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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.
