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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
- Duck in the Iron Mask
- Dime Enough for Luck
- Duck to the Future
- Launchpad’s First Crash
- 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."
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