Dime Enough for Luck (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 4) - 'Toon Reviews 25

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Dime Enough for Luck

This episode has an interesting scenarios within a featured character who’s an entertaining play on superstitions and the idea of good luck. 

He’s one of Scrooge’s nephews, Gladstone Gander whose main trait is running his life by good luck.  He never considers earning his own living through a job or anything of the sort for a healthy productive life.  Things just happen at the right moment for Gladstone to get what he needs without actually doing any work.  He finds free money and wins free stuff from being a certain numbered customer or sweepstakes notices he finds. It’s remarkable how much good comes from Gladstone relying on luck.  In addition, it would be easy to make him look like a smug jerk due to how great things turn out because of his lucky streak. However, Gladstone is a very charming and friendly character to watch all throughout so all’s good with him personality-wise. 

Of course, just relying on luck isn’t looked at as a smart move, so the story takes an appropriate turn showing the downsides of his actions when Magica de Spell gets involved. Her use of magic here is among some her most interesting.  She cons Gladstone into competing in a game show with a convincing voice. Her spells creatively turn every aspect of the security system to Scrooge’s money bin into something from a game show which Gladstone gets through in a mind-controlled state.  Her tricks successfully get her Scrooge’s lucky dime, and what happens makes it more relevant than it seems.  It’s never really been explained why this number one dime is such a huge deal or what would happen if Scrooge ever lost it.  It’s only after Gladstone ends up giving it to Magica when Scrooge losing the dime has weight to it. 

As part of her spell, Magica is able to strip Gladstone of his good luck once she has the dime. It shows how much a lack of good luck affects him when he’s unable to find money by chance and loses some of the free stuff.  Even Scrooge gets a share of bad luck with so many bad sales and profit drops from his prized dime getting stolen.  It brings the idea that this being his lucky dime wasn’t all figurative. 

Anyway, Scrooge and Gladstone have to team up to get the dime back in Magica’s lair before she melts it down and obtain good luck forever.  The trek to find her is highly enjoyable with the two needing to fight off a creature as outrageous as a fire-breathing bunny and runs into traps that get more threatening. One particular one has the ceiling close in on them, and they have to escape by breaking a mirror.  Also, Scrooge and Gladstone are entertaining partners with Scrooge’s resourcefulness in adventures clashing with Gladstone and his superstitions.  When they finally reach Magica, it’s a combination of both main traits that let her feel what bad luck is like and break her spell once Scrooge gets his dime back.  It’s a fun character-driven climax to wrap up all the plot points. Even though Gladstone is still a strong believer in luck with things going great for him again, there is some hint that he’ll be smarter and get a living in a more practical way.  The sign could’ve been clearer, but it’s still there. 

As it stands, this episode is one of the most creative with the different types of characters and the adventurous atmosphere.

A

The Ranking

1. Dime Enough for Luck
2. Duck to the Future
3. Launchpad’s First Crash
4. Jungle Duck

The next DuckTales review has Dewey stands out from the three nephews as he wants to be recognized as his own duck during an adventure about a duck in an iron mask.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 finale with "Short Story" and "Eyes Capades."

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

Duck to the Future (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 1) - 'Toon Reviews 25

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Today, we’re turning back to the DVD collection to look at another set of episodes of one of the most popular animated TV shows from Disney:

 

DuckTales (Vol 3)

Basic Premise

As someone who never really grew up watching many Disney TV shows, I’m grateful that I’ve taken a huge initiative towards expanding my animation horizons.  Around the time I started this blog, I looked back on an old interest in checking out the classic animated series, DuckTales.  It was an animated series on the adventures of Scrooge McDuck, the richest duck in the world joined by his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and many other characters.  The premise seemed exciting and it always looked interesting enough, not to mention the theme song was just awesome, so my interest was always piqued to check it out.  While it took a while for me to do so, when I did, the results paid off.

From my reviews of the first two sets of episodes, I consider this series a fun action series with distinctive characters, creative adventures, and legitimate stakes to the adventures.  Now, after a long time of putting it off, I’m finally going to look into another DVD volume of the series, the third one, to see how well it follows up on the strengths of the first two. Featuring new character moments and backstories as well as two story arcs at the end of the set, it certainly has a lot to live up to.  It should be noted that this third volume is the last volume of the show that Disney has put out even though one more could put the whole series on physical media.  Isn’t it just frustrating when so much of shows are released on disc format only to stop when it’s so close to releasing everything?  Sure, there's a fourth volume on the Disney Movies Club, but not everyone's a member.  Nevertheless, I’m sure what we’ll encounter here will be worth it.  Let’s start off with putting in the first disc of the set and give a big Quackeroony for what’s about to unfold.

Now on with the reviews

Duck to the Future

This episode takes on a new frontier of the future while providing a few interesting insights on how it can turn out.  It interestingly shows that any small thing can lead to drastic effects on life in eras to come. 

It starts with Scrooge giving Huey, Dewey, and Louie meaningful business advice on selling lemonade.  However, the boys needing this much help makes Scrooge worry if they’ll ever be as smart as him when running a business.  While Scrooge can just continue to give them advice, his uncertainties make him impatient to have his teachings pay off which can happen to anyone. 

A chance to ease his nerves comes from a scheme by the ever-enjoyable and charismatic duck witch, Magica de Spell.  She uses hourglass sand called the Sands of Time to send Scrooge to the future to see how the boys run his business.  This is intriguing, but it’s a little far-fetched that Scrooge would be this tricked by her ploy, especially through her obvious lie that in the future, the subway can take you through time.  Can you believe he's gullible enough to actually try this? 

Thankfully, the future itself makes up for how Scrooge gets there.  Its look is standard with everything being made of metal, and vehicles flying and traveling faster (not at the speed of time though), but it stands out with underlying themes.  On his way to the future version of his office, Scrooge notices that everything is way more expensive than in the present, cleverly showing how prices can go up over time.  This is the work of Magica McDuck Enterprises formed 40 years ago after Magica stole Scrooge’s Number One Dime after he “disappeared.”  He learns that his advice to the boys at their lemonade stand taught them to be as greedy as possible, charging huge prices for even frivolous things like opening doors.  These adult caricatures are nicely presented with big, deep, authoritative voices with a hint of youth to them so you know they’re Huey, Dewey, and Louie. 

With such a bad fate meeting the boys, Scrooge’s goal is to get his dime back from Magica and get back to his own time.  There are interesting reveals on the characters in the future. Gyro Gearloose is senile and unable to recognize his own inventions including his time tub. Launchpad runs a crashing school as an old duck. Most shocking of all is Webby and Doofus Drake being married, though they're the most interesting character reveals. They both being so different yet are so charming and compatible as a couple.  They break Scrooge out of jail twice, give him reasonably priced transport, and inform him about Magica’s lair where she rules over as a floating head ala Wizard of Oz. 

It’s also their support that brings on an exciting climax.  After Scrooge’s solid performance as an alarm salesman to get his dime back, when Magica blows his cover, there’s a thrilling chase scene.  It does lose points when Magica foolishly reveals Scrooge’s identity to his adult nephews, but it at least shows that even in this bad future the boys do have a heart.  Also, both she and Scrooge get some Sands of Time, and their use of it humorously sends them to random time periods through homonyms of words they say.  However, Magica does seem easily swayed to give Scrooge his dime when he threatens to go back to the present without her when she can just beat him with a spell.  Basically, the way the status quo is retained feels a bit anti-climactic.  At least there’s good closure to present actions effecting the future with Scrooge doing better at guiding his grand-nephews along the right business track. 

Despite a few instances of obvious unintelligence, this is an exciting way to start the DVD set with an exciting, action-packed, and insightful trip to the future.

A-

The next DuckTales review brings background to Mrs. Beakley as she's put in the care of a jungle duck.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Born to Spawn" and "Uniform Behavior" from Rocko's Modern Life.

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 6

Magica’s Shadow War

In this episode, we’re treated to more reasons as to why Magica de Spell is one of the most entertaining antagonists to come across.  Her plan to steal Scrooge’s Number One Dime this time around involves her bringing her own shadow to life, and command it to steal the dime behind everyone’s back.  The appeal in this plan lies within how creative it is, and the creativity is further enhanced by the mannerisms of the shadow.  They mostly involve her being able to pick things up by their shadow and how well she can easily blend into all the shadows she comes across.  Magica’s shadow also raises the tension by protesting how mistreated she has been as a follower, which you can’t help but realize how much sense these complaints make if you think about it, and actually uses magical spells to break away to hatch her own plan to get all the shadows to team up and take over the world.  From then on, the rest of the episode is an exciting series of attempts by Scrooge and his team to catch the shadow in an attempt to stop it as well as to keep Scrooge’s Number One Dime safe.  What goes on further displays how much of a threat Magica’s shadow is.  Specifically, because she’s a magic shadow, she gets a lot more shadows when a bunch of lights shine on her as opposed to destroying her which is what light would normally do to shadows. This only increases the tension, therefore further succeeding in drawing in the audience.  It could be pointed out that Scrooge’s greed could be going a little too far in this situation. I mean, it’s clear the mess could be solved if he just gives Magica the dime, but he just keeps on stubbornly refusing with the threat of her shadow constantly growing by the minute.  Still, I’m fine with this point because it makes sense for Scrooge’s character, and he does realize that there’s no other way to stop the shadow and comes to his senses near the end.  So, we close things off with an ending that gets the shadow defeated, and strong comedy from Huey, Dewey, and Louie using their classic wits to successfully get Scrooge’s dime back, supposedly further preventing Magica from using it to take over the world herself.  With fun character moments, a creative story premise, strong comedy, and stakes and tensions that just keep building, this is another great, fun episode to allow me and any newcomers to further get attached to this show. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1.      Robot Robbers

2.      Magica’s Shadow War

3.      Armstrong

4.      Sphinx for the Memories

5.      Send in the Clones

6.      Where No Duck Has Gone Before

 Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is Disney's take on Aladdin before the 1992 classic and even Treasure of the Lost Lamp called "Master of the Djinni."
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 1

We’ll be turning to Disney to observe one of their most acclaimed animated TV series via its first DVD release for this new set of reviews:

DuckTales (Volume 1)

 

Basic Premise

Disney is the number one provider of quality animated entertainment in this world.  Most of their work comes from their long line of 50+ animated feature films, the masterfully revered features of their associated studio Pixar, and animated shorts by the thousands, specifically those starring their original characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.  Disney has also left their animated entertainment mark in the television medium.  Ever since the mid-1980s, they’ve made quite a few animated TV series.  While not all of the programs they’ve made over the years were winners, most of them gained some major popularity that lasts even to this day.  One such program is one of the earliest Disney animated TV series, DuckTales.

Based on a series of comics by some guy named Carl Barks, this show is about the adventures of the greedy yet lovable Scrooge McDuck who is constantly in search of treasures to add to his wealth accompanied by his grand-nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie who are staying with him while their Uncle Donald is enlisted in the navy.  That’s a very basic premise for a show, but I trust that given its huge popularity and Disney’s talents of animated storytelling, the execution makes everything work though, at least I hope it will.  The thing is, I’ve never actually seen this show before, not even in my childhood.  I’ve heard it be praised in reviews, seen it listed in lists of the best animated series, and even watched the incredibly catchy theme song online many times, but I have no knowledge of the actual episodes.  I always had it on my mind to look into the show eventually since it sounds fun overall, and it’s always good to look at the best material featuring the ducks of Disney, and now that day has finally come, perfect timing too with the reboot having just premiered.  Now, the way these reviews will work is that I won’t be looking at the episodes in the order of its first season considering that it consists of a whopping 65 episodes which I feel would be major overkill. Instead, they'll be reviewed in the order they appear in on the Volume 1 DVD release of the show, consisting of 27 episodes, so to better emulate the feel of watching this classic animated series for the very first time.  I’m excited to get a genuine feel of this show, and I hope those who also have never seen it feel that way too.  Now let’s pop the discs in the player, get a good listen of the theme song, and discover the appeal of this set of early episodes, which BTW, according to my research does not include the pilot episodes (those will have to wait when I eventually review the episodes on Volume 2 for some unexplained reason).

Now on with the reviews:

Send in the Clones

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This episode is easily a great example of how well this show handles storytelling, comedy, and characterization.  It features one of the many antagonists of the show, Magica de Spell, hatching a plan to get Scrooge’s “Number One Dime” in order to take over the world with aid from the robber trio known as the Beagle Boys.  The plan involves Magica transforming the Beagle Boys into Huey, Dewey, and Louie so they can easily infiltrate Scrooge’s mansion and steal the dime.  Much of the episode focuses on the chaos that ensues from the Beagle Boys taking part in the spell which only increases when Magica later steps in by posing as the mansion’s nanny, Mrs. Beakley.  We have Scrooge struggling to make sense of the boys’ strange behavior while being interviewed, Mrs. Beakley being unsure of what to make of the boys after seeing them as the Beagle Boys through a mirror, the boys thinking Mrs. Beakley is being taken over by aliens after returning from a movie, and the Beagle Boys being forced to put up with being parented.  It could be easy for these setups to get old quick, but the writers manage to keep every bit of the chaos we experience both fresh and funny.  This is mostly due to how lovable the characters are, and how a lot of interactions between different characters are worked in including the diabolically over-the-top Magica with the greedy and clueless Beagle Boys, Scrooge with the intrepid, truth-seeking reporter, and the Beagle Boys with the stern and easily disturbed Mrs. Beakley.  Plus, everything we see leads to an exciting climax where both Huey and Mrs. Beakley are involved in a battle with the Beagle Boys where they're constantly transformed by Magica’s spells and potions, and a moment of cleverness where Scrooge finds a way to save both Huey and his dime.  With so many great performances from the characters involved, and memorable comedic moments that still flow together as one coherent story, this episode is a great fun watch to get you into this show. 9/10

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Scrooge and the nephews set out to save Donald from an ancient Egyptian curse in "Sphinx for the Memories."

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