Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Allowance Day - (DuckTales Vol 4 Part 2) - 'Toon Reviews 50

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Allowance Day

It’s an interesting setup where a little seemingly innocent deviant act causes a lot of confusion to the masses, to say the least.  A lot of the times, such an act would just cause humorous antics that don’t spread too far which would be good for a short.  For a longer story such as episodes of this show, it’s far more fitting for the extent of these actions to lead to bigger consequences and noticeable drama.  

This circumstance is reflected in this episode where so much goes wrong because of one childish prank.  Huey, Dewey, and Louie are keen on buying a cool-looking scooter that’s on sale, but the sale ends on Friday and they don’t get allowance until Saturday.  After failing to convince Scrooge to give them an advance on their allowance, the nephews take action in a way that’s very in line with their classic shorts portrayal.  They sneakily change every mention of it being Friday into Saturday so Scrooge will think it’s the day to give them allowance, and they can get their scooter.  Seeing all the lengths the boys go through to make their ploy convincing makes it seem like they have everything all planned out.  

However, all potential problems become apparent when it becomes clear that they only thought of themselves and not how people like Scrooge would react to all this.  After all, he has his own plans and schedules too.  As he goes about them and claims that it’s Saturday all the way, people are left confused and said confusion spreads very quickly.  With the move of having the results of the boys’ prank affect this many people, the conflict stands in a more enticing and dramatic manner.  If this were in something like an old Donald Duck cartoon, the prank likely wouldn’t have spread farther than the boys’ intended target and would just be funny.  Here, with the longer running time and nearly the whole world confused whether it’s Friday or Saturday, there’s more room for bigger emotions and stakes.  

The boys soon have to confess to Scrooge that they tricked him but never mean things to go this far while Scrooge is roped into trying to clear a big business deal.  Because of the day confusion, it’s believed that he was a day late to sign an agreement to the ownership of a banana bran flakes factory in the Banana Republic.  A big protest with the general claiming ownership of the factory that he still has time leads both Scrooge and Fenton Crackshell on the firing line to be executed.  It’s at this point where urgency pushes the boys to act fast to right their wrong.  Luckily, their well-established cleverness is intact as they plan on revealing a solar éclair eclipse to let it be known that it’s Friday once and for all.  There’s tension in how close the general gets to firing, fears if Fenton can become Gizmoduck in time, and all the clouds covering the eclipse, but of course it all works out.  Once the eclipse is seen, Scrooge’s protests are proven correct, the factory is recovered, and everyone knows what day it is. 

When looking back, it’s crazy to realize that this all happened because three boys wanted a scooter, but it does bring an important point to think of how a prank can affect others.  Ultimately, this episode has much to admire through how much things escalate as well as the substantial facts of life one can walk away with.

A

The Ranking

1.      Allowance Day

2.      The Land of Trala La

The next review shows what happens when Bubba the caveduck finds love.
Next time, from the DuckTales reboot is a "Daytrip of Doom."
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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