Thursday, February 28, 2019

Time is Money Part 1: Marking Time (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 15) - 'Toon Reviews 25


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Time is Money Part 1: Marking Time
The second season consists solely of two story arcs, and the rest of the DVD is their separate parts.  This episode is the first part of the first arc.  It’s about time travel to the past, making for a prehistoric adventure of dinosaurs and caveducks.  The arc starts as a standard fortune hunting plot, but then focuses on incorporating some of the prehistoric elements into the main series.  The following few reviews will elaborate on how good of a change this is. 
The fortune hunt starting it all is as enjoyable as always.  Scrooge further impresses with deal-making when he buys his rival Flintheart Glomgold’s westernmost island.  It seems worthless compared to the other islands, but that’s Scrooge’s brilliance at play.  That island has a cave filled with coal that turned into diamonds over millions of years.  This has got to be one of the best moments of Scrooge making a fortune out nothing. 
However, he’s not without drawbacks here.  Flintheart eavesdrops on Scrooge’s claim of the diamonds and separates the island so the diamond cave isn’t the westernmost, all unbeknownst.  Because his greed won’t let him put up with going without the find he justly bought, Scrooge has Gyro Gearloose make a time machine to go back in time to reclaim the cave.  Right here, we have a problem.  The story has Gyro make a time machine powered by a huge clock and a popsicle-like fuel source, bombastium.  While that’s very creative, the episode, and the whole arc, ignore the fact that Gyro already has a time machine Scrooge can use, the time tub.  That wasn’t even a one-off invention. It’s been used and mentioned multiple times.  With no mention of the time tub, it seems this new time machine was made just so the arc could occur, even if it doesn’t make sense.  It’s this time machine’s complications that cause Scrooge, the boys, and Launchpad to end up on the island a million years off the mark. 
Now, if you can ignore this leap in continuity, this prehistoric adventure is enjoyable enough.  It’s also cute through the appearance of a caveduck named Bubba.  When he first sees Scrooge appear out of the time machine, he sees him as a god-like figure and shows him loyalty with any random object around to offer.  This, along with his lonely cave home with only a pet triceratops given the name Tootsie for company, hint that he’s all over Scrooge because he’s never had his own true family.  If that’s the case, then that makes Bubba’s bonds with the gang endearing.  That said, Bubba is also very reckless with his antics adding to the group’s already stressful conflict and doesn’t provide much productivity apart from hanging out with the boys.  Along with his scrappy voice and broken English, it’s clear that Bubba is all right for one appearance, but isn’t exactly the best character to see a lot of. 
That said, finding Bubba does prove beneficial to Scrooge’s goal.  Bubba’s cave is where Scrooge found the coal-turned diamonds, so he leaves marks to claim the cave a million years ahead of his deal with Flintheart.  Near the end of this episode, Bubba also plays a big part in helping the group escape a huge T-Rex.  Even so, the problems with Bubba persist, so it’s a bit conflicting when he and Tootsie end up on board the time machine with the others.  These feelings are only going to grow for the rest of the arc. 
In spite of a few disregards of continuity for the plot to work and minor character gripes, this is a thoroughly fun adventure to start the arc.  Now we move onto where the time machine sends everyone next…
A-

The Ranking
  1. Once Upon a Dime
  2. Duck in the Iron Mask
  3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck
  4. Spies in Their Eyes
  5. Nothing to Fear
  6. The Uncrashable Hindentanic
  7. Dime Enough for Luck
  8. Duck to the Future
  9. Launchpad’s First Crash
  10. Jungle Duck
  11. Ducky Horror Picture Show
  12. Time is Money Part 1: Marking Time
  13. All Ducks on Deck
  14. Till Nephews Do Us Part
  15. The Status Seekers

The next DuckTales review is about the time period Scrooge and the gang end up in... which has nothing to do with the rest of the arc.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Beeper Queen" and "Oskar Can't Read" from Hey Arnold.
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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