Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 9) - 'Toon Reviews 25

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck

Something about Jekyll and Hyde stories has a winning quality that lends itself well to animation.  The idea of a man uncontrollably turning into a monster and back is very interesting in its own absurd way with many possibilities how each phase of the story works.  In a medium where anything a crew can think of can be drawn to life, takes on them can fit any creative vision.  This show, known for creative adventures, makes the Jekyll and Hyde formula stand as something all its own. 

The catalyst for the curse is a cologne bottle obtained in Dr. Jekyll’s mansion by Jack the Tripper who gets his way through various ways to make people to trip.  The cologne bottle and other items of Dr. Jekyll get sold to an auction in Duckburg, so Jack pursues it there.  Scrooge ends up with one of many trunks which has that cologne, and he sprays some on himself.  This is where the take on the Jekyll and Hyde formula becomes especially creative.

The cologne’s effects do more than just turn Scrooge into a crazy looking figure dubbed Uncle Moneybags.  He uncontrollably gives the wealth he has away.  It’s fitting for this show’s emphasis on the power of money, and has an interesting double standard. It can be seen as a positive that the cologne’s victims give their riches away, but also weird for how haphazardly they make themselves poor.  It’s both a light-hearted take on the formula and something that can be seen as a genuine threat. Even after being cured by getting doused by liquids, Scrooge turns into Moneybags at the mere sight of money.  Also, Jack the Tripper gets the cologne and uses it to turn several people into spending lunatics back in London which raises the stakes of the situation more than normal. 

Scrooge and the boys are in London too to look for an antidote to the effects of Dr. Jekyll’s cologne. It soon becomes a case where Huey, Dewey, and Louie are the only hopes when Scrooge quickly turns Moneybags again.  Since they’re in London and there’s a mystery, you’d be right to think they’d bring in this universe’s version of Sherlock Holmes in for the matter, only here he’s called Shedlock Jones.  He plays to what you’d expect from the famed detective. He uses elementary to deduce the boys’ problem before they explain it and being too egotistical to help them and write off their issue as unimportant. Shedlock also plays to the creative edge of the setup by turning out to be a Junior Woodchuck. 

Some could argue that him coming around and helping the boys anyway is forced with no scene of him changing his mind prior, but given what happens, the sudden feel works.  They find the cologne’s antidote and Jack trips them into stealing it to get the crown jewels from Duckingham Palace.  Then they give him a slip of their own and reveal that he was actually the more important criminal Shedlock was looking for.  It’s an impressive twist that satisfies both sides through the lesser criminal acting like a bigger criminal. 

The episode’s conflict wraps up with another take on its double-standard. Everyone cures Scrooge with the antidote, even if it means giving up the chance for him to buy everyone nice expensive stuff.  It’s a funny kind of bittersweet endingg since the only negative to curing Scrooge is actually quite petty.  This and other humorous takes on the tropes of the Jekyll and Hyde formula make this a greatly entertaining episode that intrigues and has fun with what it brings from start to finish. And that’s elementary.

A+

The Ranking

1. Duck in the Iron Mask
2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck
3. Nothing to Fear
4. The Uncrashable Hindentanic
5. Dime Enough for Luck
6. Duck to the Future
7. Launchpad’s First Crash
8. Jungle Duck
9. The Status Seekers

The next DuckTales review documents Scrooge's past and the importance of his Number One Dime.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is an Annie Award-winning Hilda episode, "The Tide Mice."

If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 13: Merit Time Adventure

Merit-Time Adventure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This episode mixes in a Junior Woodchucks merit-badge plot with a threat to Scrooge’s fortune plot.  Put together, the plots are told well, but can seem a little too familiar at times.  With the Junior Woodchucks, we see the usual conventions from the characters involved like Huey, Dewey, and Louie showing great devotion to their troop and determination to get more merit badges, Launchpad as their big-hearted troop leader, and Doofus Drake not being very productive and mostly eating and taking things too literally. Surprisingly, the standout character in this part of the episode is Webby.  While it is very confusing as to how she’s suddenly become a Junior Woodchuck when she wasn’t part of the troop in any prior episode, she has her own relatable arc in a rare instance of being more than just a cute little girl.  She only has one merit badge and longs to get even more to live up to the standards her other Junior Woodchuck friends, and her determination is easy to feel as she spends the episode researching how to man a boat and turns out to know what to do the best in the group.  Her skills are especially put to good use in Scrooge’s part of the plot.  It’s about how one of his ships, the Lucky Duck, is attacked and destroyed by a sea monster and has apparently swallowed the first mate, Quackerbill.  If that’s not enough, all of Scrooge’s cargo is free to be salvaged by anyone because its ship was sunk, primarily by another one of the show’s incarnations of Pete, Dogface Pete.  Of course, Scrooge is prompted to investigate the truth behind the sea monster with his fortune on the line.  From this description of this part of the plot, that’s when the story becomes a little too familiar.  Think about it, a ship carrying Scrooge’s fortune getting attacked by what appears to be a sea monster.  That’s about the same as what happened in one of the parts of the “Catch as Cash Can” arc which wasn’t too long ago.  It even includes a scene where Scrooge is “swallowed” by the monster and everyone mourns him while trying to believe that he may still be alive just like that one episode.  By then, it would probably be easy to guess that the sea monster is fake, and that’s just what’s revealed later on.  I don’t mind the use of clichés, but recycling plot points from very recent episodes is a bit ridiculous.  There are some good twists though like Dogface Pete, who Scrooge thought was responsible for the monster, turning out to be sympathetic towards Scrooge by helping him try to beat it, and Quackerbill turning out to be the monster’s true mastermind and using it to salvage money from sunken ships, generic villain motivation as it is. Plus, the fact that it’s cute little Webby who takes charge in the end and saves the day for the Junior Woodchucks and Scrooge is an interesting resolution for the conflict at hand, and the ending moment where she finally gets additional merit badges is a great way to cap everything off.  Even if the some story points are recycled in parts, this is still a solid episode fueled by notable character moments and a few good twists. 9/10

The Ranking:

1.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 5: Too Much of a Gold Thing

2.      Catch as Cash Can Part 2: A Whale of a Bad Time

3.      Catch as Cash Can Part 1: A Drain on the Economy

4.      Back to the Klondike

5.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

6.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck

7.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship

8.      Catch as Cash Can Part 4: Working for Scales

9.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor

10.  Merit-Time Adventure

11.  Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks

12.  Scrooge’s Pet

13.  Horse Scents

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Launchpad recounts a quest for "The Golden Fleecing" in therapy.

If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 2: Treasure of tue Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After getting the first taste of Scrooge McDuck and the nephews in the first part of this story arc, we move forward in the second part that not only has them progress towards a huge stash of gold, but also gives an introduction to Scrooge’s rivalry with Flintheart Glomgold.  As we’ve seen in the first DVD volume of the series, Flintheart’s main objective as an antagonist is to beat Scrooge as the richest duck in the world, and does so in some pretty dastardly moves sometimes going as far as to try and get Scrooge arrested.  Still, the rivalry is mostly comedic through how much banter the business rivals have during constant bets to see who can make the most money.  Such a bet is the major focus of this episode when Scrooge and Flintheart set out to see who can make the most money in two weeks, which Scrooge uses as an opportunity to hunt down the gold.  This also leads to the introduction of another prominent element in the series, Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s expert problem-solving skills, mostly relating to their Junior Woodchucks status achieved in the previous episode, which make them stand out from average kid characters.  It plays a huge role in Scrooge’s hunt for the gold since it’s them who uncover its location in Ronguay, South America, the meaning of the frequently repeated word, “monsapis,” and ways their ship works as a map.  The boys’ moments sell their appeal as competent adventurers especially when it encourages Scrooge to keep going when he’s briefly despondant, and also set up how they’d operate in the episodes to come.  We also get a good sense of the lengths Flintheart goes through just to one-up Scrooge such as rigging his plane to Ronguay with a bomb, leading him into quicksand caused by the torrential downpours that are monsapis, and laying low in the gold ship he eventually finds just to spring on him.  In addition to also giving an idea of what we’ll see of Flintheart for the rest of the show, we see more appeal to El Capitan.  Although he’s a standard greedy villain whose sole motivation is to get gold, his overdramatic tendencies on the subject make his single dimension something to laugh at don’t make this a huge issue.  It all leads up to an exciting climax on the ship of gold, which creatively includes gold planks and gold sails.  Even after apprehending Scrooge and the boys and taking the ship for himself, Flintheart shows some heart by leaving his rival with a single gold coin.  Giving even a bit of the treasure away infuriates the greedy El Capitan which sends him overboard and the treasure is sunk again.  In a clever turn of events though, Scrooge having the one coin Flintheart gave him has him win the bet and brings on a hilarious comeuppance point for Flintheart.  As an episode to set up the adventure norm of the series, this leaves us a lot to take away in terms of comedy, creativity, and character moments. 10/10

The Ranking:

1.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay

2.      The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Scrooge's single coin brings on the next part of the story arc and we meet Launchpad McQuack for the first time in "Three Ducks of the Condor."

If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 15

Superdoo!

This episode gives us some insight on Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s Junior Woodchucks troop.  However, the character we focus on here is Doofus Drake.  I have to be honest, out of all the characters in this show’s cast I’ve seen so far, Doofus is my least favorite.  His design and voice lack the charm and appeal of almost everyone else, he doesn’t really do anything substantial aside from providing Launchpad strong moral support and initiative in the last episode we discussed, and as the opening of this episode shows, he isn’t truly useful to those around him.  As you can see, there’s very little to convince me that Doofus is a strong enough character to be the focus of an entire episode.  Still, I can sympathize with him being unable to earn a merit badge or be good friends with the rest of the troop aside from Launchpad serving as scout leader.  The plot really gets going when two random aliens from outer space hide a power crystal on earth, and Doofus just happens to find it when it becomes active and it gives him super powers.  From there, we get a plot that seems to enforce the unfortunate implication that if you have great talents or strength, that makes you an arrogant jerk.  You see, Doofus goes on to use his super powers to help him earn every merit badge possible, and he just goes around bragging about his accomplishments and belittling everyone in the troop, even Launchpad.  I see very little prompting for this behavior.  It’s just nowhere near the character traits we’ve seen from Doofus, even undermining the sympathy established earlier, and feels like it’s only there to follow the convention.  Not to mention, it’s especially out of character for him to treat Launchpad the way he does since the previous episodes he was in showed how much he worships him.  Thankfully, what we see is still enjoyable for the ways Doofus uses his powers to get the badges, and all the ways he saves the scout troop from the havoc the aliens cause in an attempt to get the crystal back as a super hero called Superdoo.  Plus, it’s good that Doofus realizes how smug he was after his identity is revealed, and he willingly throws away the crystal which honestly anticlimactically albeit humorously gets the aliens out of the story, and decides to try and earn the merit badges without powers.  If that’s not enough, the episode closes with implied benefits of the real Doofus as his clumsy ways save the Junior Woodchucks from timber wolves.  I must be clear; Doofus and this episode are not bad.  They’re both decent for what they are, but in the grand scheme of the series, character and episode-wise, there just isn’t much that’s great to make them stand out. 7/10

The Ranking

1. Hotel Strangeduck
2. Hero for Hire
3. Robot Robbers
4. Magica’s Shadow War
5. Duckman of Aquatraz
6. Armstrong
7. Sir Gyro de Gearloose
8. Master of the Djinni
9. Sphinx for the Memories
10. Send in the Clones
11. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
12. The Money Vanishes
13. Where No Duck Has Gone Before
14. Dinosaur Ducks
15. Superdoo!

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where a trip to Valhalla gets Mrs. Beakley in on the action in "Maid of the Myth."

If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 3

Where No Duck Has Gone Before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Considering this show’s adventure aesthetic, it only figures that we’d eventually get an outer space-focused episode.  The premise for the episode is that Scrooge buys the studio where Courage of the Cosmos, the favorite show of Huey, Dewey, Louie, and their friend from their Junior Woodchucks scout troop Doofus Drake, is made, and Scrooge has big plans to overhaul the show to boost the ratings.  This includes having his on-hand inventor, Gyro Gearloose, create a lifelike spaceship for Major Courage to use.  Then in a rather humorous turn of events, Gyro makes the spaceship a little too lifelike and it actually launches Courage, Scrooge’s nephews, and Doofus into space.  The comedy factor only builds when you consider that no one knows right away that they’re actually in space, calling space itself a set or seeing an asteroid field as really good special effects although I will say that this scenario is stretched a little too long which kind of makes you wish everyone would just find out the truth.  The standout character in this whole episode just happens to be the fan-favorite character original to this show, Launchpad McQuack.  He proves to be highly entertaining with his light-hearted and level-headed personality, but what really sells him as a character is how much he values Scrooge and his nephews despite not being the brightest individual, seeing that he is Scrooge’s personal pilot.  While Launchpad does show some jealousy towards Courage, he still manages to successfully keep everyone safe while out in space.  He’s the quickest to find out they’re actually in space, guides the ship through the asteroids, and even uses his scatterbrain nature to help everyone escape aliens and eventually lead them off course.  Basically, what I see of Launchpad here gets me excited to see more of him in the series.  That said, I do tend to get a bit annoyed by Major Courage here.  He’s way too full of himself, takes Scrooge’s nephews and Doofus along for filming the show for his own gain, takes the longest to find out they’re actually in space, and leaves the kids to the aliens to save himself.  These factors do not make him a good character to get behind.  At least he’s just here for this one episode and he gets what he deserves in the end.  Plus, Doofus doesn’t really make a good first impression since all he does is follow Huey, Dewey, and Louie around and comments on what happens, meaning that he’s not very interesting or appealing.  The moments with those two characters aside, this is an all-around good space-centered adventure that’s big on laughs, and features a nice performance by Launchpad McQuack. 8/10

The Ranking

1.      Sphinx for the Memories

2.      Send in the Clones

3.      Where No Duck Has Gone Before

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where everything is made better by robots, or not, when Scrooge and his team are introduced to "Armstrong."

If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.