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Yuppy Ducks
The material in this set of episodes that focus on Huey, Dewey, and Louie seem to cover a common theme. That theme would be having these young boys using business to enhance their desires for fun only to learn that business is far more complex than they let on. So far, they’ve tried stretching the truth about the day of the week to get more allowance, and doubling their money, both of which resulting in havoc. The trend continues with this episode where the nephews believe that they can run a successful business only to realize the complexities the hard way.
A nuisance about the local malt shop having only three milkshake flavors has the boys wish that they had their own business so they can run a shop with all sorts of flavors. As their uncle Scrooge informs them that they’re too young for that, a series of events put the boys’ desire into motion. Scrooge suddenly comes down with a case of loot lice as a result of his obsession with maintaining his fortune. A lot of time is spent on him building up to discovering his condition via a comedic scene of him going to the cheapest clinic and being unable to convince the doctor he’s rich. Then there’s a long bit of him being placed in the hospital for a week while the lice are fumigated all while sharing a room with one of the Beagle Boys. The point here is that there’s so much focus on Scrooge that it can easily catch the audience off guard when Huey, Dewey, and Louie eventually take back the spotlight.
Fortunately, once they do, there’s interesting and well-realized subject matter for the rest of the episode. The boys (as well as Bubba the caveduck who’s just kind of there) end up answering calls on Scrooge’s private business line since he’s not around to do it. Their innocence of having a company buy a baseball team and suggest trading baseball cards surprisingly go well. When they end up coming clean to a bunch of investors and dealers, they’re impressed with how well they handled the deals, and the boys use this as an opportunity. They claim themselves as the heads of McDuck Enterprises, and with their new power, they set out to make business deals that fit their personal desires for fun. For one thing, they set up a chain of malt shops that has all sorts of flavors like they wanted which work out well. Then they take things further with other ideas for products like FM radio earrings and their own car design. Considering that they pulled off their previous business deals well, it does seem like they know what they’re doing. They even work the money bin’s security system well when the entire Beagle family tries to rob it.
However, it turns out for how well the boys seemed to handle things, they still prove that their youth is their own undoing in business deals. Their product ideas prove too ridiculous to be successful, resulting in many failed deals. The investors are now in debt after spending so much on making said products, resulting in Scrooge’s money bin being completely emptied. The boys have the right idea to make money on their own in a day, but it’s still not enough. Once Scrooge is well enough to come back, the way events play out for the rest of the episode gets pretty messy. First, the boys’ attempts to keep Scrooge away from the bin go completely wasted when he notices it empty anyway. Then he's suddenly sent back to the hospital after the emotional shock of the sight. The boys are with him for a while which looks like they’re going to explain to Scrooge what happened. Instead, there’s a sudden cut to a scene where they’re running away without anything to establish that’s what they were planning.
During this plan, they find a way out of the mess when they learn from a policeman that investors can’t make business deals with young kids like them; serving as the business lesson for the episode, this is a matter of breaking child labor laws. It’s all a clever way of working in a real world issue, but this is where the logic must be questioned. If child labor laws are a big matter, how could none of the investors have considered them when making those deals with the boys? Surely, they would have easily been able to tell that they just can’t make deals with literal children just by looking at who they were talking do. It kind of makes this loophole just a matter of plot convenience with it only being considered at the right time. On top of that, while it easily solves the problem by getting Scrooge’s fortune back the way it was in an instant, they seem to be absolved from owning up to their mistake. Scrooge is just happy things are back to normal, and the episode ends with the boys easily moving on with their lives. Some could say it’s a mixed message for the boys to not face any consequences, but they did still learn and fixed their mistake, and there’s no harm done now. Overall, unlike things like the investors being too dense to consider child labor laws until it matters, this direction is fine.
Ultimately, this episode is a solid continuation of the trend of working in interesting business lessons into childhood antics. It still suffers from sudden shifts in focus and resolutions feeling like conveniences, but it doesn’t make the merits any less notable.
B+
The Ranking
1. Blue Collar Scrooge
2. My Mother the Psychic
3. Allowance Day
4.
The Big Flub
5. The Land of Trala La
6. Yuppy Ducks
7. The Good Muddahs
8. Dough Ray Me
9. A Case of Mistaken Identity
10. Bubba’s Big Brainstorm
11. Beaglemania
12. Metal Attraction
13. Bubbeo and Juliet
The next episode features Scrooge stuck in an arranged marriage with Ma Beagle, but first a look at an episode of the reboot.
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