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Super
DuckTales Part 5: Money to Burn
There have been fun and frustrating parts to this arc. To wrap it up, despite a few contrivances, this
part is a satisfying conclusion up to the show’s adventurous standards.
We start with Scrooge fighting a bunch of
sailors to salvage his money bin first.
This doesn’t last long with Scrooge finding it fast. It’s here where the arc’s flow suddenly
changes. After much devotion to a
robotic superhero thwarting the Beagle family, the arc decides to focus on
aliens, going off the rails. They appear
out of nowhere and beam the money bin aboard their ship. Adding to the improbable conveniences is
Launchpad owning a plane to take Scrooge, Gizmoduck, and himself into
space. It would be believable if Gyro
had it, but a naïve character like Launchpad having it on hand seems a bit
far-fetched.
Despite the forced space
angle as another obstacle between Scrooge and his fortune, the actual adventure
is pulled off very well. They track the
bin to a planet that lives for metal right down to being surrounded by large
nuts, bolts, and screws. There’s also a
continuation to the show’s often explored man-vs-machine theme with the entire
planet populated by robots. They’re so
dominant, their society prohibits anyone who isn’t metallic from entering. Their power comes from taking any metal
objects they can find to melt them down and make more robots. Much of Scrooge’s money is metal, so that
means trouble for his economic well-being.
It isn’t long before he and the others are caught and brought to the
leader of the planet, a supercomputer named MEL. He really sells the man vs machine theme
through declaring him and all other machines as superior over the nonmetallic
invaders. It’s a humorous ego that
interestingly shows how machines could take over without proper control. His power really shows when he strips off
Gizmoduck’s armor revealing Fenton Crackshell, further lowering Scrooge’s
confidence in the mission. It seems fair
since most of what he saw in Fenton was screw-ups, but Fenton proves that he’s
reliable even without the armor.
With
that, we get his most shining moment where his established counting skills
allow him to outsmart the actual supercomputer in a challenge of wits. One last trick question especially brings out
the best in him. From here, the heart of
the episode shines as this act gets Scrooge to truly see the good of both
Gizmoduck and Fenton. It’s so apparent
that it’s touching when he’s saddened by the apparent loss of him and his bin
when the planet’s blown up. Gizmoduck
does pull through however with the bin in tow.
The way back to Earth as Scrooge does what he can to keep the bin with
him no matter what they encounter does make him look ridiculous as his comrades
say. To me though, given all the
nonsense that kept separating him from his fortune and the importance of having
money, I perfectly accept this behavior.
It’s for these reasons that the ending where the money bin lands in its
old spot so Scrooge can pay everything off and be at peace is so
rewarding. Other scenes of the Beagle
Boys only offering the ripped up highway for their Ma’s birthday, and Fenton
landing a date with Gandra Dee greatly enhance the positive vibes.
For all this arc’s ridiculousness, including
the contrived setup to this part, this is a spirited out-of-this-world space
adventure to end “Super DuckTales” and this Vol. 3 DVD.
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. Super DuckTales
Part 2: Frozen Assets
9. Duck to the
Future
10. Launchpad’s
First Crash
11. Jungle Duck
12. Super
DuckTales Part 3: Full Metal Duck
13. Ducky
Horror Picture Show
14. Super
DuckTales Part 5: Money to Burn
15. Time is
Money Part 4: Ducks on the Lam
16. Time is
Money Part 1: Marking Time
17. Time is
Money Part 2: The Duck Who Would Be King
18. All Ducks
on Deck
19. Super
DuckTales Part 1: Liquid Assets
20. Till
Nephews Do Us Part
21. Time is
Money Part 5: Ali Bubba’s Cave
22. The Status
Seekers
23. Super
DuckTales Part 4: The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club
24. Time is
Money Part 3: Bubba Trubba
Final Thoughts
After looking through two fully solid and highly commendable
DVD volumes of DuckTales, you’d think
that a look at Vol. 3 would be more or less of the same quality. The final results show that while it is as
good as its been for the most part, a number of episodes on this set show the
series starting to falter a bit in appeal.
Even if you’re constantly reminded that the show offered
better material, the experience is still very much entertaining as a whole. In
fact, at the start of this DVD volume are quite a few episodes that live up to
the great creativity and sense of adventure the series prides itself on. Many episodes continue to put their own spin
on common adventure plots. A time travel
episode is caused by the work of witchcraft, making for a creative dystopia and
gags of landing in other time periods at the climax. A story about hypnosis is expanded upon with
an entire legion of spies with certain code phrases, and raises the stakes
through involving the navy. A flight in
an airship named after two disaster-bound vessels is an amalgam of experiences
from the passengers that manages to work out in the end despite all
calamities. Monsters from all walks of
life get together in a group to discuss the discrimination they face. These are only a few examples of strong
adventure plots you’ll find in this set, and the kind that showcase what the
show is best known for.
A couple of episodes really stand out for how they develop
the characters. Backgrounds for much of
the cast are nothing new, but it’s still welcome to get different perspectives
on their pasts which work in broader details.
My personal favorite episode here is one that goes into all the details
of the smart work Scrooge put in to make his fortune. It stands as something special for showing
not just how important his Number One Dime was through it all, but also that
having a family is what really made him feel wealthy. Other episodes bring up more interesting
character reveals like how Launchpad first met Scrooge and where Mrs. Beakley
worked before becoming the mansion nanny.
Among another one of the strongest character-driven episodes is “Duck in the Iron Mask.” It’s an interesting
Meta-episode exploring how Huey, Dewey, and Louie are more or less one in the
same with one of them desperate to stand out from the others. This wouldn’t be an issue in the later
reboot, but to bring attention to this character drawback around since the
classic days of Disney at this time is pretty impressive. The strongest episodes here seem to be those
that go all out with character development, further enhancing the appeal of the
volume and freshness of the series.
These positives bring me to exactly what makes this set of
episodes slightly inferior to the others.
While the show has had weaker material before, it was usually once in a
while type of deals, driven by established weaker elements of the
characters. Here, weak material becomes
much more consistent driven by actions that don’t always fit the
characters. Sometimes it’s through
obvious dumb decisions like lying about navy accomplishments or pulling feeble
pranks on a dangerous fiancée instead of telling the truth about her. An even bigger example is Scrooge feeling the
need to join a high society crowd when his high status as the richest duck in
the world already has him outrank them all.
I may be dwelling on this, but I still find it frustrating that he’d be
so sensitive about what that one group thinks.
If these were the only weaker episodes of the batch, the drawbacks
wouldn’t be so impactful. That’s when
you consider the story arcs on this set.
Story arcs may just be multiple episodes grouped together,
but they’re still hyped as event-worthy stories for the series. However, unlike the story arcs on the Vol. 2
DVD, both “Time is Money” and “Super DuckTales” falter a lot in storytelling
and leave very mixed impressions. The
fact that they make up a large part of the DVD right down to an entire disc
full of parts of them doesn’t make it look too good compared to the other
volumes.
“Time is Money” seems interesting for working in prehistoric
adventures and combining it with a usual bet between Scrooge and Flintheart
Glomgold. However, the logics behind the
bet and Flintheart’s attempts to come out on top become noticeably botched as
the story goes on. It also suffers from
the divisive Bubba the caveduck who mainly exists to mess around and go along
with customs that are more geared towards 80s kids than universal
audiences. He has his moments, but they
don’t fully make up for causing harm for the majority of the arc. It also suffers for making a big deal of a
hole in time only for the claim to mean nothing later on, and devote an entire
part to a completely unrelated adventure in a Chinese kingdom. Basically, “Time is Money” is a hot mess of
focus, varying characterization, and confusing logic.
While “Super DuckTales” is the better of the two arcs, it too
has a fair share of problems. Fenton
Crackshell, the duck who becomes Gizmoduck and Scrooge’s new accountant, is a
better newly introduced character, but it takes a while to become truly
great. There’s also frustrating breaks
in logic like how the Beagle family is just allowed to spend Scrooge’s fortune
as they please, and a collection of contrivances near the end. It even applies for characters with Megabyte
Beagle only existing as a plot device who takes control of Gizmoduck, and when
that fails, he disappears forever.
That’s not to say these arcs don’t have any good points. They both have plenty of heartwarming and fun
moments as well as instances of great creativity, especially through the
concept of Gizmoduck. Still, the
problems are so major they hold the arcs back from being anything truly
great. Not only that, but in much of the
remaining 25 episodes of the series, both Bubba and Fenton/Gizmoduck take up
the spotlight alongside the true stars of the series. Because they’re pretty divisive, it’s
concerning that this leaves little room for great moments from readily present
supporting characters. In some cases,
certain characters don’t even appear at all because of them being around. At least in the latter instance, that mostly
applies to characters like Doofus Drake who were never that great to begin
with. Much of this is best left
explained for the eventual look at those final 25 episodes, but this issue
starting with these two arcs warrants a mention.
As for DuckTales Vol
3 as a whole, it’s still a fine continuation of the greatness set by what came
before. It does start to lose a lot of
what made it so strong, most of it coming from two very flawed story arcs, but
the experience is still very positive.
There’s plenty of great works that outweigh the weak ones which often
stand out with noteworthy character development, many of which fans should not
miss out on. For that, even if DuckTales has done better, this DVD set
of episodes is worth adding to your collection if you haven’t done it already.
Recommended
Before I get to the last 25 episodes of DuckTales, there are other shows I'm itching to return to talking about. Here's a revised schedule with three of them on the way. Some of them are starting a new practice of covering two seasons instead of one:
- Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Steven Universe Seasons 4 & 5
- Tuesdays and Thursdays: The Loud House Season 3
- Saturdays and Sundays: Voltron: Legendary Defender Seasons 3 & 4
They all kick off next Monday so see you then. Until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
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