'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 11: Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks

Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While this episode isn’t as exciting or creative as a part of the story arc, it still is a good continuation of what goes on with plenty of admirable qualities.  It features Scrooge man a salvage vehicle called a Gold Digger to reobtain his money trapped at the bottom of the Marinara Trench in the previous episode.  Much of his underwater voyage consists of him getting majorly annoyed by the shipmates coming along with him. They include the Gold Digger’s inventor Gyro Gearloose for praising his inventions and not pointing out their flaws until too late, Launchpad for his usual incompetence, and of all characters, Doofus Drake for constantly eating and being distracting while communicating with dolphins.  Scrooge’s annoyances make for some humorous interactions and reactions between this interesting set of characters, and how he views how they’re failing to cooperate with him is clearly identifiable.  With his fortune lost due to circumstances, it must be hard for him to work with such incompetence even if he can be harsh at times.  However, neither Scrooge nor his accomplices are as bad as the mermen they come across shortly after finding the money.  Throughout the episode, they’re constantly making the air-breathing visitors look bad as they explain how people constantly dump garbage and toxic waste into their kingdom of Atlantis.  They retaliate against the air-breathers with intense labor charges to clear away all garbage from their kingdom for 400 years, including Scrooge’s money.  In addition to the mermen’s behaviors fitting the human-vilifying traits of annoying, preachy environmental stories, they are some of the most unenjoyable antagonists this show has had.  It’s bad enough that they’re harsh to all air-breathers thinking that air-breathers actually enjoy throwing trash down to their city and that they're all like that.  Scrooge even says that some of the trash, his money, belongs to him and is going to take it anyway, but the mermen still won’t listen to reason. Sadly, we see a lot of this not just from them pushing the group to work, but also preventing their escape by taking away their air helmets and sending a sea monster after them when they head towards the surface making the viewing very frustrating.  Through the frustration though, Gyro, Launchpad, and Doofus get a good shot at redemption when Scrooge is imprisoned, and they come up with a plan to not only free him, but also raise his fortune and all of Atlantis.  Gyro’s intellect puts a fizz solution shown earlier to good use, Launchpad spreads it around Atlantis in exciting chase scene as he rides a dolphin with the mermen in hot pursuit, and even Doofus’s newfound way of talking to dolphins plays a significant role.  The conclusion is ultimately satisfying not just because Scrooge’s money is reobtained, but because he’s left learning that even people who seem incompetent can be useful at times.  The mermen are even grateful that their actions rids them of all the trash.  Too bad this is their only moment of decency here.  Also, doesn’t Atlantis being resurfaced defeat its established status as a lost city?  Well, it’s no matter because in spite of some annoying density from some of the characters, this comes off as a highly enjoyable rescue mission with a poignant message on trust. 8/10

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

9.      Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks

10.  Scrooge’s Pet

11.  Horse Scents

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the conclusion of the "Catch as Cash Can" arc when the moment of truth comes with the weighing of Scrooge and Flintheart's fortunes for the firefly fruit in "Working for Scales."

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

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 21

The Loudest Yard

 

 

 

  

 

There are only three cartoons in this season that I consider bad.  We’ve already covered two, “The Green House,” and “Two Boys and a Baby,” and this is the third one.  It’s the least bad of the three, but there are still a lot of factors that prevent it from being enjoyable.  The main premise of the cartoon is that Lincoln is signed up for football despite not being good at sports after not being willing to do basic exercises.  I’m not fond of Lincoln being forced into something he’s not good at when Mom could’ve just goaded him to try harder at basic exercises and use football as a threat if he doesn’t, though you have to wonder why she only has him and no one else exercise.  At the same time, Lincoln doesn’t hold much sympathy because he really doesn’t try.  As a result, I can’t go along with either side of the situation.  Now, we are treated to a lot of Lincoln’s relationship with Lynn here which is nice.  We’re used to seeing her roughhouse with Lincoln a lot due to her love of sports, but as we watch her willingly coach Lincoln at football, this cartoon proves that she really does care for him.  The only problem is that, once again, Lincoln isn’t really trying, resulting in a lack of sympathy.  The lack of sympathy grows even more when Lincoln decides that Lynn should disguise herself as him on the actual football team, perhaps the most stupid idea he has ever come up with.  The kicker is that it actually works for an entire season with Lynn going in Lincoln’s place while he sits around and reads comics literally everyday even if it should’ve been easy to figure out that the player wasn’t Lincoln if someone just looked closely or took off the helmet. In other words, this part of the cartoon is hard to suspend disbelief towards.  What really makes the cartoon bad though is the ending.  The truth ends up exposed during the final game when Lynn sprains her ankle and everyone sees who she really is when her helmet comes off.  Lincoln admits his wrongdoing and fills in for her, the moment staged to be one to redeem himself by winning the game.  Instead, Lincoln ends up scoring for the other team and everyone’s mad at him.  If he had actually won the game and realize that he is capable of sports, everything in the cartoon would’ve been worth it and this would be one of his best performances.  However, we close things out with the impression that Lincoln is a disgrace to everyone who can’t do anything right, and, as is normal with most weak cartoons of this show, nothing is accomplished.  If it wasn’t for the great portrayal of Lynn and Lincoln’s relationship, this cartoon would be a lot worse than it is.  Still, it suffers from stupid plot decisions, unlikable characters, and an ending that really sours everything.  Because of this, it’s a good one to skip. 4.5/10

 Raw Deal
 

 

 

 

 

 

People often tell me that I shouldn’t let fear rule my life.  This is what helps me relate to this cartoon a lot.  It starts out like it’s going to be a great day out at a national park for the Loud family, Lincoln especially.  The theme of not letting fear rule your life comes into play when Lucy brings out a set of cards that predict everyone’s future, one of them saying that Lincoln’s day will end in tragedy.  It doesn’t seem like much to believe in at first, but slowly, in a lot of clever and funny ways, the rest of the sisters’ good predictions come true, making it likely that Lincoln’s will come true too.  The rest of the cartoon follows Lincoln too paranoid to take part in all the fun things to do at the park with his family.  I can identify with Lincoln a lot because there are times when I worry a lot about certain bad things happening.  However, while I mostly put them aside and live my life hoping for the best, Lincoln goes the extreme route by keeping himself from doing anything.  The ideas he has for what bad things can happen to him have a comedic charm to them and they’re easy to sit through since he’s bringing his lack of enjoyment on himself.  Even so, I can’t help but feel sorry for the fact that he ends up missing out on a lot of great things to do so much so that it overshadows the humor of his paranoia.  That, and Lucy, who’s normally on good terms with Lincoln, doesn’t seem to show much sympathy for him considering that she made him feel the way he does with her predictions unlike most of the rest of the family.  These points are remedied somewhat by Lincoln realizing he had nothing to worry about and learning something from it, him being the only Loud to see a usually dormant geyser go off, and a hilarious ending gag involving Lucy’s cards.  This cartoon’s heart is easy to sense even if you don’t relate to it on a personal level.  Even more importantly, while not perfect regarding entertainment, there’s still plenty of elements to make it an enjoyable experience. 8/10

The Ranking

1.      For Bros About to Rock

2.      Undie Pressure

3.      Project Loud House

4.      Space Invader

5.      Driving Miss Hazy

6.      Left in the Dark

7.      Toads and Tiaras

8.      Picture Perfect

9.      House Music

10.  Save the Date

11.  Sleuth or Consequences

12.  Hand-Me-Downer

13.  No Guts No Glori

14.  Roughin’ It

15.  Attention Deficit

16.  Changing the Baby

17.  Along Came A Sister

18.  April Fools Rules

19.  A Novel Idea

20.  Sound of Silence

21.  Butterfly Effect

22.  A Tale of Two Tables

23.  Cereal Offender

24.  Cover Girls

25.  It’s A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House

26.  The Waiting Game

27.  Overnight Success

28.  Raw Deal

29.  In Tents Debate

30.  Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru

31.  Out on a Limo

32.  Linc or Swim

33.  The Sweet Spot

34.  Heavy Meddle

35.  Get the Message

36.  Come Sale Away

37.  Ties that Bind

38.  Making the Case

39.  Chore and Peace

40.  The Loudest Yard

41.  Two Boys and a Baby

42.  The Green House

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lincoln has to juggle four dates at a Sadie Hawkins Dance and in turn come up with a "Dance, Dance Resolution" around it, and Lincoln hanging with Bobby and Lori hanging with Clyde at a fair turns out to be "A Fair to Remember."