'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 21

The Curse of Castle McDuck

As I mentioned before, I love a good episode to give some background on a character’s past.  Here, we get one for Scrooge McDuck himself, and everything comes together in an episode that has some interesting information, a great mystery that leaves you guessing, and a well-crafted spooky atmosphere to accompany the mystery.  The story follows Scrooge and the kids visiting Scrooge’s childhood cottage in Scotland.  Amidst the nice scenes of everyone exploring the cottage, attention is also drawn to Castle McDuck which is across the way.  The backstory of Castle McDuck is central to the story and it’s a good basis for the mystery about to unfold.  It was built by Scrooge’s great-great grandfather Silas who defied the warnings of the local druids, and they put a curse on him and the rest of his family.  As a result, when the castle opened, Silas and his clan were chased down by a ghostly hound, and all of his descendants were left to fear going anywhere near the castle, Scrooge included.  In the present day though, this backstory meant to have the McDucks cower in fear gives this group the incentive to take back what belongs to them.  Everyone involved in the group has something charming to offer to the plot of solving the mystery.  Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s childlike nature encourage Scrooge to not back down because of the curse, Scrooge has a lot of resourceful moments such as noticing the group of druids inhabiting the castle like they own the place thereby realizing something strange is going on, and calming the ghost hound with sausages, and even Webby proves to be good use to the team by uncovering the truth about the ghost hound in her own animal-loving ways.  These great moments from the characters result in a fun climax where everyone catches the druids with makeshift traps and make the ghost hound defy their orders causing them to give up.  We even learn why the druids, as well as their descendants, set up the curse for the McDucks. It's all because Silas McDuck built his castle over their sacred meeting ground, which makes their actions understandable.  Plus, given that his cheapness was their catalyst , you can easily tell that Silas is Scrooge’s ancestor.  To conclude things, because both sides of the conflict have proven sympathetic, it’s only appropriate that the episode ends with the both of them coming to a compromise.  The mystery’s well-crafted with clever twists, Scrooge’s past is engaging and adds some layers to his character, and there are great moments for all the characters involved.  In fact, I’d say these factors make this the new strongest episode I’ve seen so far. 10/10

The Ranking

1. The Curse of Castle McDuck
2. Hotel Strangeduck
3. Maid of the Myth
4. Hero for Hire
5. Top Duck
6. Robot Robbers
7. Much Ado About Scrooge
8. Magica’s Shadow War
9. Duckman of Aquatraz
10. Armstrong
11. Sir Gyro de Gearloose
12. Master of the Djinni
13. Sphinx for the Memories
14. Send in the Clones
15. Down and Out in Duckburg
16. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
17. The Money Vanishes
18. Where No Duck Has Gone Before
19. Dinosaur Ducks
20. Pearl of Wisdom
21. Superdoo!

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where a re-enactment of a civil war battle becomes "Launchpad's Civil War."

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 2

Sphinx for the Memories

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this show focuses on Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s adventures with Uncle Scrooge, it’s not surprising that we don’t see much of Donald.  This episode is an exception to the premise, and boy do we get quite an adventure starring him on a brief leave from the navy.  Taking place in Egypt, the adventure kicks off in typical Donald Duck fashion with him ending up in a crazy and stressful situation while just simply trying to go about his business.  In this case, Donald just innocently checks out some Egyptian knick-knacks in a gift shop, and that makes two customers in the shop believe that he’s the reincarnated form of their people’s original leader from centuries ago, the Garbled One.  Donald gets captured and taken to the middle of the desert where he’s treated like a king to the civilization of Garbabble.  Watching Donald go about the whole situation provides the bulk of the episode’s entertainment.  Whether he’s enjoying being pampered by the people of Garbabble or using his wits to try and escape the position of royalty when the people won’t let him return to the navy base, the way Donald observes and reacts to the world around him is full of energy and gives off a believable response.  In fact, the moments with Donald seem to overshadow what we see of Scrooge and the boys who set out to try and rescue him, which is especially clear when during their search for Donald, they end up in a pyramid cellar where they have to get through a maze to escape, yet we never see exactly how they get through the maze.  Thankfully, Scrooge and the boys get a lot more active towards the third act of the episode where the stakes really start to increase when Donald is possessed by the ancient spirit of the Garbled One, causing him to forget who he really is, including being unable to fully recognize his uncle and nephews.  What really stands out is the cleverness of how Scrooge and the boys find solutions to the problem such as suggesting building a pyramid to buy themselves time, fending off a mummy assigned to silence Donald by a sorcerer named Sarkus, and noticing that Donald’s real spirit is still intact from him struggling to hold on to navy mannerisms.  What could have made these characters too perfect and uninteresting actually leaves a strong impact of astonishment of how they were able to figure all this out.  Then it all ends with Garbabble in good, unsuperstitious hands, and one last bit with Donald that’s both funny, and also worthy of sympathy for him.  From this episode, I can tell that this show knows how to make an adventure exciting with interesting settings, great character moments, and lots of creativity. 9/10

The Ranking

1.      Sphinx for the Memories

2.      Send in the Clones

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is the show's first space-themed episode that takes us "Where No Duck Has Gone Before."

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