'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 22: Luck O' the Ducks

Luck o’ the Ducks

The world travel aspect of this show takes us to Ireland this time, and as expected, it’s big on leprechauns, luck, wishes, and the one thing sure to interest someone like Scrooge, gold.  It’s sure to satisfy anyone with a popularized or accurate view of Ireland, even if it’s not exactly the best told story.  This is another case where Webby’s feminine ways and persona is a major driving force from the plot the moment the first and most major Irish element of this episode, a leprechaun named Fardoragh, appears.  He does nothing but cause trouble, especially stealing some of Scrooge’s money leading to an entertaining chase scene through Duckburg.  What does Webby have to do with this you may ask?  Since she’s known to be friendly with anything who looks small and cute, she’s the only one out of all the main characters to show any kindness to Fardoragh.  For that reason, their bond feels so genuine that it’s worth getting behind.  That said, since Fardoragh willingly caused trouble for everyone else, which went as far as stealing Scrooge’s money, and even clearly feigns sadness and illness, he’s not exactly trustworthy.  In fact, Scrooge’s harsh manner towards him is just as easy to get as Webby’s friendliness, which we see a lot of throughout the episode, and while what she does is nice to watch, you’re constantly questioning if she should be trusting the leprechaun.  Anyway, Fardoragh, under the guise that Scrooge and company saved his life, says that Scrooge is allowed one wish which prompts him to invite them all to the Emerald Isle to see the leprechaun king’s gold.  However, it turns out to be a trap that gets everyone captured.  They get out of it when Webby claims that Fardoragh, who’s known as a thief and liar to them too, invited them to the gold and Fardoragh follows the statement up with a lie that saves everyone.  While this moment may be designed to show Fardoragh warming up to Scrooge and the gang, it’s hard to tell if that’s the case, or if he really was trying to get them, barring Webby, in trouble.  Anyway, when Scrooge hears about the leprechaun king’s golden caverns, he makes that his wish, making the king get Fardoragh to try and scare Scrooge away from the isle to change his mind.  The following sequence of him hiring ghosts and banshees to scare everyone in the night however can be seen as good for both characters.  He’s both pleasing the king, and protecting Scrooge from harm.  Plus the sequence has some nicely crafted moments of Huey, Dewey, and Louie driving the spooks away.  Finally, there’s the moment where Fardoragh leads Scrooge to the gold caverns, and Scrooge marks the spot, so he’ll always be able to find it not knowing the king and his army plan to crush him the next time he enters the caverns.  However, Fardoragh turns out to be good at heart after all when he regrets setting Scrooge up for his demise, and he and Webby make it so that he can’t find the cavern, thus officially saving him.  I can’t say Fardoragh’s noble act was forced since his moments always had the possibility, but since he was mostly a trickster towards Scrooge and that Scrooge was hostile to him prior, if time was spent on them both warming up to each other, maybe with less moments of Fardoragh with Webby, it would’ve turned out better.  Still, the way things play out, including Fardoragh’s character arc are done fine enough, and with moments of cleverness, humor, and Irish culture, I can consider this episode another solid one. 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. 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. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 1: Don’t Give up the Ship
11. Catch as Cash Can Part 4: Working for Scales
12. Ducks of the West
13. The Treasure of the Golden Suns Part 3: Three Ducks of the Condor
14. Merit-Time Adventure
15. Back Out in the Outback
16. Scroogerello
17. Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks
18. Luck O’ the Ducks
19. Scrooge’s Pet
20. Horse Scents
21. The Golden Fleecing
22. The Right Duck

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode that brings Duckworth into the spotlight at last with "Duckworth's Revolt."

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.