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Happy 2023! After a long holiday break, MC Toon Reviews is happy to get back to business by picking up where we left off in our regular scheduled reviews, starting with this new one for DuckTales:
The Good Muddahs
Since a huge selling point for this show is exciting globetrotting adventures, a warning sign for weaker material is when an episode stars Webby as the main character. Unlike her active, adventurous and energetic incarnation for the reboot, here she’s very saccharine as a standard cutesy little girl archetype which can really throw off the tone. Now, to be fair, while these traits don’t allow her the best underlying conflict for this episode, she still endures a rather interesting situation.
The inciting events that start everything are very standard little kid fare. Webby wants someone to play with her, but they’re all too busy with their own plans to give her any attention. This is meant to have the audience sympathize with her, but from a more mature perspective, Webby’s peers have good reason to give other matters more attention. Technically, the young boys, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Bubba have the weakest excuse as they actively exclude Webby for being a girl, but there’s more legitimacy to the adults. Scrooge and Mrs. Beakly actual work to do which understandably doesn’t give them time for young Webby. Those matters make her claims that no one loves her a clear exaggeration and something hard to get behind.
As to what this work is, Scrooge is given special gems to display at the Duckburg museum, and having them on loan means he has to make sure nothing happens to them. His biggest precaution is making sure his biggest enemies, the Beagle Boys, are given extra security so they can’t break out of prison and rob them. However, no one accounts for their female cousins, the Beagle Babes, whose existence is very convenient for this episode due to no prior mentions; though that’s kind of true for all newly introduced members of the Beagle family. Anyway, like their male counterparts, they also target the special gems, and since they weren’t accounted for, they have a chance to rob them. Instead, they end up snagging Webby to hold her hostage in exchange for the gems. As opposed to stubborn pride, Scrooge doesn’t go through with paying the ransom because the gems don’t belong to him.
So Webby has to adjust to living with the Beagle Babes which is where things get interesting. After apparently literally spending 12 hours crying, she calms down by unlocking a different side to the Beagle Babes. Through her sweet cutesy ways, Webby shows them how she wishes to be cared for through things like telling her a story. From there, the Beagle Babes become moved by having a little girl to look after which gives them more depth as characters; they stand as more than just female counterparts of familiar enemies. Their attention then goes from robbing riches to providing for young Webby including getting her special toys. However, they care enough for her interests by returning them on account that they got the toys for her by stealing them.
It seems that Webby has brought out real soft sides to these antagonistic characters, and it gets to the point that she sees them as more of a family than her real one. It certainly doesn’t help that Scrooge and the others have ridiculously incompetent cops to work with in trying to get her back. Soon enough, the boys track Webby down with Bubba as a bloodhound, and it’s fitting that they convince her to come back since they were the most out of line in neglecting her. However, Webby insists she can’t just leave the Beagle Babes since they’re so nice and want her around. The solution to that is to intentionally act bad so she’ll be too much for the Beagle Babes. It’s certainly out of the ordinary to see Webby in a crime boss get up, as is the boys attempting to drive a car to make their escape. It’s also very unexpected for the Beagle Babes to deal with given how much their soft sides developed. In the end, Webby’s escape brings her back to McDuck Manor where the car crashes through the wall and she’s welcomed back with everyone agreeing to give her more attention. As for the Beagle Babes, what becomes of them can be mixed where they’re given an option to run a McDuck Daycare division as punishment, but they’d rather go to jail. It’s not exactly the best direction for their newfound caring sides, but at least they’ll never forget Webby.
This episode ultimately doesn’t have the best background or execution, but the intrigue of innocent Webby bringing out the good in a group of criminals is something to take note of.
B
The Ranking
1. Allowance Day
2. The Land of Trala La
3.
The Good Muddahs
4. Bubbeo and Juliet
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