Was I a big DuckTales fan back in the 80s? Eh, I could probably take it or leave it, but I probably watched more of that show when it was new than any other Disney afternoon animated series. The premise was simple enough: Donald Duck, then only a sporadic guest star, joined the navy and asked his only living relative Uncle Scrooge to watch Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Then they went on adventures with other characters that lived with/worked for Scrooge or resided in nearby Duckberg. Most adventures seemed to center around making Scrooge richer or at least keeping him at the top of the heap as the richest duck in the world.
But in 2017, Disney rebooted the series with a new voice cast (mostly since Tony Anselmo is still the voice of Donald and probably will be until the day he dies), and the new series was its own unique animal that came to a conclusion recently after three seasons.
Once again, we have a series where Huey (Danny Pudi), Dewey (Ben Schwartz), and Louie (Bobby Moynihan) all moved into McDuck Manor with their Uncle Donald after a series of accidents left Donald’s houseboat uninhabitable. Uncle Scrooge (David Tennant, sounding like he was maybe exaggerating his natural Scottish accent) initially doesn’t want them there, and the feeling seems to be mutual on Donald’s side. Scrooge used to go adventuring all the time, but he hasn’t in quite some time, and the reason comes out that it had something to do with a past adventure that ended when the accident-prone Donald’s twin sister Della disappeared without a trace. That would be the boy’s mother, but the boys would like to go on adventures of their own, alongside perpetual houseguest Webby (Kate Micucci), granddaughter to Scrooge’s maid/bodyguard Mrs. Beakley (Toks Olagundoye). Webby is a rather excitable young girl who rarely left the mansion, a fangirl to Scrooge’s old adventures, and someone who can barely sit still.
That’s a far cry from the original series in many ways. All three of the nephews and Webby were voiced by the same actress back then, the boys were somewhat interchangeable in terms of personality, and Webby was basically just “the cute little girl who hung out with them”. Tomgirl Webby in the reboot, learning to make friends and loving every second of it, is a big improvement. The boys also have more distinct personalities and looks beyond the basic color-coding. Huey is basically a planning nerd and the hardcore Junior Woodchuck scout. Dewey wants to have adventures and be brave, but he’s a bit clumsy. Louie is essentially a budding conman, gifted in talking his way out of things while the others all know he’s not exactly the most honest of ducks.
That said, this DuckTales was less about the family going on adventures–though they often did that–so much as it was about adventuring. The show was more likely to have characters talk about past adventures and the problems they caused, as fun as they were, while waiting for a third act twist to require some sort of action. In a way, it played more like a good sitcom or metacommentary on the original series. Sure, the original show’s cast were all here. Some, like Scrooge’s dimwitted pilot Launchpad, are still basically the same, while others, like Scrooge’s butler Duckworth, are radically different while still recognizable. In many cases, it’s usually just a personality shift, like Gyro Gearloose being more of a grump than anything else.
That said, the series also did a lot for older fans, bringing in Disney duck characters like Daisy who never appeared in the original series or ducks that only ever appeared in Disney comics like Feathry Duck the marine explorer or the aforementioned Della. And then there were the other characters. This series managed to work in a number of reimagined versions of other characters from other, mostly unrelated Disney afternoon cartoons including Darkwing Duck, Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Tale Spin, The Gummy Bears, and somehow The Wuzzles, Goof Troop, and one more than was something of a treat in the extra long finale that is probably the least likely connection but the one that is the biggest surprise of the finale so I’ll leave it out.
Yeah, there was a whole episode where Goofy was hanging around for some reason. Then again, there were also a couple where Donald’s voice was “fixed” and his voice was suddenly provided by actor Don Cheadle.
Ultimately, the show was more about family togetherness than adventure. It just so happened that going on adventures is what this family did, whether the perpetually clumsy Donald liked it or not. The finale tried to tie a bow on that, making a number of metacommentary jokes about wrapping things up, ending TV shows, and what both family and adventure mean as Scrooge and Co. went on what was promised as one last one where the villain’s goal was actually to stop adventuring from happening. It lays it on a bit thick, making for a final episode that maybe ran a little too long, but for the most part, whether this was the decision of the producers or the company, DuckTales left at about the time it should, devoting a one season storyline to each of the three nephews, and ending with a story that was as much about the excitable Webby as it was anything else. I may have been an at-best so-so fan of the original cartoon, but the reboot was a heck of a lot more fun for an older, more discerning me.
Grade: B+
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