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McMystery At McDuck McManor
The whole thing kicks off with a reveal that it’s Scrooge’s birthday, but there’s a catch as seen from much of the McDuck mansion staff leaving. Scrooge is not keen on parties and a big reason for that comes with a reveal on the status of one notable missing character in this reboot. In the original DuckTales, one figure on the McDuck mansion staff was Scrooge’s butler Duckworth (who is oddly not a duck). Considering how this reboot has brought back a lot of familiar faces, it’s hard not to wonder why Duckworth hasn’t appeared at this point. It turns out that he was part of the reboot’s canon, but is now deceased, and his passing is a big reason why Scrooge is against parties as no one could throw one like Duckworth.
Those new to knowing this fact, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, however, are keen of giving their uncle a party out of consideration anyway. In actuality though, it’s really Huey who wants to go through this plan, insistent that it’s what Scrooge needs to heal from the loss of his butler. This is also an exercise of Huey’s prominent individual character trait of being overly strategic. He has a whole agenda on what makes the perfect party with entertainment, guests, and an itinerary for all events. While he does have the right idea for sure, the episode highlights a number of notable drawbacks to his plan. For one thing, even though the point is to throw a perfect party, it’s hard to expect that when it’s so haphazardly thrown together with little time. At least, for entertainment’s sake, there are some funny bits from this misguided plan with Louie only managing to invite Scrooge’s enemies; and Dewey serving as a DJ only to have his head stuck in a helmet for most of the episode, only being able to communicate with a synthesizing keytar. The real issue though is how Huey is clearly inconsiderate of Scrooge’s desires. Sure, he’s unaware of this and means well, but Scrooge clearly isn’t enjoying the affair, and it was explicitly stated that he doesn’t like parties. From an audience perspective, it’s glaringly obvious that Huey is making the party more about him than the person the party is for. But the whole point of parties for someone is to be considerate of what they want, which overall becomes very distracting.
Before it has a chance to take away any good from the viewing experience, things get interesting when the lights go out, and Scrooge is mysteriously gone when they come on. From there, the whole episode goes into an entirely mystery-based direction as the nephews try to figure out who was responsible Scrooge’s disappearance. Since all the guests are his enemies, and the costumes they wear to the party can’t hide their identities, the logical belief was that it was one of them. All the while, the entire mystery proves to be an effective showcase of Huey’s over-analyzation, hyper-fixation, and strategizing skills, further showing the nephews’ individuality.
His first suspect is a magician whose magic trick Scrooge took part in before his disappearance, but he turns out to be a Beagle Boy named Black Arts. There’s an interesting twist where for all his talk and flare for the mystical, he was here specifically to help Ma Beagle steal the deed to Duckburg. The other guests are chosen out of process of elimination, and each have a different motive. Mark Beaks had come to get humiliating footage of Scrooge for his social media accounts, but this move raises suspicions for the remaining guest picked up from his recordings. That guest being Flintheart Glomgold, although his intentions weren’t to kidnap Scrooge, but to just flat out kill him, further showcasing his more demented side in this reboot. With all the guests seemingly innocent, Huey shows a more irrational side by saying it has to be one of them anyway. However, it does turn out that another guest was in on the whole scheme all along, making for a clever play on expectations.
As the lights go out, causing all the guests to go missing this time, Black Arts Beagle remains, and goes on to summon a ghost. This results in a chase through a painting leading to an uncharted room in the mansion that nicely raises the stakes. During this time, there’s room for shining character moments as Huey points out that the only one clever enough to kidnap Scrooge is Scrooge himself. This proves true as they find their uncle in a surveillance room having watched the whole event that he planned himself, for someone who hates parties would go on to sabotage their own. If that’s not enough, the summoned ghost happens to be Duckworth himself who helped hide Scrooge away. Not only that, but this proves to be a creative way of keeping this character part of the cast while having the reboot be its own thing. Ultimately, the conclusion to this whole mystery proves satisfying with Huey becoming more considerate of Scrooge’s feelings on parties, and Duckworth remaining part of the cast.
This episode ends up being a fun creative takes on mysteries with a good dose of surprises, interesting character reveals, and range of personalities (even if some can be frustratingly misguided at times).
A
Series Ranking
1. The House of the Lucky
Gander
2. The Beagle Birthday
Breakout
3. The Impossible Summit of
Mt. Neverrest
4.
Terror of the Terra-Firmians
5.
McMystery at McDuck
McManor
6.
The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra
7. Daytrip of Doom
8. The Great Dime Chase
9. Escape To/From Atlantis
10. Woo-oo
11. The Infernal Internship
of Mark Beaks
The next episode is a nice array of creative world building and character moments during a golf game.
Next time, it's back to Ed Edd n Eddy Season 4 with "Stiff Upper Ed" and "Here's Mud in Your Ed."
If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
