'Toon Reviews 12: DuckTales Vol. 2 Part 16: Time Teasers

Time Teasers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with this show’s adventure aspect, it can still fit in simpler slice-of-life stories, especially those that focus on the boyhood adventures of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  That’s the best way to describe what you’ll get from this episode, even if it is mostly prominent in the beginning.  It’s all about Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s mischief leading to entertaining chaos.  They start off facing the childhood issue of there not being enough hours in the day when they want to do one thing, but the adults want them to do certain chores.  This relatable problem leads the boys to find a way around it when they find Gyro Gearloose’s newest invention, a small clock that can allow the user to travel really fast in time called a time teaser.  They use it for their own advantages through rushing through their Invention of the Month delivery work to make it to a baseball game they want to see, making it easy for their favorite team to win (though you have to question why they love them so much if they never win), and still making it to Scrooge’s money bin in time to help arrange the money.  Every time the time teaser is used, there’s a nice visual cue to show how it works.  Everything looks to be frozen except for whoever’s using it, but it’s explained that everything else is actually moving normally, while the holders of the teaser are moving really fast even if it doesn’t look like it.  That’s why when everything else operates in real time, it looks as if the holders of the time teaser have disappeared.  It amounts to a creative perspective of how it operates making the visuals just as impressive as the story.  Onto how the boys’ fun backfires, it’s when the Beagle Boys get a hold of the time teaser as Gyro demonstrates it to Scrooge at the money bin since the inventor just can’t keep his inventions away from criminals, and of course they use it to rob the bin dry.  From there, the plot works in the show’s trademark creativity in adventures as the Beagle Boys try to get away with the money on a ship and get sent back in time when they break the teaser while Scrooge, Gyro, and the boys follow them using Gyro’s bathtub time machine from “Sir Gyro de Gearloose.”  This gives the plot to get Scrooge’s money back a more comedic tone when in the year 1687, the Beagle Boys along with our heroes are taken by another Pete lookalike, the pirate Captain Blackheart to, of all things, perform at his birthday party which is something that you probably wouldn’t expect from a group of pirates.  Much of the entertainment from the scene comes from everyone’s performances, especially the Beagle Boys’ which surprise everyone with how well they sing old show tunes.  It also has a rare instance of Scrooge and some of his enemies being willing to work together to get out of the mess, making their dynamic more than one-sided good vs bad.  This point to the dynamic is especially felt when Scrooge willingly rescues the Beagle Boys when the pirates chase them when he could’ve easily left them behind.  That said, they probably could have shown more of it if we actually saw how Scrooge’s money was returned and how the Beagle Boys were re-arrested back in the present.  It’s still a solid conclusion to the episode and topped off with a humorous backfire to the boys’ earlier unfair attempt to bring their baseball team to victory.  The episode greatly blends slice of life boyhood antics and creative, comedic adventures into a memorable story with some of the show’s best moments. 9.5/10

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.      Time Teasers

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

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

10.  Ducks of the West

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

12.  Merit-Time Adventure

13.  Catch as Cash Can Part 3: Aqua Ducks

14.  Scrooge’s Pet

15.  Horse Scents

16.  The Golden Fleecing

With that, we’ve finished disc 2 of Volume 2.  Next time, it’s onto the third and final disc starting with our heroes " Back Out in the Outback".

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kicking off another multi-episode story arc presents this one with a highly creative premise made more appealing by humorous antics, moments that take you to places perceived as unreachable, and great character moments.  The setup that drives the whole arc is that Scrooge and Flintheart Glomgold are challenged to prove who the true richest duck in the world is by gathering their riches together so they can purchase the rights to sell a special illuminating fruit called Firefly Fruit from the city of Macaroon.  It’s already established that Flintheart is willing to do anything to one-up Scrooge, and this episode has him do the ultimate scheme by calling upon the group who specializes in trying to rob Scrooge’s fortune, the Beagle Boys, for help.  As a result, much of what we get here consists of scenes of the Beagle Boys attempting to break into the money bin, first by bringing in the whole Beagle family to raid at a time when Scrooge and the boys are all alone to defend.  It’s interesting and cool to see that even with Scrooge completely nervous about losing to Flintheart in the challenge, he can still find creative ways to beat the whole family back.  However, Scrooge’s obsession also turns out to be his downfall when his own plan to take out anyone who dares come into the money bin to rob it rids the whole building of every cent of his fortune.  From there, there’s never a dull moment as Huey, Dewey, and Louie jump down to the sewers and chase after Scrooge’s money while Scrooge frantically tries to track where his money is going and the main Beagle Boys plot to flow the money into the reservoir so they can rob it easily.  We have many standout moments in the sequence like the boys riding the roaring sewer waters in a boat made from a common barrel, the Beagle Boys opening the floodgates on them when all seems well and later get scared off by an alligator, and Scrooge battling the Beagle Boys in using the water valves to redirect the cash flow.  All the excitement from the chase for the money even continues to the very end of the episode when Scrooge’s money winds up in a random penthouse.  We mostly get some humorous banter from Scrooge, the penthouse owner, and a random couple wanting to buy it as Scrooge haggles them into buying the penthouse and the whole building, and even a humorous meltdown from him as he hopelessly tries to hide his money with the Beagle Boys in very close pursuit.  The way he and the boys finally do outwit them is both really funny and highly clever which is then followed by the tone finally calming down, but given that this is the first part of an arc, you can tell the quest to protect Scrooge’s money is not over yet.  In the end, this episode offers a thrilling start to the story arc that fully delivers and gets you excited for what’s to come. 10/10

The Ranking:

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

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

3.      Back to the Klondike

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

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

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

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

8.      Scrooge’s Pet

9.      Horse Scents

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next part of this arc and make sure a sea monster doesn't eat your ice cream or else you'll be in for "A Whale of a Bad Time."

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 8: Scrooge's Pet

Scrooge’s Pet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the kid characters of this show are the main focus in an episode, chances are it’s going to turn out basic in setup.  In other words, all we’ll see is them doing a kid-friendly activity without anything noteworthy to the story.  However, if the writing is done well enough, it can still be entertaining, and for the most part, that’s what happens here.  It’s about Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby going fishing, but Scrooge is too busy with setting up an important combination for a lock to his money bin to come along.  While some would expect the plot to drift into Scrooge needing to let go of his worries and spend time with the kids, what follows is a more mature and thoughtful plot of the kids deciding to get Scrooge a pet so that he won’t worry about his money so much.  However, as the episode will further show, even the most thoughtful acts can backfire spectacularly.  A sea captain offers the kids a lemming named Lucky who has an incurable appetite, particularly for cheese.  Unfortunately for Scrooge, it doesn’t stop there as Lucky steals a locket containing his bin’s new combination which he hasn’t memorized yet.  The rest of the episode goes on to make the most of its basic setup when the kids join Scrooge and Launchpad on a chase after Lucky to get the locket back which does make for some mild entertainment and humor.  The chase leads them all the way to the country of Novay in Scandinavia where Lucky does nothing but cause trouble for everyone trying to catch him on his boat, and later floating inland in Scrooge’s hat.  Funny as many moments in the chase may be, at times, it kind of feels like he wants to make life difficult for Scrooge and the gang even though they did absolutely nothing to deserve it.  We do ultimately get to a climax where they have to find Lucky in a flood of lemmings racing through Novay on their way to swim out to sea as they do every year while everyone runs for cover.  It looks like an exciting scene with a lot of fast movement and tension from the lemming stampede, but it doesn’t really feel exciting since the music doesn’t match the tension and speed most of the time, and the group’s many attempts to stop them take their time to happen.  While not a particularly exciting climax though, when it seems like the lemmings have finally made it to the sea, it’s easy to feel for Scrooge since it seems like he can never get to his fortune now.  Then again, he could just dismantle the combination lock and re-install it when he’s ready.  However, that issue doesn’t last for long when it turns out that one of the attempts to catch Lucky did work after all in the form of a cheese wheel.  As a result, the episode ends as basic as it started with Scrooge easily getting his combination back as well as a much less mischievous pet, nothing more nothing less.  Basic as the story mostly is, bits of comedy, heart, and action which, while not always effective, have noticeable effort and make the episode pretty good as it is. 8/10

The Ranking:

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

2.      Back to the Klondike

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

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

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

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

7.      Scrooge’s Pet

8.      Horse Scents

Well, that’s it for the first disc.  Next time we'll start the second disc, with the first part of another story arc, "Catch as Cash Can" called "A Drain on the Economy".

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 24

Earth Quack

Animation is the perfect medium to portray reasons for certain occurrences in life.  This is mostly because it goes hand-in-hand with any magnitude of creativity.  In the case of this episode, animation is used to portray a creative reason for why earthquakes happen.  It starts off with Scrooge fearing that his money bin will be deprived of his fortune by earthquakes after bad dreams.  When his fears are confirmed, precautions are set to protect the money bin until the men run away from the project due to strange voices prompting Scrooge to do some investigations.  Following an exciting mine cart ride down into the caverns that never gets dull, we get the episode’s creative reasoning for earthquakes.  They’re caused by a race of creatures called Terra-Firmians, big blobs of solid color who can literally turn themselves into balls and roll and crash into things.  Anyway, the earthquakes happen because of their cultural custom of holding a series of games where they do nothing but roll around and crash into stone barriers, and their vibrations affect the ground in the surface world.  Despite their games being the cause of the earthquakes, and by extension Scrooge’s troubles, the Terra-Firmians are a likable cast of characters.  They mean no malicious intent, and simply want to have fun.  Because of this, in addition to wanting Scrooge to keep his money safe, it’s also fine to want the Terra-Firmians to have their games.  Plus, there’s also a likability factor in a smaller Terra-Firmian who wants to take part in the games, but is too small to be any good, yet his interactions with Scrooge and the boys get him to be the star of the games in the end.  As you can see, both sides are worth getting behind, which is essential for stories like this.  Later on, when a really big Terra-Firmian game finally gets to the money bin and brings Scrooge’s fortune down, you can’t help but feel some major sympathy for Scrooge.  Since he’s a likable character as a rich duck, it’s pretty sad to see him poor after all his efforts to protect his fortune.  Still, this is another way to show off the likability of the Terra-Firmians as their way of life gets them to see little use in all that money and ultimately send it back to Scrooge before they go to have their games somewhere else.  It’s great that these creatures are sent off with one more likable moment, but I can’t help but think of the story potential lost with Scrooge getting his money back SECONDS after losing it.  We could’ve had a compelling arc of trying to make a fortune again.  Still, I call this a good watch for both sets of characters being capable of getting behind, exciting fast-paced sequences, and the animation medium being used to its creative potential. 9/10

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. Launchpad’s Civil War
11. Armstrong
12. Sir Gyro de Gearloose
13. Master of the Djinni
14. Sphinx for the Memories
15. Send in the Clones
16. Sweet Duck of Youth
17. Earth Quack
18. Down and Out in Duckburg
19. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
20. The Money Vanishes
21. Where No Duck Has Gone Before
22. Dinosaur Ducks
23. Pearl of Wisdom
24. Superdoo!

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where even more animated creativity comes alive in the Odyssey-inspired adventure, "Home Sweet Homer."

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 11

The Money Vanishes

This is a more comedic gag-driven episode, and as such, it’s a strong one for how creative the gags are and how almost all of them successfully bring about a laugh.  The characters that bring about the gags are the Beagle Boys who once again break out of jail with the help of a shovel their ma successfully snuck into a cake which is another nice example of genuine family values coming from a family of robbers that I really appreciate.  For much of the first part of the episode, there’s a lot of humor to be found in a collection of scenes of the Beagle Boys working off each other through character interactions as well as digging to different locations with the shovel.  Then, the plot really gets going when they end up digging to Gyro Gearloose’s barn where they find out that Gyro has invented a ray that can transport anything showered upon with a certain spray to any location.  The way the Beagle Boys get the invention is a good demonstration of Gyro’s appeal where he’s smart enough to create extraordinary inventions yet naïve enough to fall for the ploys of common bank robbers, though in his defense, Scrooge also falls for their tricks.  Speaking of Scrooge, as you can guess from what their main thing to steal is, the Beagle Boys use the invention to steal every last bit of money from his money bin.  However, as was the case with the last episode, it’s Huey, Dewey, and Louie who closely examine the trick that got the Beagle Boys to steal Scrooge’s money, and they’re the ones who find out the truth of the matter, leading to them facing off against the Beagle Boys in the confrontation during the episode’s third act.  It’s filled with a bunch more comedic gags involving the spray and relocation ray mostly involving them being used on animals during a chase through a zoo or everyone running into Gyro who we amusingly see going for a jog and eventually winning a race as a result of the Beagle Boys’ earlier scam.  There are even some fun gags involving the ray and spray as the confrontation reaches its climax when Huey, Dewey, and Louie use them to send the Beagle Boys back to jail.  Then after the money’s returned to Scrooge’s bin, we end on one last humorous confrontation between him and Gyro after the inventor suggests another invention that could potentially cause a rich duck like Scrooge to go through another money-losing ordeal.  While the story is very basic and in a way relies on adults being easily fooled to get things going, the comedy and moments from characters like the Beagle Boys and Scrooge’s nephews make it highly enjoyable and worth a viewing. 9/10

The Ranking

1. Hotel Strangeduck
2. Robot Robbers
3. Magica’s Shadow War
4. Duckman of Aquatraz
5. Armstrong
6. Master of the Djinni
7. Sphinx for the Memories
8. Send in the Clones
9. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
10. The Money Vanishes
11. Where No Duck Has Gone Before

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Gyro gets his own starring role as he goes back in time and becomes "Sir Gyro de Gearloose."

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 5

Robot Robbers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The episodes of this show are mostly self-contained, meaning that they don’t usually rely on continuity between them except with story arcs.  That said, one of the biggest strengths of this one is that it ties in nicely to the events of the previous episode demonstrating the show’s willingness to break from the norm every now and then.  It’s about Scrooge discovering that his business rival, Flintheart Glomgold, has commissioned giant robots to be built so to have the better construction crew, and Scrooge disapproves of these robots being built because of what happened with Armstrong.  Now, the previous episode’s appeal mostly revolved around the strong man vs. machine theme which to me seemed like a little addition to help it stand out.  What you really need to make an episode appealing is an interesting story with a lot of strong character moments, and those elements are stronger here.  Scrooge and Flintheart’s rivalry is a major comedic highlight for its well-written banter that sets up visual gags and features a cool chemistry of greed with Scrooge’s greed being the more considerate.  The story and characters are further enhanced when Ma Beagle takes control of one of the robots and uses them to bust her sons, the Beagle Boys, out of jail.  We’re then treated to a lot of fun moments of the Beagle family using the robots to terrorize Duckburg on their way to their main goal, robbing Scrooge’s money bin, which also shows off some nice family values which is especially hard to expect from a gang of robbers.  Things keep on building to even more entertainment as Scrooge and Flintheart find themselves forced to team up to stop the Beagle family and their robot rampage where they come up with some clever ways to fight back, including a follow-up to an earlier gag.  Then after the Beagle Boys are defeated and Ma Beagle escapes in another nice display of family love between the enemies, we get a confirmation that even though they can work together fine, Scrooge and Flintheart will remain rivals as we close out with one last humorous bickering between them.  To me it’s for the best because this duo is perfectly fine with them fighting them to be the richest.  As you can see, everything associated with the characters and storytelling is filled with so much to get you invested.  The little moments of fun put together make the story really humorous and exciting, the continuity nods to the previous episode are welcome, and Scrooge, Flintheart, and the entire Beagle family have a lot of likable traits that enhance their performances.  10/10

The Ranking

1.      Robot Robbers

2.      Armstrong

3.      Sphinx for the Memories

4.      Send in the Clones

5.      Where No Duck Has Gone Before

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode featuring the only other appearance of Magica de Spell on this DVD in "Magica's Shadow 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.