alike which is what caused him to lose him during a fateful game of hide-and-seek.  Ray ended up flowing all the way to France down river where he met Pietro, and they both usurped the throne and forced Roy to where the mask.  This and the earlier bits of Dewey getting annoyed by people misnaming him do their part to show the cons of looking the same as other people, with Roy’s story going much darker. 
Fortunately, the episode goes in a better-rounded direction by highlighting the pros of the situation too.  To escape their imprisonment, Dewey, who’s spent the whole adventure looking wildly different, forms a plan to use looking alike to his advantage.  He tricks the guard into thinking all three boys are in the room with mirrors.  As for Huey and Louie, they escape and use looking alike to their advantage by disguising themselves as guards as they break Scrooge, Launchpad, and Roy out.  These acts of blending in with the crowd make for a successful escape and a fun fencing fight to get the key to the iron mask from Ray.  The adventure ends well with the rightful ruler taking the throne and Scrooge adding more to his fortune. 
That said, the fact that the conclusion puts more support towards the nephews looking alike means the interesting topic is never brought up again.  Attempts for them to stand out from each other more after this would’ve benefitted them since the cons of being lookalikes still stand.  Despite this, they remain as interchangeable as they’ve always been.  At least the DuckTales reboot allows for true individuality.  This is just a minor nitpick though for just bringing up the issue of Huey, Dewey, and Louie being alike while still show how it can be good.  It all happens amidst an interesting adventure to make this episode one of the show’s most insightful.
A+

The Ranking
  1. Duck in the Iron Mask
  2. Dime Enough for Luck
  3. Duck to the Future
  4. Launchpad’s First Crash
  5. Jungle Duck

The next DuckTales review is on an interesting concept of Scrooge investing in a dirigible inspired by two infamous disasters.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the second Hilda episode, "The Midnight Giant."
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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