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This blog has lately been focusing a lot on finishing reviews on every show it started, although there were certain shows that were straight-up abandoned due to lack of interest. For this review set, it’s finally time to wrap up a show that’s been 3/4s of the way covered with only one more DVD of episodes to it. Also, continuing the Disney theme of the last two review sets, these reviews are all about one of the earliest Disney TV Animation series:
DuckTales (Vol 4)
Basic
Premise
Before diving into these reviews, as writer of this blog, I would like to apologize for taking so long to get to this last batch of the original DuckTales. Maybe it was because I was just more interested in looking into other shows or maybe it’s because I’ve been focusing a lot more on art. Either way, since I’ve made it this far with the show and finished reviewing most of the other shows on this blog, I’d have to get back to this show at some point. Still, it’s very ridiculous that this show hasn’t been touched for over 3 years. That all changes now for the 50th review set of MC Toon Reviews.
There’s always been something exciting and charming to this show about the globe-trotting adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The creativity of the adventures in terms of location and enemies they encounter along the way is absolutely endless, as is the unique classic-Disney tone. It’s no wonder this show is a huge hit with many classic TV animation fans to the point of eventually being rebooted, and said reboot is just about as good as the original. It’s debatable if these final 25 episodes will live up to what came before it since many feature rather divisive characters. They include the scrappy and perpetually destructive Bubba the caveduck, and nice but significantly less interesting and overly-bumbling Fenton Crackshell or Gizmoduck. Still, it’s best to go in with open minds when it comes to judging the shows and see for oneself if they’re truly that weak; there may even be some good surprises in store.
As an extra, this review set will also include a bonus review of the 1990 theatrical DuckTales movie, Treasure of the Lost Lamp to make the look at the original series fully complete. So that’s 25 original adventures with a big movie finale, something to really look forward to considering the end of these reviews has been a long time coming. With all this said, let’s not waste anymore time and dive right into the final episodes of the original series of not ponytails or cottontails, but DuckTales.
Now on with the reviews:
The Land of Trala La
Considering that it’s been a long time since this blog has looked at this show, analyzing this episode feels kind of nostalgic. It’s a reminder of its special appeal through how it tells its stories and executes its adventures. At the same time, it even serves as an interesting allegory of what can count as currency.
It’s known that Scrooge McDuck is the richest duck in the world, but this episode highlights the drawbacks of that. Investors constantly request money from Scrooge stressing him out. It gets to the point where he goes mad over the mere mention or look of money and is prescribed to take a vacation away from it. This setup leads Scrooge and company to a providence with literally no use for money, Trala La, and it’s crazy how well this place lives up to this money-free promise. The community is very peaceful and inviting devoid of all the societal problems of who has more power through wealth; here equality is easily achieved. That said, the inhabitants can understandably turn people off through apparent ethnic stereotypes.
Being in an environment that doesn’t use money is paradise for Scrooge, and the good treatment he gets from the civilians gives him the idea of moving here. However, a country that doesn’t use money at all feels too good to be true, and reality is made clear via Scrooge’s accountant Fenton Crackshell. The Trala La civilians come across something small yet very valuable of Fenton’s which in reality is a mere bottle cap. People fight over the bottle cap, so Scrooge has to settle the matter by bringing in several bottle caps from the outside world so everyone has one since in reality they’re easy to come by. Then, like with actual money, Trala La is overrun with everyone scrambling to get the most wealth and power when Scrooge gives one person two bottle caps. In other words, they’re no longer a society all their own with money existing in Trala La after all, going to show that anything can have value.
Fenton feels like he’s doing good by resolving the issue through having Launchpad McQuack drop a billion bottle caps, but that soon comes with drawbacks too. With many bottle caps falling, they become so common that everything in Trala La is sold at unreasonable prices, further making this place no different from the outside world. The people also lose some respect and likability when Scrooge tries to explain how out of hand this has gotten, and it feels like no one listens. They instead turn on Scrooge for littering in their land, which doesn’t help that Fenton arranged for a billion bottle caps to be dropped, and plan to drop him and his family off a cliff. What’s more, when Scrooge and Fenton leave to stop the plane, they still aim to harm Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who didn’t even do anything at all, if they don’t comply.
This setup does come with a creative solution when a cap from Scrooge’s medicine bottle leads to him and Fenton using it to create a fire signal to get Launchpad to stop dropping the caps. The litter is also taken care of with the aid of Fenton’s Gizmoduck suit, leading Trala La to return to its status quo. It seems like Scrooge is ready to return to Duckburg recovered from his prior condition. This makes the last scene of him breaking down over money requests from family and employees unwarranted.
On the whole, the story does have a fair share of disagreeable elements, but it also prides itself on solid entertainment and explores of how anything can have worth.
B+
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