'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 24: Magica's Magic Mirror/Take Me Out of the Ball Game + Final Thoughts

Magica’s Magic Mirror

For the last episode on the DVD, it’s interesting that instead of one full episode, we have two short cartoons, and this is the only episode in the entire series that’s like this.  Interesting background aside, this cartoon at the first half of the episode proves how well this show can work with storytelling even with half the runtime.  It once again has Magica de Spell as the primary antagonist and a highly entertaining one through her many spells at that.  In this case, she hands Scrooge a gold mirror and entices him to work a magic spell on it.  The way he just accepts the mirror without considering who he’s talking too is concerning since it’s hard to miss Magica’s distinct voice, but that point is too minor to invest a lot of thought in.  Now, the catch is that the mirror she gave him is a magical one that’s connected to a similar-looking gold mirror where Magica can project what goes on in front of it to be shown on the other mirror making those with the other mirror think it’s showing the future.  Much of the time Magica uses her magic mirrors is spent on playing harmless pranks on Scrooge and the nephews which not only supply a few good laughs, but also convince Scrooge that its prediction powers are for real.  That’s the motivation Magica needs for her ultimate “prediction” which convinces Scrooge that one major supplier of his fortune will be doomed unless he hands over his Number One Dime to her.  While Scrooge is an easy target of Magica’s tricks, it’s Huey, Dewey, and Louie who end up the wiser when their mischievous spying ways allow them to catch Magica in the act.  Then, we get the well-known cartoon convention of messing with the hero or enemy’s secret weapons to humiliate them, and while there’s some mild humor to Magica’s trick getting exposed through Scrooge seeing nothing but makeshift props when asking the mirror for the future, the final climax between them and Magica ends just as it starts.  Considering that she’s a powerful wizard with a vast knowledge of spells, you’d think that there would be a huge battle with creative spells thrown at the protagonists since we’ve seen her do stuff like that before.  Instead, Magica’s magic beam bounces around for a while before hitting her and sending her to the mountains.  This is no doubt a result of having this story be a short cartoon instead of a full episode.  If it was a full episode, the climax would probably be a lot different and more exciting.  As it is, even with its flaws, what we have is still a solid showing of character moments and humor. 9/10

Take Me Out of the Ball Game

The second cartoon of the last episode on the Vol. 2 DVD is far more down-to-earth than the last one, making it more beneficial of the shorter-than-usual length.  It follows the common slice-of-life activity of little league baseball games and struggling to win against the opposing team.  What sets this particular cartoon apart from others of the subject is the character in charge of the team of focus featuring Huey, Dewey, Louie and many prominent kid characters in the cast called the Junior Woodchucks, and he’s the last person you’d expect to be a baseball coach.  It’s the ever-proper butler Duckworth filling in for the championship game against the opposing team of young members of the Beagle family, the Beagle Brats, which when you think about it, doesn’t make sense for them to have a baseball team when the Beagle family consists of wanted criminals.  Anyway, regarding Duckworth and his coaching means, being a highly trained butler established to go this route by choice with no understanding of how baseball works, the entertainment factor comes from how he applies his butler mindset to the game.  He demands the players to clean themselves off when they slide into the bases, scolds them due to him not understanding what it means to steal a base, and he demands the players be on their best behavior even though they’re just trying to score runs and get the other team out.  The moments work because it’s funny to see an activity like baseball be approached with a completely different frame of mind, and it makes for an effective obstacle for the Junior Woodchucks team to get through so not to make them completely unstoppable against the Beagle Brats.  Still, the fact that they get thrashed by the opposing team so badly throughout the cartoon makes you wish that they’d just hurry up and let Duckworth know that getting dirty, stealing bases, and whatnot is what you’re supposed to do in baseball.  Thankfully, just when you think that these facts will never get through Duckworth’s high-class head, the Junior Woodchucks’ protests on their progress finally get him to think of the right strategy through treating baseball like golf or keeping your eye on the ball.  As it turns out, this is the moment that finally gets Duckworth to be seen as a credible coach with the Junior Woodchucks catching up to the Beagle Brats feeling like it’s worth praising after how poor they were coached to play before.  Duckworth even makes a star out of Doofus, the Junior Woodchuck struggling throughout the whole cartoon, by appealing to his interests resulting in Doofus hitting the winning homerun, and bringing in one last gag involving Scrooge, Launchpad, and Launchpad’s helicopter as the cartoon ends.  We do close the DVD with a basic show that takes a while to get going, but through priding on strong comedy and a commendable payoff, it’s a good finish to a nice set for a great series nonetheless. 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. Double-O-Duck
6. Raiders of the Lost Harp
7. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 2: Wronguay in Ronguay
8. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 4: Cold Duck
9. Time Teasers
10. Duckworth’s Revolt
11. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
12. Catch as Cash Can Part 4: Working for Scales
13. Ducks of the West
14. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
15. Take Me Out of the Ball Game
16. Merit-Time Adventure
17. Back Out in the Outback
18. Magica’s Magic Mirror
19. Scroogerello
20. Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks
21. Luck O’ the Ducks
22. Scrooge’s Pet
23. Horse Scents
24. The Golden Fleecing
25. The Right Duck

Final Thoughts

Now that all three discs of DuckTales Vol. 2 have been successfully covered, I can proudly say that the series continues to impress, and I’m really glad that I decided to look into this show.  Just about everything great about the show established from the first batch of episodes from Vol. 1 is on full display here, thus remaining as engaging as ever. There’s still a lot of creativity with the adventures which broaden the scope of where Scrooge and others in the main cast go like the Andes Mountains, Antarctica, the Klondike, Atlantis, the Wild West, and Australia.  Each adventure location offers its own distinct form of excitement and charm from the chemistry of the characters embarking and almost always leaves you with a unique impression when it all wraps up.  While it is true that some adventures aren’t as exciting as others, most of the time, you still get the sense of a non-stop thrill ride filled with creativity, solid comedy, and likable and memorable characters going through them all. 

Speaking of characters, for the most part, all of the best ones such as Scrooge, Launchpad, Mrs. Beakley, and practically all the villains continue to delight whenever they’re on screen.  Even some of the weaker characters in the cast have their own standout moments that enhance their appeal.  A good example of this idea involves the starring roles of Webby in this set.  While her overly girlish mannerisms don’t make her the most interesting or enjoyable character, there were times when her character seemed compelling enough to carry an episode.  Her animal-loving traits showed a layer of firmness and determination in episodes like “Back Out in the Outback,” and “Horse Scents,” and her wanting to prove her worth as a Junior Woodchuck in “Merit Time Adventure” gave the audience something of substance to root for regarding her character.  These moments of greatness did not make Webby as good as the strongest characters by any means, but the fact that there were times where she was worth caring for is still worth noting.  There were even episodes giving more character to those who seemed to have very little prior, most notably Duckworth who at first came off as nothing more than Scrooge’s butler.  Episodes such as “Duckworth’s Revolt” and “Take Me Out of the Ball Game” allowed time for depth to his status as a butler and how much it means to him, as well as a way for him to apply his primary traits to something as rowdy and active as baseball.  While there are a lot of good character moments, they didn’t exactly have a flawless streak.  Huey, Dewey, and Louie continue to impress as problem solvers and smart for the mischievous kids they are, but they’re still the same character personality-wise, Doofus is still weak and slightly grating, and there are times where Scrooge’s frustration with his co-workers and family and Launchpad’s cluelessness can get too overbearing.  Even at that, the characters are still enjoyable enough to headline the show, and make it clear that it wouldn’t be as fun and exciting without them.

While this DVD volume is just about as good as the previous one, there’s one thing that makes it stand out from what came before, and that is the multi-part story arcs.  The two present on this particular volume bring together all the best parts of the series, allowing the adventure aspect to be bigger, grander, and more creative while the characters are given some of their best moments.  “The Treasure of the Golden Suns” serves as a solid introduction to the main players and their principle personalities while also building on little elements like the special ship, the unique coin, and the treasure map building up to an intense finale that proves precisely why family is more important than riches.  It’s a non-stop thrill after thrill that show off the appeal of all the characters involved and what to expect from them in the series to follow.  It really should’ve been the first in the set of episodes on Vol. 1 for continuity and order’s sake, but there’s not much we can do about that.  The other story arc, “Catch as Cash Can”, mostly builds itself on creative ideas to put Scrooge and his team through and they’re all filled with great imagination and appeal for how well they’re executed.  We have Scrooge and the boys chasing after Scrooge’s fortune in the sewers, a run-in with a robot whale which also ropes Donald along for the ride, and an engaging race of carrying the island of Atlantis with balloons to a finish line.  It’s practically the high point of the creativity aspect of the show that most likely can’t be topped.  It is bogged down by some frustrating moments like incredibly dense antagonists like the Atlantians who think all air-breathers are polluters, Scrooge saying the boys intended to making him lose harkening to his frustrations getting overbearing that I mentioned earlier, and the fact that one of the parts end up recycled into the plot of a later episode.  Nevertheless, I’ll always remember the story arc for the good points which are incredibly good.  In fact, the story arcs in general feature the show at its biggest potential.  It’s a potential so big that it helps support my belief that this show truly is one of the best.

DuckTales Vol. 2 greatly builds on everything that worked so well the first time around with all its strengths turning out as strong as ever, and made even better by the first two story arcs.  It helps support the belief that this is an animated TV series worth owning, so add it to your collection if you haven’t already, and be sure to stay tuned for the eventual look at Vol. 3, the unreleased remaining episodes, and even the reboot which looks to continue this show’s good streak.

Highly Recommended

That's it for this set of reviews.  For the next set, it's finally time to return to The Loud House to explore the episodes of its second season.  Until then:

Stay Animated Folks!

'Toon Reviews 8: Peanuts 1970s Specials Part 9

It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown

Everyone knows that Peanuts has a lot of holiday specials in their repertoire, but it’s pretty interesting to note that they have one for a holiday as obscure as Arbor Day.  It’s a holiday that very few people talk about, it’s barely commercialized, and there aren’t any widely known ways to celebrate the day.  It’s basically one of those holidays that people treat like an ordinary day, so the thought of making a TV special on it feels like the crew of these specials were desperate to come up with a holiday they could make a special out of that they hadn’t tackled yet.  Still, this is a good special, but not one that will most likely be looked at as one of the stronger ones.  The major premise of the special exemplifies how much of an obscure holiday Arbor Day is.  It features Sally needing to do a report on the holiday, and it’s presented in a manner that doesn’t make it different from her needing to do a report on an ordinary day of the year.  That said, we do get into more of the spirit of the day when Sally becomes inspired by her research to plant trees and other plants in any available field.  Ultimately, she gets most of the gang to plant a whole garden of crops.  The only catch is that they plant them all over Charlie Brown’s baseball field.  For this part of the special, I’m kind of mixed regarding how to feel.  Most of my apprehension comes from how absolutely no one thinks it’s a bad idea to plant crops on a field made especially for baseball games.  It’s pretty idiotic for them to not realize that crops can easily get in the way of games.  While we do have Linus be the only one to have doubts about the plan, the doubts just get shot down every time.  The idiotic tone carries into the actual baseball game portion of the special when the team actually gets a major advantage at victory because of the crops making the game difficult for the opposing team.  It really gets you to beg the question why the opposing team never demands the plants to be taken down or that the game be played at a different field.  Not to mention, the game gets so much focus in the second half, it’s easy forget that this is an Arbor Day special.  Now, even with the idiotic tone of the story, what we see is still pretty enjoyable.  Charlie Brown gives an appropriate reaction to the plants all over the baseball field, the gags that get his team points are fun to watch, there’s some amusing character dynamics throughout, and it’s great to watch Charlie Brown’s team have a good chance at victory since they’re known to always lose.  It makes you feel bad for them when the game is ultimately rained out when they’re so close to securing the win, and one against a team led by Peppermint Patty at that.  Well, at least the mention of the plants still being there prevents the end from being a total downer, even if it was stupid to plant them on the field in the first place.  While the stupid plot-driving decisions to this story are hard to ignore and Arbor Day is shown as prominently as it is in real life, the charm of Peanuts with the character interactions, comedy, and unique childlike approaches to life make it a fine viewing experience, even if it’s not one of the best.

Recommended

The Ranking

1. There’s No Time for Love Charlie Brown
2. It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown
3. You’re Not Elected Charlie Brown
4. You’re a Good Sport Charlie Brown
5. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
6. Be My Valentine Charlie Brown
7. Play it Again Charlie Brown
8. It’s a Mystery Charlie Brown
9. It’s Arbor Day Charlie Brown

As I close this review, I should point out that this special is the last one to feature original music from Vince Guaraldi.  In a shocking turn of events, he died of a heart attack just hours after completing the score for this special.  I bring this up because, as I stated in the post on the 1960s Peanuts specials, his music was a major driving force in the Peanuts specials being as great as they are.  The smooth, easy-going jazz compositions just seemed to fit perfectly with the down-to-earth writing, the simple animation, and the fact that kids were the core cast of characters thus creating an atmosphere that helped the Peanuts specials stand out from other forms of media, and it was true for the specials of this decade too.  Once he was gone however, new musicians were brought in to work for specials to come.  While their music was very good for the most part, it wasn’t as memorable or fitting to Peanuts as what was offered before.  Plus, considering that “It’s Arbor Day” was really not as well-written as previous ones, this is a good sign that the specials were about to become unsure of their identity with many stories varying in quality.  Some were as good as the older specials, some were decent but not very memorable, and others…well you’ll find out soon in the review of the next 1970s special.

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

'Toon Reviews 3: Peanuts 1960s Specials Part 2

Charlie Brown’s All-Stars

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first of the four lesser-known Peanuts specials of the decade, but it’s also one that presents what would become one of the biggest conventions of the specials.  We all know that Charlie Brown’s shtick is that he can never find victory in certain activities of life, and most of the failures come from his attempts to win a baseball game.  This special really hammers this in with mentions of his team’s notorious streak of 999 straight losses and a big collection of big fails that come from the team during the first game of the season.  Those scenes of failed pitches, dropped balls, and clueless players make for some really funny gags but at the same time, it’s easy to feel the frustration that no one on Charlie Brown’s team seems capable of winning.  You might think that the reason the team can’t win is because Charlie Brown sucks, but the fact is, through watching the game scenes in this special, all the kids suck.  They don’t seem to pay attention to the game, spend their time commentating on the pitcher and expect Charlie Brown to catch all the fly balls.  With that in mind, it kind of leads you to wonder if it’s really appropriate that the kids direct all the blame on Charlie Brown.  Now, the meanness of the kids, especially of Lucy and the other girls of the team, does help give these specials some edge and it makes sense considering how much of an outsider Charlie Brown is to them since he fails a lot, but sometimes they go a little too far with their treatment of him.  It’s fine and tolerable at the start of the special when everyone is so frustrated with their constant losses that they end up quitting the team, even if they only acknowledge Charlie Brown’s faults and not their own, but I will say that their meanness does start to go too far when they bully him and ignore him even when they’re not playing baseball.  That said, this special does demonstrate the great appeal of Charlie Brown’s character.  Even with all the animosity he faces, he still considers all the members of the team to be his friends, so much so that he greatly accepts an offer that will get his team in a real league and a set of team uniforms to boot, and only turns the offer down when he learns that playing in a league means he has to get rid of the girls and Snoopy.  It also shows how determined he is to make things go his way despite always facing failure by being hard-pressed to keep his team together and win a game so that they’ll forget about being in a league and never find out he turned the offer down.  At first, the game he has the team play serves as quite a high point for the special, featuring all the kids actually playing their best.  Heck, even Charlie Brown himself gets a hit.  However, there’s shown to be a downside to Charlie Brown’s determination as his trying to be a hero causes the team to lose the game.  He ends up facing some more meanness from the team, but it’s far more acceptable here than earlier because if he just waited at third base for another hit, the team most likely wouldn’t have lost.  What follows though is a good-hearted moment that somewhat makes up for what we witnessed from the team.  The girls and Snoopy learn that Charlie Brown turned down the league deal to keep them on the team, and even get told off by Linus and Schroeder for being such jerks.  It’s just so rewarding to see characters actually get called out for their mean behavior every so often, especially when it leads to the girls making Charlie Brown his own uniform to show that despite what they say to him, he really is their friend.  This special really shows off the appeal of the baseball-focused stories of Peanuts.  There’s a lot of humor in the ways Charlie Brown’s team end up losing, examples of how strong of a character Charlie Brown is despite his failings, and fun interactions between characters which also make for some nice moments.  This particular special can get a little too mean at times, but it’s easy to look past it and get in on some big league entertainment from this little league team.

 

Recommended

Ranking

1)      A Charlie Brown Christmas

2)      Charlie Brown’s All-Stars

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of another popular Peanuts special of the 1960s, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."

'Toon Reviews 1: Hey Arnold Season 1 Episode 7

Operation Ruthless

I’ve said before that crushing on someone older than you is a normal and somewhat charming part of life, but that doesn’t always mean a cartoon following this plot is going to turn out great.  This is the case with this particular cartoon which follows a trope that only lasted for this particular season, aside from one short appearance in a later season.  It’s all about Arnold having a crush on a particular 6^th grade girl named Ruth McDougal and for how much he says how beautiful and amazing she is, I just cannot really get behind the idea of this relationship.  There is just little to no character of Ruth.  She doesn’t even talk in most of her appearances.  Heck, she literally doesn’t even do anything.  I know that Arnold’s just a kid and he’d see everything in a girl who looks nice, but to be this smitten with a girl who clearly has nothing to her personality is not something we should be seeing a lot of, let alone be the focus of an entire cartoon.  The trope is handled better in other cartoons where it only appears in short mentions.  Meanwhile, we’re also treated to the operation portion of the cartoon where Helga notices Arnold being infatuated with Ruth and we spend much of the cartoon watching her try to keep Arnold away from Ruth during an event called the Cheese Fair.  Sadly, the cartoon isn’t particularly strong on this front either.  It’s true that Helga has firmly established herself as a bully at this point, but we’ve also seen hints of her good side, especially when her positive qualities connect to her crush on Arnold.  However, her bullying ways go too far with everything she does to deny Arnold, the boy she loves, any form of happiness he’s looking for.  I will say that while she is successful at keeping Arnold from meeting Ruth, there are some good funny moments where things still go wrong for her.  My personal favorite is her ending up in a broken bumper car she tries to place Ruth in which leads to her crashing into an inflatable hot dog.  Now, for all of Helga’s unlikable moments, I can still somehow feel sorry for her when, at the end of the cartoon, despite never actually being able to talk to Ruth, Arnold declares that he just loves her even more, leaving Helga in a speechless daze as the lights of the Cheese Fair go out.  It’s almost as if she’s getting a reminder that being mean like this isn’t going to have her do anything with her crush on Arnold, yet for her own reasons, she just can’t help but hold onto that mean demeanor.  While that moment does make you think and feel for Helga, she’s still not at her best and the other part of the story is frightfully dull, making this a weak entry for the season. 6/10

The Vacant Lot

 

 

 

At any age, whether I’m young or old, I see this as a very strong cartoon for the series as it gets the point across that in a world dominated by adults, kids deserve to be heard too.  The conflict at hand is that Arnold and the gang have no place to play baseball.  They can only settle for playing ball in the streets which is a problem since they constantly have to get out of the way when cars come.  Then, they find a solution to this problem when they come across a lot covered in garbage.  After cleaning it up, they turn it into their own personal baseball field, and watching them use it to have a nice and efficient game for once is just really pleasing after the cartoon went to such lengths to show how hard it is for them to get their games in.  However, rather than just wrapping up with the establishment of the new baseball field, the cartoon goes in an interesting direction.  The adults of the neighborhood including Arnold’s grandparents, the boarders, Mr. Green the butcher and Mrs. Vitello the florist find out about the lot that’s been all cleaned up, and they completely ignore the fact that a baseball field has been set up there, and start refurbishing it to fit their needs.  This makes it impossible for the kids to play their games now, and it’s easy to feel for them.  They suffered long by not having a good place to play, they finally put a place together, and then all the adults just up and take it away from them without consent.  What’s more, all the adults do is fight over what should go where in the lot.  Fortunately, the actions of the adults lead to an extremely satisfying resolution when Arnold and the kids shut up their arguments by dumping trash straight onto the cleaned up lot, turning it back into a dump since no one can use it properly.  This actually gets the adults to realize that they did wrong, and the next day, the kids return to the vacant lot to find that the adults have turned it into a bigger and better baseball field.  This moment makes it clear that kids really do deserve to have a say in matters and shouldn’t be taken advantage of.  The adults feeling bad for taking the lot and claiming it as their own is a pleasant addition to the story to lead into the ending bit.  There’s even more credibility when you consider how much of a huge part of the series the vacant lot becomes as more seasons come in.  With all this in mind, we have a major entry for this series that’s enjoyable, nice, and even thought-provoking. 9/10

The Rankings

1.      Stoop Kid

2.      Arnold’s Hat

3.      Helga’s Makeover

4.      The Baseball

5.      The Vacant Lot

6.      Downtown as Fruits

7.      The Old Building

8.      Field Trip

9.      6^th Grade Girls

10.  The Little Pink Book

11.  Snow

12.  Eugene’s Bike

13.  Heat

14.  Operation Ruthless

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the 8th episode of this season: "The List/Haunted Train."