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Since this blog has started reviewing the final episodes of the original series, it’s only fitting to look at the first season of its reboot at the same time. What’s more, this show is probably a testament for all reboots to look up to in this age of media with:
DuckTales (2017) (Season 1)
Basic
Premise
In this age of entertainment, companies have a tendency to bring back old properties and reboot them for a new generation. Some might say that it’s an excuse to capitalize on nostalgia. Not only does this call for a lack of originality, but also a lack of understanding of what makes the source material so great. Disney is no stranger to this concept in a lot of areas such as their constant remakes of their animated films in live action. Their near-derivative stories and lack of soul in composition make it clear that these films only exist for the money, and adds to the sorry state of story ideas for media. This makes it all the more fortunate that Disney is also responsible for the ultimate reboot.
Starting as a series of comics that added to the Donald Duck universe in the 1940s and then turning into a TV show in the 1980s, Disney really got something special with DuckTales. It’s a fresh spin with established characters by putting them in unique scenarios of creative adventures and exciting thrills. Then in the 2010s, it was announced that Scrooge McDuck and Huey, Dewey, and Louie would be back in a new reimagining of the series. Upon its premiere in 2017, its strengths as a reboot would be known almost instantly. It matches the tone, feel, and energy of the original series with a big focus on adventure, imagination, and family ties, but also has ways of standing as something all its own. In addition to a more contemporary atmosphere, it would also adopt a newer eye-catching art style and show more faithfulness to its roots; this is mainly shown through the costume designs and allowing Donald himself as part of the main cast instead of shipping him to the navy. It would even update some of the weaker elements of the original series into something more substantial, and allow for stronger continuity and arcs between episodes.
To really see how successful this reboot is as a series is, of course, to look through all the episodes starting with this review set for Season 1. With all this said, it’s time to get the adventure started, all while solving mysteries and rewriting history.
Now on with the reviews
Woo-oo / Escape to/from Atlantis
Reboots often come with skepticism over how good and faithful to the original source material they’ll be. Luckily, this full-length premiere comes with the best first impressions one can hope for. It’s a successful recapture of the original series’ themes of adventure and family that’s also fresh and new as a series by itself.
This is made apparent by how the premise and characters are introduced in this new incarnation. They’re all in a similar manner to how they were introduced in the original series, albeit with a few notable differences. For one thing, there’s a more in-depth introduction to Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They demonstrate their well-known traits of mischievousness and longing for adventure with major ways to make them stand as their own characters instead of one-in-the-same. Huey is very studious and calculating, Dewey is the most reckless and ready to face any sort of danger, and Louie is constantly scheming for the quickest way to riches. These qualities stand out even more when looking at the role of their uncle Donald who plays a much more active and relatable role in this incarnation. He tries to keep his rambunctious nephews under control while also earn a good job to support them which is especially stressful to a temperamental duck like him. It’s all familiar elements with its own fresh tweaks instantly putting this reboot off to a good start. That said, the drastically different tones of the nephews’ voices can be a tad off-putting after decades of them sounding like younger versions of Donald.
Anyway, the plot soon gets moving when Donald learns he can’t get a babysitter to watch the nephews while he’s at a job interview, so he goes with his only other option. He calls to request them being watched by a truly major character to DuckTales, Scrooge McDuck. This seems to fit the adventurous spirit of the boys since Scrooge is known to have had a very active life. In reality, as shown in his introduction for the reboot, Scrooge is put down by the hardships of being such a rich duck with constant investor meetings sucking out the pleasures. He also demonstrates the effects of isolation through being lonely and cut off from family. In fact, through his interactions with Donald, there seems to be some major tensions between them that begs a lot of questions that eventually lead to strong payoffs.
Still, Scrooge agrees to watch over Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and their first introductions leave the boys with major disappointment. In addition to having no interest in adventures like they were hoping, Scrooge barely interacts with the boys and expects them to be entertained with simple marbles. Fortunately for them, this mundane perception of Scrooge soon crumbles to the truth as they explore more of his manor. At the same time, there is much to be said about this reboot’s introductions to its takes on characters completely organic to DuckTales. Launchpad McQuack, Scrooge’s chauffeur, is a faithful recreation of being dimwitted and crash prone, but still loyal to his charges. Mrs. Beakley still serves as Scrooge’s housekeeper but is much more firm in keeping order.
However, the biggest and most welcome incarnation is seen through Webby, easily a very smart change from the original series. Rather than a saccharine little girl archetype, this Webby is a very adventurous and spirited character ready for adventure. She also has a relatable fangirl-like fascination with Scrooge and his history, knowing a lot about his adventures which apparently Donald was also part of; the latter is especially hard to believe with how concerned he is with safety. With all this said about Webby, it’s not surprising that interest picks up for the boys when they meet her and hear of her recounts of Scrooge.
As she quickly befriends them, she also introduces to a place in the mansion full of artifacts of Scrooge’s old adventures. When Scrooge inevitably catches them snooping around, many of them come together for a climax big on adventurous spirit. A spiritual gong goes off awakening a gold dragon that goes after Scrooge’s fortune stored in his money bin. It takes quick thinking of everyone involved, suitable albeit untraditional flying from Launchpad, and use of tools both mundane and supernatural to beat the adversary. By the end of that ordeal, Scrooge and the nephews become closer with Scrooge being reminded of his old adventurous ways and getting inspired for many more. He’s even willing to invite the nephews along to show them how to go about adventures the right way, easily fitting what the boys were after all this time. In other words, the premise of the series is off to an effective start, and their first adventure together soon lets itself be known.
The second half of the premiere covers this first adventure with Scrooge and the kids venturing to find the lost city of Atlantis and bring back its treasure. It certainly is a good fit for what Huey, Dewey, and Louie want in an adventure with a submarine voyage set off for parts unknown. There’s a solid use of character throughout the voyage; while Huey is mostly an observer, his schedule and amenities demonstrate his prominent trait of being crazy prepared and organized; Louie and Webby have a notable subplot of covering Webby’s involvement in the Atlantis adventure from her protective granny, Mrs. Beakley, with lies, fitting his scheming ways.
However, the most prominent character on the voyage is Dewey, the most adventurous of the kids. A voyage to Atlantis sounds exciting on its own, but since Dewey longs to take adventures to the extreme, this is somehow not satisfying. Scrooge may be organizing this trip, but does so in planning to get to Atlantis the safe and uneventful way, avoiding all dangers. The thing is that Dewey actively wants to face the dangers and see what it’s like to get the real feel of adventures. Through watching this behavior clash with Scrooge’s good reasons for playing safe, it’s hard to fully sympathize with Dewey, but it at least is a good foundation for an arc.
While all this is going on, something is done with Donald’s job interview where instead of becoming a simple accountant, he too is roped into adventure. The man in charge just happens to be Scrooge’s business rival Flintheart Glomgold, who’s another welcome change from the original series. There, he was very similar to Scrooge in both appearance, motivation, and background, yet his villainous ways were constantly off-putting especially since they could always work together. Here, Flintheart is seen as a crazy greedy lunatic right at the start, so any overly villainous action makes sense. As he leads the way through the very same voyage to Atlantis, he makes a lot of his advances through Donald, someone who clearly doesn’t fit within a group of threatening adventurers. He just happens to say the right thing to lead to Flintheart’s ultimate gold, with his team arriving at Atlantis just as Scrooge does.
Speaking of which, Dewey, still wanting the adventure to feel like his idea of an adventure, eventually gets his desire. Atlantis is full of traps and while he doesn’t notice them at first, he and Scrooge get separated from the rest of the group and find the treasure in a chamber full of traps. It’s also here where they cross paths with Donald which further develops the tensions between him and Scrooge. Through it all is a lot revealed about Donald to explain his concern for safety with particular emotion expressed through his worries of people getting hurt through dangers. Said worries are revealed to have significant weight to them later in the series, particularly a mention of something called the Spear of Selene. In a strong character building moment, Dewey takes responsibility by explaining that he’s really to blame for getting into danger as opposed to Scrooge.
He also notices notable details to Atlantis itself as it enacts one of its death traps setting out to drown everyone in the treasure chamber. In doing so, he discovers what its sacred treasure really is and convinces Donald to stop plugging the leaks and trust him. With Scrooge taking notice of Dewey’s insight, they follow his lead to get that treasure atop the chamber, escape the death trap, and reunite with the rest of the family.
After that, the adventure as a whole reaches a solid conclusion that in turn transitions to the rest of the series. Flintheart, who took a different jewel thinking it was the treasure of Atlantis while abandoning his crew, is publicly proven wrong and humiliated; Mrs. Beakley discovers Webby’s lies but allows her to go on adventures with Scrooge when convinced she’s safe with him; and Donald becomes more open to letting the nephews visit Scrooge, especially as a fire on his houseboat leads to them all moving in. It’s all an effective beginning to a series of adventures with a lot to offer, but as the episode ends, it goes one more extra mile.
The final scene has Dewey explore more artifacts of Scrooge’s past, and in the process he finds a painting featuring one other person fighting alongside Scrooge and Donald. It just happens to be Della Duck, Donald’s sister and the boys’ long lost mother. This is huge because not just to DuckTales but in the entire history of Disney, one can’t help but wonder what really became of the boys’ parents. The fact that this series is daring to address that historic issue and provide an answer is a big selling point to the reboot. As it also remains a hot topic for seasons to come, there’s just a lot more appreciation in both the landscape of animation and all of Disney.
This premiere leaves one of the strongest first impressions to the show. The adventures are exciting and creative; the characters are well-defined; the themes resonate with all ages; and the mysteries it addresses are very insightful. It captures the adventurous spirit of its predecessor while also shows off its own strengths, successfully convincing audiences to come along for the rest of the ride.
A
Series Ranking
1.
Escape To/From Atlantis
2.
Woo-oo
The next review for the reboot follows the boys try to have a day of fun with the ever unconventional Webby.
Next time is the start of another new review set on the fourth season of Ed Edd n Eddy.
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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