This last year, Disney released a reboot of the classic cartoon from the 80s/90s: Ducktales (woo-hoo!). I, personally, didn’t really watch the original show. I saw an occasional episode here and there, but I wasn’t an avid fan. However, when I saw that Disney was coming out with this new show, I was intrigued. Like I said, I didn’t know much about the original, but all the promotions I kept seeing for the new show looked really good.
Anyone who is into shows with interesting mysteries, epic adventure, expansive creativity, and all-around great fun will like this show. As the theme song explicitly says, “might solve a mystery or rewrite history” and it’s “tales of daring do.” Yes, it’s animated and it follows anthropomorphic ducks which might seem a little weird and childish to some people. However, while it is a cartoon aimed towards kids, it is way more clever than it needs to be and it gets super heavy at times (and I mean heavy).
Billionaire and former explorer/treasure-hunter Scrooge McDuck is reunited with his estranged nephew, Donald Duck, when Donald is forced to leave his three mischievous nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, with Scrooge for a few hours so he can go to a job interview. The three boys’s antics rekindle Scrooge’s desire for adventure and he takes them with him on his quests along with his housekeeper’s granddaughter, Webby, and clumsy pilot, Launchpad McQuack.
The show is so creative and original. It’s like a mix of every adventure movie you’ve ever seen, but especially ones like Indiana Jones and The Goonies. However, you never know what the family is going to get into with each episode. Sometimes they’re facing off against cursed mummies in one episode, then they’re in a spooky old mansion the next, then they’re running from an evil robot in another, or they’re on an island with ancient Greek gods, or they’re in the middle of a murder mystery party, or they’re climbing an unclimbable mountain, or they’ve unleashed an ancient curse upon their hometown, and so on. Every adventure is different and so entertaining, not to mention super creative! (seriously, if you put these plots into a different show/movie without the ducks, they would be just as strong.)
Disney was so confident this show would be a hit that they #1) posted the entire first episode on YouTube for anyone and everyone to see (which you can watch HERE) and #2) they ordered a second season before the first season even aired. And let me tell you, they did the right thing. The first season WAS that good.
The characters are amazing! Any David Tennant fans out there? (The tenth Doctor from Doctor Who, Barty Crouch Jr. from Harry Potter, Kilgrave from Jessica Jones, Hamlet from Hamlet (2009), etc.) Well, he has taken up the mantle of voicing Scrooge McDuck. He is the very first actual Scotsman to voice Scrooge. That should be all you need right there: David Tennant is in Ducktales. But... Scrooge is a great character too. He’s one of those characters with such an outlandish past and can do pretty much anything. He’s like an aged Batman or (like I said before) Indiana Jones.
This is the first (successful) time Huey, Dewey, and Louie have been given distinct personalities and have individual screen time with their own stories. The writers officially made the order they’re always listed as (Huey, Dewy, and Louie) their birth order. So Huey is the oldest, Dewey is the middle child, and Louie is the youngest. Therefore, the writers wrote their personalities based around those “stereotypes.” For example, Huey, being the oldest, is more responsible and organized while Dewey is the middle so he feels ignored and so he’s always seeking attention by being an adventure junkie, then Louie, as the youngest, is more laid-back and tries to get what he wants without having to work for it. Something pointed out to me is that all three of the boys’s most prominent personality traits are a piece of Scrooge’s personality: Huey is clever and deductive, Dewey is adventurous and bold, and Louie is ambitious and treasure-obsessed. Though, obviously, there is stuff that sets them apart from their famous great-uncle. The triplets are the glue that holds the show together.
(BTW, in case you didn't know this, the way you tell them apart is through their names and colors. Huey is the brightest hue: red. Dewy is the color of dew: blue. Then, Louie starts with an "L" and so do leaves which are green. The writers actually use that as their key. It's been like that almost since they were created.)
The show updates Donald Duck in an interesting way. It takes a previously well-know character with an already firmly-established personality and gives him more. He is still the same silly, unlucky, temperamental duck everyone knows and loves, but he is a little more rounded. He is the over-protective father figure in Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s lives and he does everything he can to keep them safe. It’s interesting to see how deeply he cares about them and I love how his famous temper tantrums are directed towards any foes who threaten them. I’d say his update is similar to how A Goofy Movie updated Goofy. It didn’t take away from his personality, but it only gave him more layers and made him more parental and relatable.
Then there are other characters like Scrooge’s housekeeper, Mrs. Beakly who has a mysterious past of her own. Also Mrs. Beakly’s socially-awkward granddaughter Webby, who is obsessed with the McDuck family. Then, dim-witted Launchpad McQuack who has never NOT crashed the vehicle he was driving. And others like Gyro Gearloose, the head scientist at Scrooge’s money bin; or Gladstone Gander, Scrooge’s other nephew who is the most lucky duck in the world.
Of course the show wouldn’t be complete without the villains/antagonists like Flintheart Glomgold, Scrooge’s bitterest rival and the second richest duck in the world; Mark Beaks, a young aspiring billionaire and founder of Waddle; Ma Beagle and her bumbling sons the Beagle Boys; Goldie O’Gilt, Scrooge’s ex-parter, ex-girlfriend, ex-everything; powerful mystical sorceress Magica De Spell, and so on.
Like I said, creative.
The show pays a nice homage to classic cartoons while updating it into modern ones (like Gravity Falls, Futurama, etc.). It’s a wonderful blend of old and new. The animation is so stellar and smooth and I love the color palette. The whole thing has a sort of comic book feel.
As I said earlier, the show is way more clever than it needs to be. The jokes are really funny and off the wall. There are a lot of hidden gems in the background and there’s a lot of hidden jokes and parodies that kids wouldn’t understand (I’m not talking about “adult” jokes, but just really smart “older” references).
Just some examples of it’s off-the-wall humor:
When Huey, Dewey, and Louie first arrive at Scrooge’s mansion, Scrooge doesn’t know what to do with them so he puts them in a locked room with some marbles. Of course, the boys decide to escape the room with Dewey holding up the bag of marbles saying, “I know just how to do it.” So you think he’s going to set up some clever little device or something in order to get out, but instead, he starts whacking at the doorknob with the bag of marbles until it breaks off. It’s so unexpected and simple and hilarious.
Another time is when Dewey and Webby are being chased by a psychotic librarian with a giant sword. Webby hands Dewey a book, telling him “knowledge is power.” Dewey looks at the book and it’s called “How to Disarm Your Opponent.” Dewey immediately brightens up by looking at the book and then chucks it at the librarian.
I mentioned “older references” before. An example would be in the episode where Mark Beaks is first introduced. There’s way too many things to list off, but the entire thing is one big parody on the modern tech world, the millennial mindset, and especially Silicon Valley. Most of the things in that episode would go over kids’s heads, but adults would find it hilarious. I’ll give one example: Mark Beaks takes Huey and Dewey on a tour through his company and he shows them a testing sight for new trampolines: high impact, low impact, and no impact... in other words, the ground. There’s just people jumping on the ground, but it’s “innovative.”
Another example is when the family goes to a casino and once inside, they can’t find the exit. Even when they look at the map, they can’t figure it out. Everything looks the same on every floor and there’s always something to distract the kids like an extravagant buffet or an over-the-top water show which, as Scrooge says, “they try to trap you here so you’ll waste all your time and money on cheap thrills.” If that’s not the embodiment of a casino, I don’t know what is.
Last thing I want to address is the heavy stuff I mentioned before. It’s not all adventure and jokes. The show’s core is all about family. The overarching story revolves around a mystery (which I will not spoil what it is exactly here, but know it has something to do with family). For the most part, the show is quite light-hearted, but there are some pretty deep moments. Also, the mystery is really good and really keeps you in suspense for the entire season. The show definitely knows exactly how much to reveal and what to keep back. It’s so well written! And the tension between all the family members because of this secret is so perfectly played out and displayed. Just because they’re anthropomorphic ducks doesn’t mean the emotions they go through can’t be realistic and relatable.
And that is the Ducktales reboot. This post turned out a lot longer than I intended, but I can’t help it. This show is awesome and I think everyone should check it out. I give it a 9/10.
Now, here are some videos to convince you if my stellar argument above hasn't won you over XP:
TRAILER:
UPDATE OF THE FAMOUS THEME SONG:
Just look at that animation!
CAST SINGING THE THEME SONG:
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