#This is his ducktales design to me now
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empyreasheart · 10 months ago
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Hey kingdom hearts fans i just want you all to know there is a bird called the sora
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about-faces · 4 months ago
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Batman: Caped Crusader, Episodes 1-2 thoughts (SPOILERS)
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First things first, Harvey is as bad as I’d expected. I honestly can’t tell whether this is worse than the version we got in the last Timm-produced animated Batman show, “Beware the Batman.” That Harvey was a humorless prick straight out of the William Atherton school of jerkasses, while this one is a smug sleazebag who would be someone you’d love to hate if he weren’t also a complete inversion of a great tragic hero turned villain.
I’m just so sick of people portraying Harvey as a politician first and foremost, performing for the cameras and thinking about his career ambitions. I’m sick of him being a corrupt asshole and even an authoritarian. I’m sick him being two-faced, when the irony of his character is that he himself never WAS. Now that that’s out of my system, I’ll move on, because I know he has an arc in store that may prove more interesting than the usual Asshole Harvey takes.
They tried several things with the Penguin, and I’m not sure they gelled into anything that worked for me this time out. Making her a woman, that’s no problem, and I appreciate her classic style and appearance in a time when everyone just wants to turn Cobblepot into a boring Tony Soprano knockoff.
Ultimately, though, it all just served to make her a standard “Ma Barker” archetype. You know, the alleged matriarchal crime boss who was killed by Hoover’s FBI, who may have dragged her name through the mud to excuse their killing of an old woman? There used to be several takes on her in pop culture, although nowadays the only famous one is probably Ma Beagle from “DuckTales.”
With that in mind, they should have just cast Margo Martindale. Excuse me, didn’t use her full name: Beloved Character Actress Margo Martindale. Minnie Driver is a fantastic actress (I’m still mad that “The Riches” was not only cancelled but totally forgotten), but it was a waste not to let her use her real accent. As it was, she was fine, but she didn’t bring anything special to match the physical design. As an actress, she deserved more to play with.
Also, “Oswalda” is a terrible fake name. Like come on guys, you can do better. That’s on par with Revolver Ocelot’s real Russian name being “Adamska.”
The biggest problem with this take on Penguin is that she’s set up as some kind of brilliant mastermind, only to act incredibly stupid, reckless, and gullible. She kills not one but two innocent goons, including her own son, without so much as an investigation or even keeping tabs on the suspected rats to use them as pawns against Thorne! To paraphrase Dijkstra from the “Witcher” books, you don’t kill spies, you USE them. You feed them misinformation! You blackmail them into being double agents! This Penguin is bad at her job, so no wonder she loses everything within hours. It’s amazing she was able to build a crime empire in the first place!
I also dislike Bullock being a corrupt cop in the mob’s pocket. That fits Flass perfectly, but Bullock? Fuck no. Bullock IS dirty, but he’s dirty in a very acceptable way to cops. He’s brutal, he cuts corners, he’s crass, and he’s probably not above planting or concealing evidence, but selling out to the mob? Hell no. That’s just wrong. Hate that choice. Unless it’s a misdirection. This show sure does love its misdirections from what I’ve seen so far.
Batman himself is… fine. He’s Batman. He’s not a bad Batman. He’s serviceable but unremarkable. But at least he wasn’t an irritating asshole, which is more than I can say for most Batman depictions these days. I liked Bruce trying his “falling off a boat” joke a second time, delivered verbatim after it flopped with Barbara.
Barbara being a defense attorney is a rather contrived choice, one that gets to put her at odds with Harvey while also giving her a professional in with both Batman and Gordon. Essentially, she’s in the role Harvey Dent is supposed to play. Except here she’s a defense attorney, which SHOULD put her at odds with her dad, since lawyers and cops don’t seem to like one another, for SOME reason!
And Harvey, even as District Attorney, can’t be in the role of legal ally to either Gordon, because the story is far more focused on making him a mayoral candidate who throws people under the bus for his own advancement! Feh.
Anyway, that was episode one. It was fine, I guess.
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The screenplay is by novelist and DC veteran Greg Rucka, so of course Renee Montoya is the central focus. Seeing her interact with Sleazebag Harvey gave me war flashbacks to what Rucka did with Renee and Harvey in the comics: setting them up with a poignant dynamic of tenuous respect and kindness before dashing it all with “Gotham Central: Half a Life,” which solidified the perception of Harvey as a creepy, obsessive stalker for a generation of fans. That version of them was very much of display here. Sigh.
Also, Lucius Fox is Bruce’s lawyer now? Why? And also, what the hell? God, poor Lucius. He starts off in comics as the guy actually running Wayne Enterprises, then “Batman: The Animated Series” makes him Bruce’s right-hand-man, then Nolan and Goyer get the inspired idea to make him the Q to Bruce’s 007, while the comics don’t know what to do with him and even make him an authoritarian to cause friction with his vigilante son, and now this? It’s such a random choice. There’s no reason why this character should be Lucius. Hell, Lucius could have shown up there WITH the lawyer and that would have been fine. As it is, it’s just weird.
That said! I overall liked this episode an awful lot! For DECADES now, I’ve wanted to see someone remember that Basil Karlo was an older actor in the classic horror movie vein (his name is literally a combination of Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff), but ever since “Batman: The Animated Series,” everyone has just tried to make him BTAS’ Matt Hagen. Like, I really liked the “One Bad Day” issue for Clayface, where he gradually killed his way to the top of Hollywood stardom, but even that was still BTAS Hagen, the Serious Actor, not Karlo, the old horror ham actor.
But with this episode, someone finally drew on the old Hollywood horror roots of the character, and they found a way to combine his shape shifting abilities into the mix! I’m so happy!
Of course, this is me, so I still have criticisms. Like, I think it was unnecessary to frame it as a mystery, because that added unnecessary complications. I know the original Clayface story was a whodunnit and you can’t do that now that everyone knows that Karlo is Clayface. I was annoyed by the misdirection of Karlo’s “death,” in part because I feared this would be another Clever Subversion, just like how the animated adaptations of “Gotham By Gaslight,” “Hush,” and “The Long Halloween” purposely went against expectations from the source material in stupid ways. Hell, they’re doing the same thing now with Penguin (“But wait, there’s a twist: she’s a woman!”) and Harvey (“But wait, there’s a twist: he’s an asshole!”), so I was afraid this Clayface would end up being someone else entirely. I was okay with it in the end, but I’m annoyed at the cheap fakeout as a plot point.
Furthermore, I don’t get why Basil disguised himself as the doctor (whose name I don’t remember) for the benefit of the actress (whose name I don’t remember) he had chained up in his hideout. What benefit was there in making her think he was the doctor? She was already aware she was a prisoner and was scared, so why the facade? It served no purpose in context, only just to misdirect the viewers.
This is what happens when you try to make something a mystery when it would work better as a thriller. Stop trying to wow audiences with twists and surprises when you could just be focusing on telling a good story. So what if everyone figures out Karlo is Clayface? Who cares! Just go with it! Let them be in on it while Batman and Montoya figure it out themselves, that’s where the tension lies! Stop trying to be clever.
Regardless, I really liked this episode. I want this to now be the canon comics origin for Basil Karlo’s Clayface. Just explain that the treatments for his face gradually affected his whole body, and boom, you’ve successfully explained how classic Slasher Clayface became Mud Monster Clayface. This is how Karlo should always be written from now on. If you really want a sensitive, angsty lug Clayface, bring back Hagen. Let Karlo be the gloriously hammy monster with aspirations of stardom.
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show-us-kaidenshenandoah · 7 months ago
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i was watching the movie again and went "...wait a second" at the designs of The Gammas (or Gamma Mu Mu). i looked up trivia and couldn't find anything to confirm (or deny, i guess) my thoughts, so i guess?? this is a theory? (someone with a DVD/Bluray version, please check the Special Features for me to see if anyone mentions this. i have no idea) i'm surprised i haven't seen this parallel thrown around more but yeah, i think im onto something if this is a new thought in the Goofy Movies fanbase lol
sorry for the low quality of the image, ill type the transcript up in the post to make up for how blurry my text is. there just isn't a lot of pictures of these guys, period, much less that i could find of this specific scene so i could make my point
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but yeah, my theory is The Gammas are all based off the classic villains in the Mickey-Donald-Goofy multiverse (plus Bigfoot, but i know many people noticed the redhead member of the Gammas is just "a shaved down version of Bigfoot" from the first "A Goofy Movie" lol)
(also, im a novice at learning about this extended Mickey-Donald-Goofy multiverse, im still new to the Carl Banks comics and havent seen all the media. so forgive me if im wrong at any point and please kindly correct me ♡)
so there's:
named: Bradley Uppercrust III — no idea if he is based off of anyone
named: Tank — based off of: Pete / Peg Leg Pete (but make him unrelated to PJ, basically) (hence, why he looks the least like his source, if im correct. he has a shirtless scene where he's revealed to have a farmer's tan, that i think you could argue is a very subtle nod that would have been slightly closer to a Pete-like coloration. but yeah, if im right, they had to make Tank's pallette lighter ao he wouldn't be mistaken as a relative of PJ's)
unnamed bearded member — based off of: the main Beagle Boys trio (Babyface) (Bigtime) (if you don't know the lore: there's a lot of Beagle Boys as the gag is they're a BIG family, but the main trio in the original "Ducktales" show is the first set of parentheses. the second set of parentheses is their names in the classic Ducktales comics. both the original "Ducktales" show and the reboot "Ducktales" show features both sets of the trio/s though. though the Carl Barks version of the comics preferred the route of "they go by their prison-numbers rather than their names". also, inbetween the two "Ducktales" TV shows, a lot of Disney media just merged the two trios into one kind-of-amorphous trio, as far as i can tell, like with "Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: the Three Muskateers". but still, they're part of a HUGE family who tend to be clones of said main trio. but i digress. they're a confusing family lmao rip)
unnamed member wearing sunglasses — based off of: the main Beagle Boys trio (Bankjob) (Bouncer) (i like to think his sunglasses (and i guess also the unnamed bearded member's glasses, but mainly these sunglasses) as a homage to the Beagle Boys' black masks lol)
named: Slouch — based off of: the main Beagle Boys trio (Bugle) (Burger) (also: im entirely banking off differentiating Bugle/Burger to Slouch and Bankjob/Bouncer to sunglasses-guy on how Bugle is commonly reffered to as "a hipster" and i personally associate fedoras with a similar type of crowd. i could have those mixed up tho, idk, neither of these guys even have any lines lol but i do like the idea that maybe the fedora is flipped like that as a reference to the Beagle Boys' billed caps? idk, that might be a stretch) (i would also like to mention i hc these guys are The Beagle Brats now in college-age, who are an unnamed trio that goes by "1, 2, and 3" in the comics but, from what i can tell, that the Beagle Brats in general (not 1, 2, and 3 specifically) were first seen(?) in the "Ducktales" original show (who also have a v small cameo in the reboot) that were meant to parallel the triplets Huey and Dewey and Louie; these specific ones im talking about the nephews of the general-amorphous-main-trio of Beagle Boys, but it is possible to call any Beagle Boy who is young a Beagle Brat. but, yeah, i have no basis for why i think Slouch and the other two are specifically the Beagle Brats 1, 2, and 3; that's entirely headcanon)
unnamed member that's a redhead — based off of: Bigfoot in "A Goofy Movie" (again, i know a lot of people caught this one lmao)
unnamed member that has black hair — based off of: Mortimer Mouse (who was once also known aa Montmorency Rodent/Rodawn, but they've been retconned into being the same character by now, but that'a a tangent.) (if you don't know the lore: Mortimer is a bit complicated to describe? but the tldr is that he's basically Mickey's love-rival for Minnie. to go more in depth though, uh, he's more wealthy, usually, and claims to be "in love" with Minnie Mouse but is also a jerk and she generally does not have any interest in him (well, unless the plot the writer wants includes a love-triangle). Pete is usually considered a more recognizable villain, so Mortimer rarely shows up, esp since Pete can be easily be written as also harboring feelings for Minnie. so sometimes shows re-write Mortimer from this personality so he is more distinct, sometimes as a toxic friend of Mickey's or overall bad influence but well-intentioned; so the character has some flexibility. but i know him best, as do many others, via his "House of Mouse" recurring role where he'd show up just to try to break Mickey and Minnie up or otherwise flirt with any female guests. i think he works well in competition wirh Pete, who has more of a Goliath-and-David relationship with Mickey when Mickey and Pete are antagonistic, as Mortimer is an antagonist that is just as clever and capable as Mickey (if not more so, since he is clever, competent, and generally wealthy enough to have more resources than Mickey) but does not have Mickey's sincerity or good intentions. though i dont mind how kid shows re-write him either, i think toxic friends and bad influences are good lessons for children to learn. i like Mortimer being a frenemy who has good intent but bad follow-through lol but anyway, thank you for allowing me this debatably-overexplanation of Mortimer since he's my favorite and also, uh, the only one here where #1 he isnt in the Goofy Movie series and ergo may not be known to others, #2 has a consistent personality beyond "bad guy in story" i can talk about unlike the Beagle Boys trio/s and their huge extended family of might-as-well-be-clones, and #3, again, he's my favorite if you couldnt tell lol) (also, i do think you could argue this unnamed character's quiff is a nod to Mortimer's mouse-ears tho, since there's a curve and all. and then the idea he has some stubble as a possible ref to Mortimer's whiskers is hilarious to me if my theory has water and he was intentionally designed after Mortimer lmao)
anyway, i apologize again if this idea has been discussed before. i really did try to google if anyone was spreading the same idea that The Gammas are just a fun College AU-Variant of these guys already
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+ bonus, since i mentioned them, The Beagle Brats:
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please let me know if you think the idea has merit, and especially let me know if Bradley is a reference to anyone (tho i can also fully buy Bradley being original to this movie!) thanks so much for reading ♡
ps. i am dyslexic so do forgive me for any misspellings. i am editing this unseriously from my phone ✌️
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thewebcomicsreview · 2 years ago
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The Webcomic Reviews Mini Reviews Masterpost, Part 1
People always ask me what I think of various webcomics, so I decided to start collecting my thoughts in one place! Click the images to go to the comic! Comic titles with a ⭐ after them are recommended, but even if I don't give a comic a star, that doesn't mean you won't like it.
[un]Divine ⭐
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What is it: A highschooler sells his soul for a big titty demon gf, and now has to have anime battles against angels who keep trying to eat him.
The Good: Excellent art and monster designs, some of the better fights in webcomics.
The Bad: Danny is kind of a bland protagonist. The comic keeps threatening to veer into femdom porn, which may be a good thing for some of you. Comic is on permanent semi-hiatus and updates very infrequently
You should read it if: You wanna read a comic with big fights, big angels, and big titties.
Ava’s Demon
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What is it: A bunch of kids possessed by demons have space adventures and are sad
The Good: Extremely good art. Occasional "high production value" moments with music and limited animation. The single-panel page format really highlights the art.
The Bad: Bland writing, weak characters. The single-panel page format really slows the flow of reading it.
You should read it if: Learning that the Wrath demon is named “Wrathia” doesn’t strike you as comically dumb
Awkward Zombie ⭐
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What is it: It’s a comic that makes jokes about video games
The Good: It’s the best comic that makes jokes about video games
The Bad: If you haven’t played the game in question, you might not get the jokes. Awkward lack of zombies.
You should read it if: You like jokes about video games. I don't....it's not a complex premise.
Camp Weedonwantcha ⭐
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What is it: A bunch of kids are left at summer camp forever by parents who’ve abandoned them to die. Wacky comedy and feel-good moments ensue.
The Good: Cute adventures with kids, reminiscent of some of the better Nicktoons from the 90s. Surprisingly emotionally effective when it wants to be.
The Bad: While the ending is satisfying in its own way, many plot threads go unresolved
The Terrible: Nickelodeon bought the rights and is sitting on them.
You should read it if: You like slice of life adventures with blasts of dark humor and feels
Cloudscratcher
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What is it: Ducktales, with Genocide!
The Good: Cute and generally likable characters. Decently paced
The Bad: Doesn’t really excel at anything. Weirdly insistent about totally not being a furry comic even though it obviously is.
The Terrible: The author is a white nationalist, and the lack of link is intentional.
You should read it if: You like 80s cartoons and hate minorities
Cornucopia ⭐
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What is it: A ninja is sent on a mission to literally steal candy from a nation of morons, fails.
The Good: Good art and well-paced storytelling. Clever use of different types of word balloons. High joke-per-page ratio
The Bad: Doofy tone may not be your cup of tea. Seems to have died young, though the first chapter is still a complete story
You should read it if: You like JelloApocalypse’s videos on YouTube, or his series Epithet Erased, since he made this
Dresden Codak
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What is it: A genius inventor has wacky adventurers, then goes to a flying city and spends most of the comic’s run embroiled in a conspiracy run by evil anime villains.
The Good: The drawings are pretty. The early comedy adventures are quirky and charming.
The Bad: Panel layout and composition, especially early in Dark Science, is atrocious. Presents the comic as a feminist power fantasy, but the main character usually has her tits out and has had her clothes burnt off on multiple occasions.
The Terrible: The author is a notorious jerk. As of this writing, The Dark Science storyline has been running for eight years and has yet to reach a triple-digit number of pages, even though it’s a full-time job for which Diaz earns $4,000+/mo on Patreon.
You should read it if: You thought the best part of Ghost in the Shell was the lesbian orgy boat.
Drop Out (NSFW) ⭐
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What is it: Two girlfriends go on a road trip to kill themselves in style
The Good: Short enough to be read in one sitting. Surprisingly good visual storytelling for a first comic. Realistic dialogue and high tension keeps you engaged even when not much is happening. Subtle details that don’t become apparent until a second read reward paying attention.
The Bad: Heavy subject matter. Lettering can be tough to read in early pages.
Content Warnings: Drug Abuse, Suicide, Mental Health Issues, Detransitioning….a list of all the difficult content in this comic would be so long it’d look like I’m making a joke. This is a heavy comic.
You should read it if: You like arty dramatic comics that deal with uncomfortable topics
Dumbing of Age
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What is it: College students obsessed with late 80s-early 90s pop culture have relationship troubles
The Good: Of all the popular comics it’s trendy to shit on, this is by far the best. Solid gag-a-day strip with plots that move at a decent pace.
The Bad: Realistic depictions of abusive parents co-exists in the same comic as a literal superhero, leading to some jarring tonal confusion.
You should read it if: You like newspaper-style drama comics.
Everything Is Fine
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What is it: Maggie and Sam are a normal married couple in a very strange world where proving your loyalty is the key to winning, and the best way to prove your loyalty is to show someone else is disloyal. And also everyone wears mascot suit cat heads all the time.
The Good: Well-written characters, a novel premise, and excellent pacing. I’m not the biggest fan of the webtoon “really tall page” format, but it’s taken advantage of at times for nice transitions
The Bad: The webtoon format can be irritating, and the worldbuilding is toeing the line between “compelling mystery” and “If there were two astronauts on the moon and one shot the other wouldn’t that be fucked up?”-ism.
Content Warning: Gore, Suicide themes. Every page with such content has a warning on it (which works better in Webtoon format, actually)
You should read it if: You liked the dystopian fiction fiction books you had to read in high school.
Gunnerkrigg Court ⭐
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What is it: A girl attends a scientific school in a magical world that’s honestly not even slightly like Harry Potter but people say it is because they think J. K. Rowling invented British schools
The Good: Good art and fantastic panel composition. Slow-burning dark fantasy mystery.
The Bad: Takes a little while to find its groove. Starts feeling rushed and confusing near the end.
The Terrible: Boxbot
You should read it if: You like dark fantasy stories, or stories in general.
Homestuck ⭐?
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What is it: A kid wants to play a video game but it’s downstairs and he doesn’t feel like talking to his dad yadda yadda yadda the universe explodes. Was briefly ungodly popular.
The Good: High production values, many updates are music videos with excellent music. Great character writing, especially in Act 5. Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, did a lot of the music, and arguably isn’t even the best musician featured.
The Bad:The early part of the comic is brutally slow-paced, and is an impossible hurdle for some.
The Terrible: The ending is widely considered a major disappointment, and attempts to turn the comic into a franchise have been met with mixed reviews. The prose epilogues are deeply divisive.
Content Warning: A lot gorier than you might expect, mitigated by the cartoony art style, abusive relationships, the epilogue is just generally gross.
You should read it if: You want to see what the hell all those kids in grey face-paint at anime conventions were about
You should also consider: Just getting the music off the bandcamp, it’s really good.
Homestuck 2
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What is it: A “dubiously canon” sequel to Homestuck, following from The Homestuck Epilogues, made by a different creative team. Follows two intersecting future timelines
The Good: The art is quite nice, and the new characters are fun and likable. Very bold in its ideas, for better or for worse it’s rarely boring. One of the few webcomics to be able to integrate trigger warnings clearly while remaining non-obtrusive with them. Faster-paced than the original Homestuck (low bar!) and has a few clever presentation ideas. Willing to be its own thing. If you’re worried it’s just “Homestuck 1 but more of it”, this is not that.
The Bad: Not at all a stand-alone comic, Homestuck 2 is completely incoherent if you’re not familiar with Homestuck 1 and the Homestuck Epilogues. Does not have the big multimedia productions Homestuck 1 was known for. Beloved characters from Homestuck 1 can come off really badly, which upsets a lot of people. If you’re looking for “Homestuck 1 but more of it”, this is not that.
The Terrible: At times, this comic is actively trying to piss off the readership by dragging out unpopular plot revelations. I actually like this about it, but unsurprisingly a lot of people don’t.
You should read it if: If you have to ask “Should I read Homestuck 2?”, the answer is probably “No”. This is a comic for people who are riding the Homestuck train to the bitter end.
You should also consider: Reading my Liveblog of it 
Kiwi Blitz ⭐
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What is it: A precocious young girl gets a Kiwi-shaped robot and decides to become a superhero ridding the world of nefarious furries. More of a cute character drama than a superhero comic, and more of a superhero comic than a mecha one.
The Good: Cute artstyle. Not without dramatic stakes, but fairly light and fun throughout minus a few people getting shot. The android 42 is stand-out great character.
The Bad: Prone to long hiatuses as the author's main comic is now Sleepless Domain.
You should read it if: You liked Sleepless Domain, and are looking for a somewhat lighter comic by the same author.
Latchkey Kingdom ⭐
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What is it: A girl goes on adventures in a magical land of idiots
The Good: Good but not overbearing comedy. Tight chapters. Strong side characters
The Bad: Thanks in part to Patron-backed stories in between the “main” chapters, can feel like an episodic series with no main character or driving plot
The Neutral: Willa is a semi-silent protagonist, and often gets overshadowed by the wacky people she meets. Cerberus Syndrome, executed well
You should read it if: You like adventure, silly characters, and jokes about Dark Souls.
Leasebound
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What is it: Two lesbians are contrived into sharing an apartment, then the comic becomes a polemic about how trans people are evil. The second-best TERF webcomic on this list
The Good: This comic has no redeeming qualities
The Bad: It’s hella transphobic, and not even particularly interesting about it the way Sinfest can be. Everything that’s not hateful is boring, and the comic is practically going “Go on, be offended, blog about me, give me atteeeennnnttttiiiiiooooonnn!”
You should read it if: You really shouldn’t, and I’m not linking to it
Least I Could Do
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What is it: Rayne Summers is the best at everything and you should listen to him
The Good: This comic updates on time regularly. Sometimes it updates without word balloons by accident, making it surreally funny
The Bad: Poorly thought-out political rants; few jokes, severe overuse of beat panels, copy-pasted art.
The Terrible: Designed to go viral, not to be entertaining; makes panels wordless just so they can be used as preview images
You should read it if: You have committed horrible sins and wish to atone
Legend of the Hare
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What is it: I wrote this! A white trash loser girl is peer pressured into becoming a magical girl by a pair of pushy rabbits. A spinoff of the print comic Blade Bunny, written and drawn by the current creative team of Saffron and Sage.
The Good: Bouncy and cartoony art. Strong and memorable characters. Very weird and freewheeling.
The Bad: The plot is an absolute mess, stalling out and even going backwards at times, though it mostly comes together at the end. The tone is wildly inconsistent.
The Terrible: Kind of South-Parky in its humor sometimes
You should read it if: You like Saffron and Sage and want to see a comic by the same team when they were less experienced.
Nan Quest ⭐
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What is it: In this spiritual sequel to Ruby Quest, a goat girl electrician sets out to fix a broken fuzebox and ends up ensnared in a psychological horror conspiracy.
The Good: Much more effective use of the simple MS Paint art style, with more color and some simple animations (animated panels being marked [A], a convention Homestuck would later adopt for its [S] sound panels). The characters are better fleshed out than in Ruby Quest, and the horror is more effective as well, with less gore and more tension.
The Bad: Though used effectively, the art is still MS Paint doodles. The story mechanics behind the mystery are much more ambiguous, which can be a plus.
Content Warning: Gore, threatened sexual violence.
You should read it if: You like Ruby Quest and/or psychological horror comics that can be read in a few hours.
Moby: Back from the Deep
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What is it: A zombie killer whale attacks a small town.
The Good: The art is nice
The Bad: Egregious overuse of narration.
The Terrible: It’s a beat for beat ripoff of the movie Jaws, down to some characters having their names only marginally changed from their Jaws counterpart (e.g. “Alex Gardener” is the name of the Alex Kintner analogue)
You should read it if: You can’t find a Jaws torrent.
Mokepon ⭐
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What is it: A dickhead teenager is forced on a Pokemon adventure, and learns a valuable lesson about friendship while being dragged into a criminal conspiracy. A Pokemon fanfic that’s somewhat darker than the source material (though not really “grimdark”)
The Good: Good action scenes, nice manga-style art. Notable improvement in art and storytelling over time. Atticus’ slow-burn character growth is satisfying.
The Bad: The early chapters are almost a completely different comic, and it takes a little while to find its groove.
You should read it if: You liked Pokemon Special
Monster Pulse ⭐
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What is it: Kids’ internal organs become sentient external organs, and they have to keep it a secret from an evil orginization.
The Good: Cool twist on the surprisingly rare monster pet genre. Not afraid to upend the status quo
The Bad: No real obvious flaws, but if you don’t find the premise interesting, you probably won’t like it.
You should read it if: You were a fan of monster-pet stories like Digimon Tamers
The Monster Under The Bed
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What is it: A teenager finds a demon girl under his bed, rom-com ensues
The Good: Cute anime-esque premise
The Bad: Gets progressively hornier to to point where I'm not sure if I should even leave it on this list. Egregious use of photos instead of drawing backgrounds, making outdoor scenes look awful
You should read it if: You like trashy Japanese animes
Narbonic ⭐
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What is it: A shlubby loser gets a job working for a mad scientist. Mad sciencey things occur, and the comic experiences an incredible jump in quality in the back half
The Good: Short comic, comfy and easy to read. The best and most satisfying ending arc of any webcomic ever.
The Bad: Some “LOLRANDOM” humor, especially early on.
The Terrible: The first few comics are almost literally unreadable due to messy handwritten lettering and low quality scans.
You should read it if: You love seeing a story build to a proper conclusion, and you don’t mind a rough start.
Octopus Pie ⭐
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What is it: Slice-of-life dramedy where twenty-somethings try to become adults and/or get laid while navigating New York life. Completed comic.
The Good: If you direct your attention above, you will see the incredible coloring. There are other comics that have better plots and even better characters, but Octopus Pie is uniquely good at hitting a mood. Occasionally does some infinite canvas stuff that’s neat.
The Bad: This is a comic about exploring ideas and kind of drifting around through life, and isn’t a big plot-focused comic with a lot of big dramatic reveals. Which I don’t think is bad, but it might not be your thing.
You should read it if: You liked stories about adults trying to figure out how to grow up, and like seeing characters age.
Out-of-Placers ⭐
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What is it: A human man is turned into a female rat creature, and has to navigate a low-fantasy world while learning their incredibly stupid ways and trying to get himself back to normal.
The Good: Really good worldbuilding, with interesting, fleshed out, and unique fantasy races. There are licensed Dungeons and Dragons books with less cool ideas for a campaign in them.
The Bad: Can get kind of edgy in ways that don’t always work, and occasionally gets a bit gross. If the premise made you think it was a furry fetish comic, it’s not, but it keeps threatening to become one if you don’t whap it with a newspaper and say “No” very firmly every now and then.
You should read it if: Your favorite DnD race is kobolds.
Paranatural ⭐
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What is it: Kids bust ghosts in a parody of shounen anime tropes
The Good: Good banter, creative panel layouts, and characters you want to root for.
The Bad: The story rapidly increases in scale, causing the pacing to slow down somewhat. The story later transitions to an illustrated prose format, which some people can't really get into.
You should read it if: You liked Bleach before it became Dragonball
Prequel -or- Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure ⭐
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What is it: An Elder Scrolls fanfiction, in which an alcoholic catgirl heads to a new land to try to make a better life, and generally fails.
The Good: Inventive use of the web as a storytelling medium. Great character writing. Lovable protagonist. Excellent payoff to years or life kicking the protagonist in the face.
The Bad: Years of life kicking the protagonist in the face. Can thus be depressing, especially early on, sometimes to the point of being offensive (see Content Warnings)
The Terrible: Very slow and irratic update schedule
Content Warnings: Alcoholism, Depression, the protagonist gets blackout drunk and wakes up in bed next to strange men several times, which is played for comedy.
You should read it if: You like slow burn character development. You like stories where the protagonist has a hard time
Problem Sleuth
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What is it: A detective tries to leave his office using user-submitted commands, and gets in a few tangents along the way. Mostly known now as “The thing Andrew Hussie did before Homestuck”, but it was a popular comic in its own right.
The Good: Much better art than most reader-driven comics, bizarre and clever, with a dramatic finish.
The Bad: Holy shit, you thought Homestuck meandered? Problem Sleuth will do nearly anything and everything readers asked him to do, and this is a veeeeeery convoluted comic that has thus aged somewhat poorly.
You should read it if: You thought Homestuck was best before the Trolls got involved.
Questionable Content
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What is it: Humanity achieves a technological utopia in the background while hipsters in Massachusetts complain about their dating lives. Later begins focusing much more heavily on all the robots.
The Good: A rotating menagerie of quirky cute girls. Had a major trans character before it was cool.
The Bad: The comic kind of transitions from being about one thing to being about another thing several times, to the point where onetime protagonists show up less and less or even get dropped altogether in favor of the New Thing the comic is.
You should read it if: You want a comfy and diverse slice-of-life comic.
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violetganache42 · 3 months ago
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Highlights from a swashbuckling, futuristic watch party on this fine 6th anniversary of "The Shadow War!":
"No Sail"
The sail deactivating every ten seconds after despositing a nickel
"Warning: Never. Drink. Sea water! Tempting as it is, it'll just make you thirstier."
Mine!
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Goofy pulling up a fake shark fin while Donald gets a real shark
Return of the Perfect Cast!
"Duck to the Future"
Godfrey and I DREADING this episode
Not Doofus Drake! ><
WriteBackAtYa: "Who doesn’t want lemonade made by 87 Doofus Drake’s feet?"
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(No! Bad Will!)
Magica appearance?!
This episode predicting Scrooge being Doctor Who
$500 BUS FAIR?! DAMN INFLATION!
HDL's "adult" designs (It's not fucking hard to make them look like actual adult ducks!)
Old Man Gyro
Me: "Where's Time Baby when you need him?" Godfrey: "Again, same brain"
Take a shot every time WriteBackAtYa says "It gets worse"
Us HATING Future Webby's design (Her outfit is fine, but everything else? Bless me bagpipes, it's bad!)
Pay no attention to the witch behind the curtain!
Future Doofus being an absolute dick (Webby deserves someone better, and that someone is Lena!)
puffywuffy8904 and Alex: *pointing out how Drake is dead* WriteBackAtYa: "The orange traffic cone above his grave should be stolen by now"
Johnny Quest ass shot
Future Louie riding shotgun
Even in the original series, Dewey crashes a plane
Suddenly, THE HINDENBURG DISASTER
Scrooge disrupting the timeline with Webby saying she's not into Doofus (Thank you for setting the course for a good future, Scrooge. This episode was… UGH… Never again! ><)
"Sky Pirates…in the Sky!"
Dewey wanting to tell his family how he got his hat
"Hey feet off the merchandise!"
Us singing the Sky Pirate song!
Scrooge's golden reaction after the song finished and the treasure was stolen
puffywuffy8904: "even though it was SHIT"
Any: "Busted" Me:
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Webby casually gaslighting Louie into believing the Sapphire of Souls is real
Louie being the Gollum of the family
Don Karnage being a bad actor
puffywuffy8904: "you know who ELSE is a botanist" Me: "MY MOM"
Cater-chiller
Godfrey and Kaito stealing my thunder
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Discord dunking on Dewey by freezing the stream during his Sky Pirate reprise
Even LAUNCHPAD was mad at Dewey for what he did! LAUNCHPAD OF ALL PEOPLE! That's how you know you and your ego trip fucked up!
Magica having a better disguise than Don Karnage
Sky pirates: "A Duel!" Godfrey: "(cue duel of the fates)"
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The way Scrooge boards the Sunchaser with his hat full of treasure. XD
Webby revealing to Louie she tricked him: GASLIGHT GATEKEEP GIRLBOSS
Marshmello x DuckTales - Fly (Music Video)
Scrooge and the kids embodying the element of sassy
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Puffy panicking about the family being out in space
"MARSHMELLO IS A DUCKTALES FAN"
This song being in a Fortnite event apparently
Treasure Planet
Everyone realizing Missy hadn't joined yet (The lack of "smash" was noticable.)
Me sharing Treasure Planet Lorcana cards
The offended "Ewww"
melcat33: "family clearly having a huge crisis" "MY JUICE" Tokuvivor: "If anyone needs me, I'll be in the kitchen drinking… juice."
puffywuffy8904: "HEY COOL A DEAD GUY"
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Alex pointing out how the dying guys always have to give a vague warning
Jim: "Treasure Planet." Me: "Roll credits."
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Delbert immediately being on board to tag along with Jim
The meta in "character-building months"
The TRANSITION from the Hawkins' residence to the Spaceport!
Captain Amelia appearance!
CYBORG…
John Silver 🤝 Hugh Neutron Calling Jim and Jimmy "Jimbo"
MORPH APPEARANCE
Learning the original Treasure Planet novel popularized a lot of pirate tropes
Everyone praising how it is a fun yet underrated movie
puffywuffy8904: "wait are they gonna kiss eww" Me: "Outside. Now!"
Subtitles dying as John Silver was berating the crew
"I'm Still Here" screaming 2000s-core
Subtitles near the end of the montage:
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Star Wars doing the "Your father is the true villain" shtick first
TransedMyGender: "You know what's worse than a supernova?" Alex: "see your father leave"
Scroop killing Arrow!
puffywuffy8904: "there ain't gonna be a treasure planet 2 for us to worry about" melcat33: "don't you dare jinx us"
"oh shit, guess i have a kid now"
Morph messing with Jim
Missy FINALLY joining the watch party!
Morph custody fight
Everyone saying who they consider the best duck waifu (Morph can be a duck if he wants to. lol)
Suddenly, ROBOT
Learning that Jim was voiced by Joseph Gordin Levitt (NGL, he sounded a lot like Ben Schwartz at various instances)
The violins playing
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"We're not a couple" Delbert and Amelia LITERALLY having a shipping moment immediately after
puffywuffy8904: "this guy stinks" Me and WriteBackAtYa's first thoughts:
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THE MEME
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"Woof."
Delayed subtitles
🎵Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!🎵
The WONDERFUL meshing of 2D animation and CGI
Us @ Scroop's death:
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Me: "BITE OF 87" WriteBackAtYa: "87 like ducktales?"
BATHROOM BREAK SPEEDRUN
puffywuffy8904: "hey you know what ELSE has robots and supernovas" Alex: "not Jimbo's dad"
Suddenly, HUEBERRYSHORTCAKE APPEARANCE!
This movie being TaleSpin in Space
Family is the greatest treasure of all!
WriteBackAtYa: "His mom is cool" Me: "She did her very best." WriteBackAtYa: "Like no one ever was"
SHIPPING UP TO BOSTON
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Delbert and Amelia already having quatriplets quadruplets
DuckLooneyHistoria bringing up the 1988 Russian Treasure Island movie
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alex31624 · 3 months ago
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Comic Review: Uncle Scrooge and the Infinity Dime
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The Duck Comic Reading Club went mute this week, and since I kinda like talk about one comic per week, is time for the review of Infinity Dime.
I not going to go deep in the cover topic, since that has been discussed enough. And yeah, that cover shouldn't have been published. This is the first comic on this weekly reviews that I physically own, I have the Alex Ross cover, because, how could I not?
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The story begins with a Christmas that never was. Donald and the boys were supposed to get together with Scrooge but couldn't make it. That turned Scrooge in a even bitter and angry old man.
This is a What if…? scenario, and I'm on board with that. I like those stories. My favorite is What If… The Punisher's Family had not been Killed in Central Park?
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They cut down the phrase for Ducktales '17.
Scrooge loneliness and bitterness consumed him. He knew something was missing. That's when he got a crazy and vicious idea.
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And now, this story is going into the multiversal route. Everything has to be like that now.
But, if is fun…
We see then a different Scrooge, who's sees in horror how the entire Bin is being stolen.
At first, he thought it was another Beagle Boys heist, but he eventually found out what we already knew. This is the work of….
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I really like the design here. How the Scrooge Above All wears all the dime he had take from all the others Scrooges. Is kinda morbid and tetric in a way.
Scrooge receives the beating of a lifetime and has no other choice but retreat. He now seeks the help of Gyro.
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Who looks way to happy.
The babies are there too, and they look adorable.
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That freaking guidebook has a section to everything imaginable.
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They said the thing.
They think the dime is a universal constant and that's how Scrooge Above All can travel to different universes. But turns out the dime wasn't the constant, it was Scrooge himself. Kinda like Harry Potter being a horrocrux.
Scrooge traveled the multiverse to get himself some help.
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Is so funny to see kid Scrooge there.
The Scrooge army beat the hell out of the Beagle Boys. They had the upper hand, until the Scrooge Above All appeared and kicked all their asses.
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But the Scrooge army had one more card up their sleeve.
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Ok, that hyped me up.
A horde of rage-driving Donalds must be the most scary thing ever.
With the Donalds attacking, the Scrooges turn the things in their favor, retreat the dimes from Scrooge Above All, who lose his magic, and is defeated. Nice and quick.
All the Bins return to their respective Scrooge, and Scrooge Above All learns what was he really missing. His family.
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Because, family is the greatest adventure of all.
By the way, is that Webby? It has to, who else would it be? Nice to see her.
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It was no masterpiece, or a must-read comic, but I liked it. It was simple and fun. I don't need that much more to have a nice time.
The comic had one more story, Christmas on Bear Mountain. But that's a tale for another day.
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godfrey-the-chaos-duck · 14 days ago
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Scrooge mcduck and valentino
my first, immediate thought was a horrified "... IN WHAT CONTEXT? DOING WHAT????" before I remembered the ask game PWKFDGJK
anyway for moth bitch valentinhoe
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much as i hate to admit it he is a Well Designed Character. Unfortunately his hotdog-water personality outweighs his cool design
now for Scrooge McDuck (who is. my fave guy ever)
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listen @achilleanauthor i know you haven't seen much of DuckTales but trust me this man is very very gender and probably bi in some way (it isn't shown but like come on the guy's over 150 you can't tell me he hasn't experimented a LITTLE)
also it's david tennant. come on.
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popculturebuffet · 1 year ago
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Disney 100th Birthday Special: Top 12 Disney Television Animation Shows
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Happy Birthday all you happy people! And it's a very special birthday as it's the 100th anniversary of a company that, while I routinely mock on a regular basis for impaling themselves about a dozen time a year, has brought me a lot of joy. It was a 100 years ago that the wonderful world of disney began and 100 years later it's still bringing us some of the finest and funnest animation around and will likely continue for a hundred more as they create a whole disney planet serving up mickey shaped foods for all time around a disney owned star.
So before we can look forward to happiest dystopian future off earth, I thought hard about what I wanted to do for the 100th. I've covered disney a LOT on this blog: season 3 of ducktales AND the arcs for the two seasons before that, seasons 2 and 3 of both amphibia and owl house, classics like the Lion King and A Goofy Movie, a whole year worth of house of mouse reviews, shorts, various comics great and donald being pro illteracy.. the list could go on for an entire article itself.
So while I had PLENTY of options, from a shorts marathon to another movie, I decided the best way to honor this occasion was by focusing on a portion of disney near and dear to my heart: Disney TV Animation.
Way Way Back in the 1980s, DisneyTVA was formed by fresh faced executive overlord Michael Eisner. Eisner was looking to expand his new empire, and found a clever way to do it. See at the time while there were certainly good cartoons, most had the budget of a paper clip and a piece of string. It's why Disney took this long to get into the game: Walt thought he just coudln't get the quality needed on a tv budget and while he WANTED to at some point, he passed before that could happen.
Many laughed at this decision, citing it as a huge money sink waiting to happen.
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Yeah critics not taking animation or kids watching it seriously isn't new and assuming they'll just watch anything is laughable. Yes low budget shows like Transformers got plenty of views... but transformers also put in high quality voice actors and intriguging designs. Take both of those and make the animation bouncier, and kids would notice.
And they did: The first Disney TVA show, Gummi Bears, was a massive success, leading to the planet sized one that was Ducktales and a whole legacy of classic shows.
There is a double edged sword here though: While most of these shows are high quality and well loved.. Disney tends to.. ignore they exist. They don't make merch, think adult and teenage fans aren't a think, and when it comes to merch don't usually tend to make it for these shows during or after their runs. There are exceptions and they are reviving stuff.. but disney has a bad habit to prefer cashing in on nostalgia than on what they have now unless it fits their narrow perameters
For me though.. Disney TVA is home to some of the best, most game changing shows in the medium. From shows I grew up with to shows that sadly just ended, Disney has made a ton of shows permeanntly embded in my heart. My doctor says I should get that removed but what does he know. At this studio are creators who are passionate, create unique works, and work very hard to stand out. Even when shows get slapped with the dreaded 2 season limits, they still stick in our hearts not just because of that nostlaagia pop disney wants, but because they were just that good and still hold up into adulthood. I've covered a lot of this library, owe my career to these shows and will never sotp being impressed by them.
So out of the 42 i've seen I whittled it down by 30 which was way harder than it sounded down to the very best. A few shows like Gargoyles I sadly just.. hadn't watched, so if something's missing it was either that or a very hard cut. Whlie the top 8 was shockingly easy, it was hard to narrow this list down to the very best. I'd also like to point out that this is my opinon: feel free to send me your own lists, i'd be curious to see how your own personal experinces shaped yours. But for now this is mine... and this is my top 12 best disney telvision animation shows.
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12. The Weekenders Created by Doug Landale 2000-2004 4 Seasons, 76 episodes
Our #12 is a childhood faviorite of mine.. and also one of the two shows your most likely to hear me bitch about disney+ not having. IT'S BEEN ALMOST 4 YEARS.
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But bitch complaning about disney being disney aside, the Weekenders is a charming classic that needs more eyes on it and it's weird I haven't covered frankly.
At any rate Weekenders is a slice of life show with a good yet simple hook: it follows 4 middle schoolers, Tino, Carver, Lor and Tish, as through their weekends from Friday after school to monday morning. It allows for the show to do pretty much whatever it wants, and what it wants is to be a fairly lowkey slice of life show. The only really zany element that I can remember, or that I saw in ToonrfiqTariq's excellent retrospective of the series, which you can find here, is main character Tino, a sarcastic but kind guy played by voice acting royalty James Marsden, talking to the audience zack morris style, which is really just a neat way to move things along so it's not that obtrusive. I highly recommend that retrospective by the way. Tariq is awesome and it helped jog my memory on the show.
The series is a fairly low stakes affair: our heroes have a fairly typical problem, they talk it out or deal with it as the weekend goes on, and at least once an episode they go for pizza at an ever changing pizza restraunt with a fun new gimmick each episode, something I loved already as a kid but love even more NOW as an adult knowing that gag was likely a LOT to do. Keep in mind they had to draw new backgrounds, exteriors, and a new costume for the guy running it every time. It's the kind of joke you think a series would've given up on for those reasons but nope, every episode has one.
Weekenders is a throughly charming slice of life show, helped by it's characters: In addition to tino we have the egotistical Carver (Phil LaMarr) thickheaded jock Lor (Grey DeLise) and immigrant nerd and vegtarian Tish. While the four coudl've easily fallen into their sterotypes there's just enough depth to the cast to make them work. Tish in paticular was my faviorite, not only being one of the first immigrant stories in a show I saw that was largely respectful and not just
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It's a great show I genuinely wish I had more to say about. Find it somehow if you can, it's entirely worth it.
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11. Phineas and Ferb Created By Dan Povmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh 2007-2015, 20XX- 129 Episodes, 2 Movies, Upcoming Revival
At a time when kids animation wasn't in the best place, Phineas and Ferb was the smash hit we all badly needed. Done by vetran creators and Rocko's Modern Life Alums, Phineas and Ferb was a fun, creative show about two boys who simply wanted to make the best out of summer... and happened to be child progidys only limited by their immgination, so they could do anything and the utterly catchy theme song helpfully outlined it. Having only watched the first three or four seasons, I still don't know if they ever found Frankensteins' Brain. It was over there.
While the a-plots with the boys were great most of the time and had a great supporting cast: Helpful scout Isabella, shrill voiced nerd Baljeet and bully turned buddy Buford, the real draw for most of us was the b-plot: each episode the boys Platapus Perry would sneak out, don a fedora and foil the plots of his arch enemy and best buddy Heinz Doofenschmirtz, an awkward mad scientest who rather than therapy decides to deal with the many, MANY traumas in his life by building various inators and talking to Perry. Their shenanigans inevitibly undo whatever our heroes did in time for their mom to never notice and just think their sister Candance needs help as she tries to bust them.
The show mostly used this loop for it's lengthy run, ocasionally mixing up the setting by visiting the kids grandparents or with a special, but it mostly went like this. This started as the shows strength as the repitition allowed them to REALLY play with the formula: lampshade it, subvert it, and play with it. Sometimes Perry would go to foil doof but it ended up being something benign like Doof trying to do a party for his Daughter or go on a date. Sometimes the boys would genuinely be trying to help Candance or she'd have her own concerns outside of bustin making her feel good. The show packed this with tons of lampshade hanging, catchy songs (after an early one made the network want it once an episode), and genuine heart. It's hard not to root for Phineas and his optimism and genuine cheer. Depsite "driving our sister insane" being a main lyric.. the kid has nothing but love in his heart for his sister and that simple goal of just wanting to do something fun or help someone each day makes this one of the sweeetest shows around.
So your probably wondering why it's so low. And it's really simple: it's constant status quo.. kind of wore it out for me. After a while there was no real reason for Linda NOT to know the boys were doing this. We never got any indication she'd care beyond "Maybe wear a helmet" or "Have candace watch you", neither of which would really STOP what they do every day. While Across the Universe was a great movie it having a MASSIVE snapback at the end is what eventually got me out of the show. It was hard to invest when the show wasn't willing to really change anything. In hindsight I do get some shows just function better as status quo shows and my bitterness has lessened and it's why this show ended up making the list: it's status quo could be frustrating.. but no one had more fun playing with it at the time than these two kids. And the hunchbacked old man what fights/is common lawed married to their platypus.
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10. American Dragon: Jake Long Created by Jeff Goode Developed by Eddie Guzelian and Matt Negrete 2005-2007 2 Seasons, 52 Episodes AmDrag was part of the teen superhero boom on kids shows in the 2000's. Classics like Danny Phantom, My Life as a Teenage Robot, El Tigre and more came about at this time, with disney only dipping it's toes in twice with this show and another we'll get to soon enough.
That said.. American Dragon is an excellent show, mostly down to it's core: The show follows the titular Jake Long, a guy who on surface, from rapping part of his theme to his frosted tips to his skateboard comes off very much like an energy drink came to life and starred in it's own show. Which given the 2000's i'm very suprised never happened. But jake is somehow likeable.. he's a bit arrogant sure, but his arrogance is only in his skill: He genuinely does try his best as protector of new york, cares about his friends and cares heavily about his crush Rose. He's got a heart to him beneath the layers of axe body spray and Dante Basco's standout performance, what would easily have been his defining role as a VA had avatar not come along soon after, helps make this guy feel human.
What also helps boost it's show is it's myth arc. Like Danny Phantom a year before it, AM Drag breaks from the style of the time to have a dedicated arc and continuity. There's plenty of monster of the week stuff, some better (like the oracle twins, easily my faviorite side characters , who also have the fun gimmick of one being super cheery yet predicting horrible things and the other being jaded but seeing only good, with their powers being why (If you see every good thing that you'll ever get it makes it hard to enjoy them and if you see every possible horrible thing that happens to you, it makes the other stuff easier to swallow), some worse, and that can be a weaker part of the show.
But it's core arcs are what make the show it's most intresting. For the first season and a half we have the shows best: Jakes battles with the huntsclan, the foot clan.. if they were violent racists who slaughter magical creatures. Granted we don't SEE that on screen but the show does a good job showing us that no, that's what they are.
This itself would likely work.. but what makes it special and standout for the time it came out.. is the wrinkle they throw in: Huntsgirl, the Huntsclan's #1 guy and sidekick to the huntsman.. is Jake's crush Rose, a fairly well adjusted kind girl who simply dosen't know what she's been indoctrinated into, thinking Dragons are evil. This is a nice change of pace as at the time most relationships with teens and tweens in cartoons were either between some popular slab of cardboard of the characters best friend.
Instead Rose SEEMS to be the cardboard type.. but not only has depth outside of the hood, but the fact the audience can easily tell who huntsgirl is, Mae Whitman has a distinctive voice after all and as usual does a fantastic job only adds the tension: We know who rose is, but Jake doesn't and early on we don't know how much of her is real. And once the secret breaks we get the drama of both dealing with not only being on opposite sides but Rose realizing she was on the wrong one.
The arc after, focusing on a dark dragon isn't as strong in comparison, but it's also not entirely fair given they likely though they'd have another season and a half to wrap it up proper. That being said the series also has an interesting arc with Jake's overachieving younger sister, who goes from knowing about the dragon thing (his whole family does minus his dad for.. some reason) and showing some powers.. to being a dragon herself and often her brother's sidekick.
The show had it's weaknsesses, outside of the big bads there was never really much of an interesting Rogue's Gallery, Trixie felt a bit flat as a character, and again there was no good reason Jake's dad shouldn't know so we got stupid groundings and such. But we also got a compelling enemies to lovers arc with a lot of tension, a nice mythology, and profressor rotwood, Jakes teacher and magic hunter, a fun butt monkey for the show. It's a solid show that i'd love to see get a revivial.
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9. Wonder Over Yonder Created by Craig McCracken 2013-2016 43 Episodes
Wonder Over Yonder is one of Disney's more infamous cancelations. Despite being DisneyXD's #1 show they not only barely promoted it, I wasn't aware the second season was going on till it was almost over and still need to get around to watching it, Disney cancelled it. Despite being well loved Disney cancelled it. It's not the worst cancellation on this list, that comes later, but it's still a pretty dang bad one. The fact they didn't put the show on Disney+ for some time dosen't exactly help.
Why Disney hated this show so much I'll never know as Wonder is one of the most heartfelt and creative show's disney put out. And keep in mind as I said i've only seen season 1. I know it gets even better with season 2's dedicated story arc and the introdcution of lord dominator. I've seen the musical number.
Wonder took inspiration from, of all things, dr. seuss, with Craig being an admitted fan of 60's and 70's astetics already, it just flowed naturally as we got the tail of a gentle tumbleweed whose kind and thoughtful to everyone he meets wether they desreve it or not and his tough as nails steed and best friend sylvia. The rolls are easily the best of Jack McBrayer and April Winchel's long careers, nicely contrasting each other in perfect ballance: Sylvia fights the battles wonder can't win with kindness or is too oblvious to realize he's in, Wonder wins fights simply by being too cheery and oblivious to beat.
Over their journey's they repeadtely run into our other main characters, Lord Hater, played by the awesome Keith Fergeuson, an over the top skeletial manchild who badly wants to be taken seriously but is too impulsive, stupid, and easily angered for him to actually achieve that depsite the help of Commander Peepers, his #2 and put upon lackey. Add in tons of great sets, fun scnearios and creative uses of animatoin and you have something unforgitable. McCracken really loves to play with storytelling here, from your standard genre breaks to simply taking a conventional tale like a kinight rescuing a princess.. and turn it into our heroes accidently assitating a stalking jerk and said princess easily clocking him one before they can all unite to save him. The show had so much fun with it's cast and heart in it it's really hard not to like and while it sadly ended too soon what we got... is something magical.
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8. Clerks the Animated Series Created by Kevin Smith 2000 6 Episodes Like most of you are as you read this entry, I was suprised to find Disney TVA made this. To date this is Disney's only adult animated series, and the fox acquisition giving them a full studio for that tells me it'll likely stay this way unless they do something actiony for disney +. It's also far and away the shortest lived show on this list. only airing two of it's 6 produced episodes, neither of which was the actual first episode. ABC didn't like what they got, they buried it, standard corprate procedure, and thanks to DVD and Comedy Central airings the show went from quickly forgotten weird relic to one of the best animated adaptations out there and one of the poster children for shows too good to last.
I grew up with this show. Since I was too young for the kevin smith movies my brother was obessed with, the series was the first Kevin Smith related thing I ever watched and it's stayed with me since. The show's short.. but it's 6 episodes are absolutely STUFFED with great jokes. I could honestly spend the rest of the article quoting this series, from "Hey, it's ted danson" to "Why are we walking like this" to "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit you old hag!".... and that's just the second episode. Admitely in terms of tone, Clerks TAS.. is nothing like the movie. The original Clerks was a fairly low key film mostly driven by our leads Dante and Randall's conversation and the various people who came in. It was a character piece about being stuck in a dead end job, about ignoring rules versus blindly following them, and about two stoners who were in it for 5 minutes but became the backbone of this cinematic universe because their the best.
Clerks the Animated Series instead is a gleefully wacky romp where our heroes can't say fuck but do get into sitcommy hyjinks, from clipshows, to a rival buisness across the way, to the deadly motava virus, to a pastiche of the last starfighter turning into a pastiche of the bad news bears then a pastiche of temple of doom. As you can tell this show is kinda nuts and really just Kevin Smith getting to be all kinds of redicluous in the funniest way possible. He replaced being able to say fuck and talk about sex with hyjinks and turned randall from a charming if assholish slacker into one of the best dumbasses in animation. The show is a near constant laugh riot, beautifully animated too. It also naturally has the boys, with Jay and Silent bob still getting in lots of neat antics even if they can no longer deal on screen. Clerks the Animated series is one of the funniest shows there's ever been and I highly recommend seeking it out.
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7. Milo Murphy's Law Created by Dan Povemire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh 2016-2017, 2019 46 Episodes
Meet the show disney somehow treated WORSE than the last two. I swear when I put this list together I did not realize these three would be clustered together.
But yes, when I said there was a worse cancelation I meant it: Milo Murphy's Law was the dwampy duo of Phineas and Ferb.. and got utterly buried because Disney was mad it wasn't the mega hit that show was, forgetting that was also a fairly slow burn, or that you kow THIS IS A DIFFRENT SHOW. So they not only barely promoted the second half of season 1.. but then just sat on season 2 for a full year, with many an episode airing elsewhere long before that and released it over a few weeks. They then just.. straight up ended production to make a phineas and ferb movie. In fact despite a full soundtrack apparently existed only ONE song's gotten released from the show in full thanks to said movie's soundtrack. To say Disney screwed this show over is putting it lightly.
And it's a huge shame this show got buried as it did as Milo.. is freaking awesome. I mean I gave it a shot from episode one simply because it had Weird Al attached. Even if i'd gotten burned out on the previous show, i'll give anything Al's in a shot.
And that shot was worth it as from the first episode to the last, Milo is a truly charming show with, say it again ya'll, "a truly unique premise" . Disney has a knack for those don't it?
MML follows Milo Murphy, a happy go lucky 6th grader who meets new kid in town Zack.. who soon finds out Milo has a family curse, based on, of course, Murphy's Law; if something can go wrong, it will. So the universe bends over backwords to try to murder this tween and anyone around him... hence why while everyone likes Milo well enough, only his feisty hustler best friend Melissa really hung around before Zack took a chance on his new pal.
What makes the series great though is that Milo... dosen't ever angst about having murphy's law. You'd think with his life being a constant never ending string of disaster dominos, the guy would give up or we'd have one episode of him bedguging all he's missed out on. Instead.. Milo sees his life as an adventure, enjoys in the shenanigans he gets into and simply packs his backpack to be prepeared and keep his spleen in tact. He's a sweet, kind, optimist who helps people no matter what and dosen't let his curse get him down or stop him from living his life. It's milo that makes the show this good, having to both work around his jinx as well as many an adventure coming from people's reaction to him: From his love intrest Amanda intitally avoiding him due to being a perfectionist only to let him in more once she realizes what a kind guy he is, to the local security guard played byc hristan slater being an absolute dick to him, we see how it impacts his life.. but how he also enjoys his life regardless.
The series also has it's own perry equilvent, Dakota and Cavendish, who genuinely drive the seasons story arcs, two time policeman and ambigously gay duo who try to prevent pistachos from being destroyed.. then do the opposite once i'ts clear it'll cause the end of the world. They add to the story.
What puts this show up here, and way above phineas is that it's not afraid of change: the basic status who dosen't, but the show has a story arc for each season, characters grow and change with Zack getting more used to the chaos around his bestie, the relationship with amanda I mentioned, and most importantly Dakota and Cavindish finding out about milo fairly early on and vice versa, allowing their plots to intersect. It's also really damn funny.
Honestly the show's only this low because the top 6 are REALLY that good.. and because season 2 kinda crams Dr. Doofinschrmitz in there on what feels heavily like an executive mandate. Sometims he cab be a bit overbearing.. but the show's still up this high because frankly, Doof was the best part of his previous show and still gets a LOT of great material, paticuarlly this bit.
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Also his friend there is Jeff. Jeff is a man who lives underground. He's great. And this series is, badly underated. I can't wait to see these characters again as it's been directly said that while their tabling it for the first two seasons apperances by characters from the previous two shows aren't off the table for hamster and gretel, they just learned from this one to wait, but while I wait.. what we got.. is still damn magical.
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6. Kim Possible Created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle 2002-2007 4 Seasons, 82 Episodes, 2 Movies, 1 Live Action Reboot Film
Kim Possible was one of my faviorite shows as a kid, and for good reason. Even over two decades later, the show still holds up as a smart, hilarious, and well done spy show. I also will gladly count it as part of the teen superhero boom as it hits a lot of those tropes too.
The setup however is nicely unique: Rather than work for a big spy orginzation (Though she does freelance in a few episodes for SHIELD expy Global Justice), or for money or what you'd expect from a world class adventuerer and super spy, Kim is just an above average teen whose fairly smart, popular and really damn good at both gymnastics and kicking people who does the job because it's the right thing to do and her organization is really just four people: herself, Wade, a child progidey who finds jobs for her, Ron, her best friend, eventual love interest, and overly panicky but loveable goofus, and Ron's pet Rufus who counts because he saves their lives quite a bit simply by being in ron's pocket and being smart enough. He's also a naked mole rat and the reason I know those exist.
While the show has a strong supporting cast with screen legends Gary Gole and Jean Smart as Kim's Rocket Science and Neurosurgeon parents, her annoying twin brothers, her sarcastic best girl friend monique, her annoying rival bonnie and my personal faviorite her authorative yet still resonable and utterly hilarious teacher Mr. Barkin, played by my boy Patrick Warburton, one of it's biggest strengths is Kim's Rogue's gallery.
Like I said with americna dragon a lot of the weakness for these teen hero shows is that they genuinely only have one or two major foes that are actually you know.. memorable. In contrast Kim has a LOT of intresting and fun villians of the week, not a huge pool but enough to keep it intresting with plenty of fun one offs. The main one is Dr. Drakken, played by John Dimaggio in one of his best parts and Shego, played by Nicolle Sulivan in her best role, an over the top , hammy shortsighted blue mad scientest and his snarky assitant who does most of the punching and is easily kim's physical equal. The two show up the most out of Kim's rogues, and while this on paper could get reptitive the two's banter is great, they play off our heroes fantastically, and they frankly never seemed to run out of great schemes for Dr. D to do.
There were other greats too, my personal faviorites being Senior Senior Senior and Senior Senior Junior, character actor Ricardo Montalban in his best role as a rich old man who after accidently blacking out paris, takes ron's suggestion he had all the makings of a super villian to heart and using his vast wealth to arch our heroes for fun while Junior.. badly dosen't want any part of this. Ther'es tons more I could gush about from DNAmy to the bebes, to my boy Frugal Lucre, a guy who works at a wallmart expy and barely spends money on his arching suplies.
The show's other weapon is it's writing: it's clever, hilarious, and the main duo are incredibly likeable: Kim is incredibly compitent but just as prone to teen angst as anyone her age, while Ron is incredibly panicky and goofy but far more compitent than he seems or he thinks himself to be. Our leads, Kristy Carlson Romano and va god Will Fridle in my faviorite role of his, have an effortless chemstriy between them, even before it turns romantic. You see how valuable their friendship is and how much they need each other even when they bicker.. and it turning romantic just feels.. natural. There's a risk there, and i'll likely go more into tha twhen I eventually cover so the drama (Either later this year if I can squeeze it in or early next year), but needless to say their the gold standard for friends to lovers and I love them.
The show is just.. damn good and worth checking out if you haven't. It's on Disney+ , all of it including the reboot film which is.. alright. not as good as the series but thanks to great casting and the creators involvment , still solid. Call it, beep it, reach it, it's a masterpiece and I badly hope those revivial rumors are true as i'd love to see this cast as adults.
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5. Amphibia Created by Matt Braly 2019-2022 3 Seasons, 58 Episodes
Anoyone whose seem this blog before probably saw this coming. I mean I covered two whole seasons of the show and deeply love it's main cast. And Maddie. God bless my creepy frog daughter. So it being this high up isn't a huge shock.. but damn if it dosen't deserve it. Amphibia isn't perfect: some of the one off episodes, even those important later, aren't the best... but the show still plays one of the best long games in animation. The character arcs are well set up from the get go and we follow our lead Anne Boonchuy from reckless and irresponsible teen plunked into a frog world to a strong empathetic heroine who has to save both worlds from a tyrant and his abusive computer dad. Along the way there's betrayal, slice of life shenanigans, and lots of cleverly done worldbuilding. And some padding. There's just a touch padding. But the strong character arcs not just for Anne but her friends (With Sasha being my easy faviorite but Marcy not exactly far behind and complex and engaging enough to get her own spinoff journal), found family and even her earth family. It's a beautifully done three act story: what seems like a lonnnng time spent in the rural town of Wartwood ends up not only buliding up the show's supporting cast but characters who are vital to the world's salvation later. The second season shows how far anne has come while also building out the world, continuing Sasha's arc as she spirals further and giving us the glory that is marcy, cumilating in season 3, a fantastic season that reverses the premise to amazing effect and ends with a truly satisfying conclusion.. even if SOME of the getting there is messy. Hey it's #5 for a reason.
IT's a well built, hilarious, and heartfelt human into swamp water story, and one of my faviorites. I only don't say TOO much as I want anyon ewho hasn't to try this themselves. Amphibia is a masterpiece and if you haven't seen it it's WELL worth the binge with one of the best voice casts in animation (Something that's really true for everything from far out), really choice world building, and a satsifying ending. This section may of been short but damn if i don't love this show with a lot of my heart.
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4. Gravity Falls Created by Alex Hirsch 2012-2016 2 Seasons, 40 Episodes
Another fairly obvious pick.. but one I weirdly HAVEN'T covered on this blog. I'll really have to fix that next year. Still just because something's obvious dosen't make it any less true. Gravity Falls is easily one of the most influental animated series of the 2010's, right up there with adventure time in kicking off the animation renaissance of that era and several of it's crew, including Matt Braly from the previous entry and a certain someone else coming up, going on to make stellar shows of their own.
It's rep and influence is well earned: Gravity Falls, like, as i've realized writing this, EVERY show on this list has a very simple elvator pitch: two kids spending the summer with their weird elderly uncle at his toursist trap get into paranormal shenanigans: Dipper as he tries to unwrap the mysteries of their temproary home and Mable as she tries to make friends, find a boy to smooch and genuinely ambles through life. She also gets a pig.
The simple setup belies not only a fairly intriguing mystery with a truly amazing twist halfway through season 2, but a fun arc villian in LIttle Gideon, the con artist next door, town hero and phony psychic, but a one of a kind, memorable and all time great vilian in Bill Cipher, a little triangle man who also happens to be a mad nightmare god trying to get into our dimension whose Chucky levels of deeply disturbing and terrifying as he is incredibly funny and charastmatic.
The rest of the cast is no slouch: Dipper and Mable are incredibly likeable, Wendy is great, played by personal faviorite of mine Linda Cardenlli and criminally underused and Soos, voiced by Hirsch along with Stan, Bill and MANY other characters, is a loveable dum dum 20 something who treats our heroes like surrogate siblings.
The real star of course, and the show stealling heart of the show is Stan Pines, the kids corrupt uncle and one of the most hilarious, and once we learn his deal heartbreaking and suprisingly complex, characters in all of animation. This show is on this list on it's own merits but woudln't nearly be so high without stan, a constant laugh machine, quote factory and powerhouse performance by Hirsch, who despite being new to voice acting steps into it like he's done this for decades. From teaching a bear to drive, to wondering if it's wrong to punch a child to "yes yes burn the child" and of course his greatest folly
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Stan constantly boosts the show by existing. Add in strong character ties, a compelling mystery and, like most shows this high up a hell of a finale, and you have a true classic that understadnably changed animation forever.
Also i'm pretty sure Stan killed at least two people in that clip. No one ever talks about that. I mean I knew he had a body count but still.
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3. Recess Created by Paul Germaine and Joe Ansolabehere 1997-2001 4 Seasons, 65 Episodes, 4 Movies
Recess is the oldest work on this list, ending just before KP and American Dragon started (though it'd air long into their runs as this show ran forever and rightfully so). It was also part of my childhood, airing long after it finished and being tender the whole way through.
Recess is a masterwork: while many a show stuck with me from childhood this is one that thinking back I can remember the episodes vividly, and given my memory is spotty that says something. It's a show with a lot of style, having it's characters dressed out of the 50s and 60s, with a cold war subtext I never had, but keeping it in the present to relate to kids when it's airing. It creates a vibe tha'ts both of it's time (the monstickers ep is very much of the pokemon boom), and timeless (kids STILL collect pokemon cards and despite some morons best efforts have recess and still form little clicks).
It takes two simple things kids grapple with, unfair teachers and authority figures and cliques and social circles and simply blows it up to be as big as it was in our heads: I remember having epic duels with the kids I played with , wars, whole conflicts and recess meets things on that level: the world of recess is one where the playground has a lineage of kings, the kindergartners are a feral tribe, two kids can reguarly acess shovels, and the local snitch is some sort of combination of gollumn and a weasel while keeping it just grounded enough for adults to relate to. Where rebelling against authority involves elaborate heists.
It's a perfect kind of show for kids: it meets them on their level, as it did when I was a kid.. but is smart enough that as an adult you can still enjoy it. It helps that most of the cast is three dimensional:
TJ is a loveable scamp.. but a good chunk of his schemes aren't just to stick it to the man or get some reward for him and his running crew, but to help kids. TJ's just as likely to break out of detention as he is to help a kid this week simply because they need it. He'll even help Randall, the local snitch I mentioned, despite his better judgment, simply because it's the right thing to do. He'll have to be talked into it because.. it's Randall. Randall sucks, But he'll do it. Spinelli is the tomboy of the group and will fight everyone, but has a good side to her and struggles with being a girl when she relates more to being masculine, something that's only become more relevant with time and can be read a lot of ways. Mikey is the big kid.. but a soft kind giant who deals with being sterotyped for his side. Vince is the sports kid... and okay most of his plots are around that, but we do get neat bits like him being ashamed his brother is basically urkel and having to learn his brother still slaps because unlike Urkel he dosen't harass women. Gretchen is a massive nerd, and the first role in Ashely Johnson's long and storied career, but also gladly paticipates in the schemes, has a lot of heart, and struggles.
And finally we have my boy Gus, the new kid at the start and the one I related most to being a nerdy nervous wreck myself: but he's gladly accepted into the rest of the gang, and finds a home at long last after moving around his whole life. He's got layers to him: he's a military brat, he's never really had stablility int erms of friendship, and he's often put upon, having to deal with King Bob being a jerk to him for being the new kid or bullies. Yet he's got a good heart despite being the nervous one of the group the biggest heart of them and will gladly stand up for himself when the chips are down.
Not only are these 6 fleshed out and relatable.. but they have a wholesome friendship. They'll fight sometimes, kids do, but despite being vastly diffrent people who on paper shoudln't really be hanging together.. you never doubt they like each other or would drop everything to help one another. Mostly because a good chunk of episodes are just that. Gretchen and Gus are never picked on by their friends.. teased a little, maybe , Spenelli be like that, but these six kids love and respect each other on level that's just heartwarming. You never doubt for a second these six are friends, even with Gus not having their shared history. He just fits because they like him, he's willing to do what's right, and he's a good kid. TJ is brave and noble, Spnelli is tough but dosen't punch down, Vince is cool, Mikey is insightful and kind, Gretchen is smart and clever and Gus ahs a good heart. You see the good they see in each other and it shows our diffrences.. make us better. There may be cliques at recess, but when the chips are down, TJ can get them to work together.
The series also just had a knack for creating really memorable episodes that feel entirely relatable: a trading card style boom leads to TJ becoming a rags to riches tycoon, swinger girl who always swings trying to do what all kids did and reach the other side leads to a tale about things we can't explain when she seemingly dissapears, a simple punishment leads to TJ"s teacher psychologically torturing him, a fake swear word leads to an ENTIRE COURT CASE, all stuff that's somehow realistic. The show's premise was a tool box that allowed them to tell a ton of diffrent stories, a lot of which with really adult, meaningful lessons, and the show never really got old. It only ended because Disney's attempts to continue it simply didn't work out and even with the 5th grade eps as an epilogue, it has a hell o a finale in the movie. The whole run's on disney+ and I.. really need to revisit it.. and to review it next year if possible.
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2. The Owl House Created by Dana Terrace 2020-2023 3 Seasons, 43 Episodes
Let's face it even if the article image hadn't tipped my hat here.. this one being high up .. was a given. I've gushed about this show at length, covering it as season's 2 and 3 ran out, written fanfiction on this blog, and since I started doing them the show's always ranked decently on my 20 best animated episodes lists I do each year, and will likely have a spot this year for the finale. My love of this show is something I don't remotely hide and have no reason to. So it being #2 on this list is an obvious pick.. but one i'm happy to be obvious with. In fact with these last two their pretty nearly tied in my heart and it was one inching out the other.
And the weird thing is.. I didn't even watch all of season 1. I watched the first half much as I could, but while I liked it I didn't get really heavy into it. The characters were charming, the designs great and it was nice to have a show where Wendy Malick was not only voice acting, but had a MAJOR role that really let her show off her chops. I've always loved her and it was a lot of fun to get a roll this good. It was also nice to have Alex Hirsch back. The show wasn't without style, a compelling lead, a hell of a romantic arc or other attractions.. but it wasn't till later in season 1 when classicsl ike encahnting grom fright and the finale REALLY made the show into what it became.
This lead to season 2.. which is one of the best seasons of television i've ever seen, and tha'ts with the fact that halfway through they had to massively reorganize the plot to fit into 10 episodes and 3 specials, something that's only really noticable in hindsight. And i'm not hyperbolizing: the show was good before.. but season 2 enriches everything, giving the characters more depth, paticuarlly king who goes from an afterthought in season 1 to the emotoinal core of the season and Alex Hirsch's best roll... which given Stan above says a LOT. Season 2 takes the foundations of the show and really plays with them, with pretty much everyone getting a deeper character, the school stuff forced into season 1 downplayed into just showing up as needed, allowing for way more story freedom and belos increased presence and hell of a true self reveal giving us one of Disney's greatest villians. Add in hunter as a new main cast member and best good soft boy, and you have a riviting saga that kept me enthralled the whole season. Even the weaker episodes add something, and the result is something that can't be topped: a show tha'ts funny, heartfelt, unmistakably queer and unquestionably well crafted.
It also managed to pull off one hell of an ending, not only introducing my murder child who learns his lesson the collector, but doing so with only three specials to wrap up what they shoul'dve had a season to. It's a show that like Gravity Falls before it is bound to really shake up animation and influence many a show to come an dI can't wait to see the results. A true epic about finding yourself, religious indoctrination and eldrich owl and tube shaped parasites, this show is something that may never be topped and was an utter joy while it lasted. Hoot.
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1. Ducktales Based on DuckTales by Jim Magon /Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks Developed by Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones 2017-2021 3 Seasons, 69 Episodes Like #2... #1 is a show my love of has been transparently obvious: Covering season 3 started this blog, i've covered seasons 1 and 2's story arcs, and done a ton of other duck stuff from a full three cabs retrospective, to donald shorts to the very duck adjacent goofy movie. While I haven't done as much duck content this year, a shame really, and still need to finish my life and times retrospective some day... my love of Disney's Ducks has been something i've had since college and this series not only revitalized it but sent it into the fucking stratosphere with the gold standard for reboots. DuckTales is the only show here based on an existing IP, but still manages to be super creative with it. Matt and Frank took nearly 100 years of Duck stories (not hyperbole, Donald turns the big 1-0-0 himself next year), taking from the legendary barks comics, the worthy successor rosa comics, the giant pile of European duck comics, the shorts, the movies, anything Donald , Scrooge or the Boys had been in, every bit of the disney afternoon, and everything else they could shove in to creat the defintive duck universe: Something that fully and lovingly respects what cames before but uses it all to create something fresh and wholly it's own. The cast is a nice mix of reinventions of old characters and brand new ones just as good if not even better.
This can be seen well with the core cast: Scrooge only gets changed slightly, but those slight changes were BADLY needed: Scrooge is still a guy with flaws: he can get far too focused on the goal ahead and not the human cost, is egotstical as all hell, and disconected from the common person. He can raid a tomb better than anyone, sorry Indy and Lara, but god help him if he tries doing an interview or produce a film. It's a nice ballance: he's out of touch and crotchety as usual, but far less of an abusive asshole. It's also clear that while the bin stores a lot of his treasures, and he won't take one if it's owners need it, being more than happy to give Djinn his family's lamp for instance, with it only being a whole thing because Louie sold it. It paints him more as a historian than a theif and robber baron, while still keeping the nice flaws that make him who he is: he's still cheap, he just won't underpay his staff and in fact mostly recurits people other employers give up on for being too weird.
The rest of the cast is given a more extensive but needed overhall: My boy Donald is less of the likeably selfish ass he usually is, instead a loveable dad who still destroys everything he touches, but spends the first two seasons living entirely for his kids. He's more mature while still being the idiot we love.
Everyone else.. is a huge change as I said. The biggest and best.. is the boys. Usually Huey, Dewey or Louie are a hive mind of goody goods.. or obnoxious boys. Depends on what the story needs. It always annoyed me that when you have three characters there their not at all distinct and there's no real need for them. Thankfully the creators of this show understood that and thus evolved the boys into three seperate people: Huey is more like the barks comics versions, a junior woodchuck, close to his mom and uncles, and exitable.. but with a nice fine pace of neurodivergence and anxiety that not only makes him relatable to me but a fairly likeable kid: one scared of change but with all the potetial in the world. Dewey takes ab it after the more sterotypically 80s moments of the boys in the show, being a rad dude with a penchant for acting out.. but instead of a sexist bully or jerk like the boys could be, Dewey is a pure theater kid who badly wants attention and has no impulse control. He's basically Hank Venture , age 12 and i'm here for it. Finally Louie takes the boys more scheming moments from the comics and shows and boils it down into a gen z slacker who wants to work smater not harder, and not work at all if needed, who evolves from heartless lazy schemer and evil triplet to a keep observer whose just mildly shady.
While the barks 5 are all acounted for we also get nice overhauls for the ducktales three original core characters: Webby gets the best, going from just "small baby child babY" to a hyperactive girl who is easily near scrooge's level in adventureeing.. but has no idea how to socalize and still loves sparkles. She's empathetic, brave, and a contrast to what woudl turn out to be her old man: instead of growing to shut people out , she starts out badly wanting to let everyone end. Beakley likewise gets a glow up from "old lady stertotype whose constantly flustered" to "badass british former secret agent, only sane man and gender swapped brock sampson" , with Launchpad being made a loveable doofus, but still compitent since Donald's here to be the everyman.
The cast.. only gets better as it goes: Ducktales took a huge leap and decided "Hey what ABOUT the triplet's mom" turning della from a question mark that was answered all of once across nearly a century.. to a character just as vallad as her brother and uncle who have said near century on her: Della is Donald's opposite: brave, confident.. but a mess herself and stuck on the moon for half the series. Paget Brewster does a phenominal job.
I emphasise the series characters.. because tha'ts it's heart: it has solid plots, revamps and what not.. but it's a giant, instnatly loveable cast of characters: The side cast is MASSIVE pulling from all over duck history: Fehtry makes his debut, Gladstone is taken from easily one of my most hated characters in the comics to a far more loveable schister, Rockerduck finally debuts, Glomgold is turned from "Scrooge but evil" to someone badly trying to copy scrooge and the most glorious weirdo in all of fiction. Seriously Keith Fergusons glomgold is fucking majestic, and while he's never really a major threat his overinfalted ego, lack of planning, obessions with sharks and bombs and general haminess made him one of the best parts of this. You also get Magica as a genuine threat , and a mess later, Scooge's parents having a more active roll, Fenton having more of his own personality and weird swing for the fences complete and utter makeovers like Doofus Drake going from doofy kid to a very weird child who needs therapy, Donald's neighbor nemisis being his therapist or taking the zombie from voodoo hoodo, one of th emost racist and questionable things in duck comics history.. and instead making him into an unstopable juggernaut frankenstein curse ont he rich.
And of course the original cast.. is impecable. My adopted Daugther Lena is the clear standout, having covered her whole story arc on here and loving the character a lot, A cool teen TM who ends up being a traumtized girl badly needing a home, her stoic and neurodivergent sister violet, the egon to her venkman, fuckboy Mark Beaks, great final boss Bradford, gay icon Storkules, gay icon Selene, everyone's least faviorite dick Zeus.. I really coudl go on for some time and easily could but this article has taken a while. The show just had a knack for memorable loveable characters and making this world feel truly alive and humungous and scope, with gorgeous art designs.
It also had a great throughline, with Scrooge going from a man who pushed everything a way.. to the man who truly has everything, everyone growing along the way, and a finale that while a bit messy and leaving us hungering for more, really got to the hart of the show: a family that comes together after being torn apart and adds a LOT to them. It's a show unlike any other, and was truly the dream of a life time.. and I coudln't put anything else at #1. Thanks for reading.
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uniiiquehecrt · 3 months ago
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It bums me that the Sonic VAs got nothing for the Sonic movie. At least the Mario one gave Charles Martinet something to do even if they're side characters. Mike Pollock has been voicing Eggman since Shadow the Hedgehog and he got Jack. Same with Smith and Griffith. Could have at least had Knuckles dad be played by Dan Green or Travis Willingham or something (note I love Christopher Lloyd)
Oh trust me, my friend, I am right there with you. It gets worse with the addition of Tails. He is still voiced by his og actress, Colleen O'Shaughnessey. And let me tell you right now, the difference in talent and competency when you put Tails and Ben Schwartz into the same scene together is night and day. (Here's their literal first scene together to prove it.)
(And to anyone who thinks I'm giving Mr. Schwartz a hard time... i mean, fair enough. I am. But you can't tell me he has given ANYTHING to Sonic that he didn't already do in DuckTales (2017) as Dewey Duck, and as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein before the both of them in Parks &. Recreation, which is the entire point of why I viscerally dislike him as a voice actor very specifically. It'd be fine if he stayed in his lane, you know, as a comedian, but he didn't, so he's getting my full criticism. Especially where Sonic is concerned.)
Jason Griffith most likely would have been pleased to come back to Sonic. I mean he voice acted for the guy for seven years and is HIGHLY beloved by the Sonic fandom to this day. Especially for his work on SonicX. Roger Craig Smith is IMMENSELY talented and has been voicing Sonic for over ten years now, and is so good at his job that he is STILL voicing Sonic despite the franchise's setbacks and his own announcement of leaving the role. Because he's good at it and he's passionate about it. (I personally love RCS more than Jason. Not that Jason is bad by any means but RCS is underrated imo.)
I'm not as well versed in this, but there's ALSO the fact that Knuckles' voice actors didn't get hired to voice the echidna either. They hired Idris Elba, and some people were saying was going to be fantastic in the role, and you know what? In my opinion, he sucked. He absolutely bombed it. And I say that knowing how well he does on screen in an acting role because I have watched him play Heimdall for 10+ years. He HAS talent, but is NOT a voice actor. And he certainly is not a good fit for Knuckles the Echidna. He didn't even come anywhere close to emulating Knuckles' voice.
And then you get the argument of "oh but the voices don't have to be the same" — my sweet summer children... The joy of voice acting and animated characters is that it DOES all come down to the voice and the voice matches the character design. The voice is the ENTIRE SELLING POINT. You don't get the voice right, then the entire acting fails and no animation talent can save it. It sucks but it's true. (As someone who had to struggle to find a fitting voice for my thesis' film's main villain this is such a priority that people overlook. Good enough isn't good at all.)
Honestly though, the real kicker here is that the Sonic franchise should never have been a "live action" film at all. I loathe "live action remakes" of animated films no matter what they are. I especially hate CGI/live action fusions that make that the selling point when Roger Rabbit proved that it can be done much better with 2D/hand-drawn animation. (To a lesser extent: compare the og. Space Jam with the remake, or even Space Jam with the og Smurfs. The quality difference all these years past is not even comparable.)
Also, it's not even a "live action remake", because, spoiler alert, the characters are still animated and no amount of life-like special effects will change that.
Hollywood (and America as a whole) needs to quit disrespecting animation and calling it "for kids" when it is a medium. It always has been.
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dobithequack · 7 months ago
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My Opinions on the designs for the fearsome four in Ducktales 2017!
Cause I have nothing better to do with my life on a random day.
I think these aren't the most ✨ORIGINAL✨ opinions on the 2017 designs for the fearsome four in the "Let's get dangerous" episode. But I'll do it anyways. (Cause Darkwing has my brain 24/7)
Friendly reminder: this is just my opinion and you're 100% allowed to disagree and tell me what you think, what you agree and what you disagree with and tell me your own opinion on them! With that being said. I'll start my crazy ramblings.
While Quackerjack and Megavolt didn't change at all (honestly, they look amazing in the Ducktales 2017 art style) I love how well they fit in with the art style of the show and how good they look. Again, they may not have changed anything. But I love them anyways.
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Quackerjack
I like Quackerjack's now EXPRESSIVE eyebrows and the fact I can finally tell where his face is in the mask. His eyes used to be really close to each other, I have a hard time drawing his face sometimes and how to shape it, when I use the 2017 design for reference it actually gets easier.
And please.
The sparkle of joy someone could get by seeing Michael bell reprise his role as the insane and extremely hilarious quackerjack. The mix of 2D with 3D looked so nice and honestly I just genuinely love Quackerjack's insane laughs
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I just have a liking for insane characters and jesters in general. It's a habit lol
MegaVolt.
When you hear his voice, you can tell that it's not Megavolt's original voice actor doing his voice, but the new one did an amazing job voicing him.
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I kinda wish we get to see more of him. As I really like MegaVolt as a character in the original show, as he is really relatable (haha, laugh at the dude that relates to villains.) and how fun he was with how PARANOID he can be when being around water (imagine the heart attack he had when meeting Liquidator for the first time lol they would have had an interesting dynamic if they had the chance to interact more.) out of all the characters, he surely had too little screentime in let's get dangerous alongside Bushroot. But they had to do so much in only less than an hour, so I completely get it.
Sorry I don't have much to say about Quackerjack and Megavolt, they just didn't change that much compared to the other two... Speaking of them.
Bushroot.
They did an amazing job giving Bushroot that Zombie like design, as well as making him a silent villain in respect of his voice actor, who sadly passed away. (Huge respect for that.)
I love the colour pallete used for him here, as now a zombie, his colour pallete is more "faded away" compared to the vivid colours in his original design and I honestly like it! I like it a lot! It's a interesting change of character for Bushroot that I genuinely like, but sadly, not explored that much.
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I honestly love this design and I can easily see the different outcomes the Bushroot centered episodes would have taken with Bushroot looking like this. (Especially beauty and the beet. Rhonda's reaction would have been completely different towards Reginald after becoming the plant zombie) Comparing that to original Bushroot, you can see that it is a bit of an improvement, plus the characterization would be completely different.
(am I the only one who gets weirded out when people portray 1991 Bushroot as a twink who can't do anything for himself? (Especially in the Liquiroot ship... Or any Bushroot ship in general, some of y'all take the bottom and top a bit too far. Jesus Christ.) Y'all know that every villain (Bushroot included) almost killed Gosalyn multiple times, right? He ain't a little weakling, he just doesn't know how to use his own powers properly, also Bushroot and the fearsome four tried to man-up and kill "Negaduck" in "just us justice ducks", friendly reminder on that.)
In the original show, Bushroot had moments where he had a lot of confidence in doing his "evil" stuff, I say evil like that, cause Bushroot had potential to be redeemed and that would have been a good concept if it was explored and if it was explored correctly. I think this version of Bushroot just... doesn't seem to have the same possibility, I think he is just a zombie with little to no emotions now, which HONESTLY would have been fun to see how he would have interacted with the rest of other menbers of the fearsome four. Kinda sad we didn't saw much of him in the episode. But again, so much in only less than an hour. It's completely understandable why his screentime was limited.
Now. My boy.
Liquidator...
Oh boy. I'm surely going to get murked for this.
But I hate this design so badly. Don't get me wrong. Y'all can enjoy your buff water guy all you want, he's all yours (I see you people 🫵👁️_👁️) but the way they just... MADE HIM BUFF feels so weird to me.
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I get it that cause he is a DOG made of WATER and sometimes dogs in media are portrayed as buff characters with a few exceptions like goofy and Max (and a some background characters in Darkwing and ducktales 2017) and when you combine that with the fact that he can shapeshift his body at will, you could eventually come up with this. I see what they were going with it but the thing is. Wasn't his whole deal is that he was just a water salesman?
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When you compare how he looks in the reboot to how he looks the original, you will see the noticeable difference between the two. Sure, you can use the "he can shapeshift his body at will" thing as a reason to why he looks lik that, but I simply cannot see a reason on to WHY he would do that. I do like the tail they gave him in the reboot tho, that was kinda missing on his design lol. And I'll be honest, seeing how people used to go. "NO! 1991 LIQUIDATOR BETTER!" "NO! 2017 LIQUIDATOR BETTER!" Back then And some still do till this day. Was kinda funny to me, especially when both still deal with the same issue. No personality outside being a salesman. Just like in the original show, all liquidator does is... Stand there and talk, especially talk in slogans. As he was a salesman always trying to sell his water. A sad reminder that not even the comics did him some justice, they did him dirty. (And I say this as liquidator fan who BEGS for more fan-content about him.) some people forget that he went from a serious salesman to a... SURPRISINGLY funny and cheerful villain, he always talks like he is in a commercial and he was so hilarious to me. Now he got turned into a (kinda) serious buff guy with the element of being a salesman in him. I hate the fact that we never got to see how exactly his dynamic with Bushroot would have been because, unlike Megavolt and Quackerjack, they never got episodes that focused on the two, all the episodes where they appeared and talked to each other had Quackerjack and Megavolt with them. And in let's get dangerous. He still lacked proper screentime and personality but again, the reason for that is the "too much in little time with a lot to focus on."
We had the plot with Gosalyn's missing Grandpa and interdimentional portal, The boys and Scrooge finding out about F.O.W.L AND the plot with the villains. All of that IN LESS THAN AN HOUR. There was too much going on and the fact that the show got cancelled, so they couldn't do much for the fearsome four (plus the deleted scene with Jim Starling/Negaduck) but I'm happy the fearsome four got to appear. As they are my favourite super villain team to exist.
Now a question at the end, how tall do you guys make the fearsome four be in YOUR HeadCanons? Again. HeadCanons. Everyone has different opinions and that's completely fine. As long as they're not problematic.
From tallest to shortest, my HeadCanon heights for them are:
Bushroot being the tallest, as he is now a tree. Literally. Quackerjack and Liquidator being the same height. With liquidator being slightly shorter. And lastly, Megavolt. The shorty.
In the original Darkwing duck show, their heights were the most inconsistent mystery there qas, as I pointed out in this post I made about the inconsistencies. So for my upcoming designs, I decided to give them consistent heights. (And yes, Megavolt is taller than Negaduck, obviously.)
And I won't take the heights in the Ducktales reboot because this is more of my own Darkwing duck AU heights i'm talking about, and again, I don't like 2017 liquidator. So let me know yours.
Again, all of these are my opinions and you're free to disagree with them and tell me your own!
Thank you for listening to my insanity! 🌼
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soupy-cosmos · 1 year ago
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[Video ID: a short illustrated PMV featuring Louie and Boyd from DuckTales, made for the AU fanfic Daisy Bell. A majority of the frames are circular, dark brown words appear on the off-white background. The first frame is an extreme close up of Louie and Boyd at their age in canon. Their outfits are the same as their canonical designs except for a few color differences: Louie's hoodie is a more yellow green, and Boyd is wearing a blue bow tie instead of his usual red one. Only Boyd's body and arm are visible, he has his knees tucked under him and is holding a book open on his lap. Louie lays beside him with his chin in his hand, his eyes aren't visible but his smile is. The line "Daisy, daisy, give me your answer, do." Is written across the border. The second frame shows an older Louie, early teens. His bangs are longer and his cheeks are fluffy. He's wearing a dull green hoodie with a large daisy patch on the elbow over a light yellow sweater. There is a daisy tucked into his hair. He's holding a hand to his face, blushing and with wide eyes. The frame appears as the word "I'm" is sang, and only takes up the left half of the screen. "Half" is sang as the other half of the frame appears, with Boyd looking surprised and also blushing. He's taller and his shirt sleeves are cuffed at his elbows. Both halves change as the word "Crazy" appears in all capital letters at the bottom of the screen. Louie now holds his face with both hands, looking away with a shy smile. Boyd has his hand raised to his beak and smiles, raising an eyebrow. The next frame shows the same designs for Louie and Boyd, no longer separated by the circle borders. They are both leaning in for a kiss with Boyd reaching a hand up to cup Louie's cheek. The text reads "All for the love of you." The next frame is a close up of a sparkling emerald ring in a box. The ring itself is silver with two daisies sculpted on the visible side. The text reads "It won't be a stylish marriage." With the word "stylish" capitalized and underlined. The next frame shows Louie and Boyd's silhouettes in the foreground, light hitting one side of them. They're young adults. Boyd has his arm wrapped around Louie as they gaze at a fountain that takes up the rest of the image. The text reads "I can't afford a carriage." The next frame is a close up of Louie's face as he lays in a coffin. He's holding a daisy. The circular framing is gone, leaving only some soft faded corners. The text sits at the top left and reads "But you'll look sweet." The line is continued in the next frame, with "Upon the seat." written along the top edge of the coffin. It shows a further down view of the previous image. The daisy is completely visible now, along with the ring on Louie's finger. Louie is wearing a black suit and tie with a light green button up. The final illustration shows up with a blue overlay making the entire image very dark. The text is now bright blue and reads "Of a bicycle built for two." Once "two" appears the overlay is removed, so that the image is more clearly visible. Boyd sits in a chair, back to the viewer. He's leaning forward onto a desk, hands on the sides of his head. The desk is messy, covered with papers and sticky notes, sketches and blueprints. On the wall above the desk is a bulletin board covered with more papers and blueprints. A large photo of Louie is pinned in the middle. The Final frame has a simple black background with the title "Daisy Bell" written across it in light blue lowercase cursive. It fades into black a little at the bottom, where the credits are written in the off-white used in the earlier frames. "Written by: the-writer-nerd-ro and" soupy-drawz" and "Illustrated by: soupy-drawz" End ID.]
sooo
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[ID: A screenshot from the author's notes of the fanfic Daisy Bell. The text starts with a bullet point and reads "The fic is titled Daisy Bell after the song of the same name, I've seen it used in dark vhs-style pmvs and thought that that vibe would fit this story very well! It was originally just a placeholder name but it ended up sticking lol." End ID.] remember how i said Daisy Bell would make a good pmv? :>
the specific version of the song is from this video!!
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lestiroirsdepopps · 10 months ago
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Random thoughts about The Haunting of Hill House.
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● Shirley feels guilty for stopping paying for Luke's rehab and that's why she is angry and rejecting him.
● The Haunting and Ducktales share the same universe. In the episode 10 season 3 of the reboot series Ducktales. We learn about "the most haunted house" named Hazel House. Like Hazel Hill.
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● Hill without H is ill. I KNOW, I'm very intelligent... but it's funny that every member of the Hill family is ill and everyone who enters the Hill House is getting ill.
● What do you think of if I tell you about a story narrated in a disjointed way about a living labyrinthine house with surnatural creatures that drain families energy and using their fears against them to drive them mad and kill them?
House of Leaves, of course ! I wonder if Mike Flanagan read the book.
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● Hazel killed Poppy's kids.
We know for sure that Poppy suspects Hazel of killing her children.
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Her son was sick and bangs his head on the wall permanently, maybe he died of his disease... or maybe Hazel looses patience.
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Her daughter seems to have suffocated/drowning for a pretty long time, and one day, she died. Maybe she had pneumonia, maybe she had allergies... or maybe she was poisoned.
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We will never know the truth about Poppy's children death. HOWEVER 🤨☝️
Hazel surely killed the Dudley's first daughter.
Horace explains to Hugh that Hazel forbade Clara to take maternity leave or slow down her work pace... she actually gave birth during her service. A particularly exhausting service during these months of pregnancy because Hazel's health was declining.
If Hazel had allowed Clara to rest during her pregnancy, her child would surely not have been stillborn. Soooo... maybe Poppy wasn't paranoid about the kids in Hill House.
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● Why did Olivia saw 2 parents and 3 kids in her "déjà vu" moment ?
First there were the 2 Hills that built the house and their 2 children, William and Hazel. William had 2 kids with Poppy, a boy (who was is a wheelchair) and a girl (who died drowned in her own lungs. We don't know their names.
Hazel had 2 children (with someone we don't know) named Edward (the ghoul in the basement) and Jacqueline (the owner of the cup of stars).
So, why 3 children ? Another family killed in the house ?
Expose me your theories please !
● Comparison between Magritte "Prof", 1954 and William Hill standing figure.
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● The yellow wallpaper.
"The yellow wallpaper" is a book from Charlotte Perkins Gilman who describes the story of a young woman and her husband. He imposes a rest cure on her when she suffers "temporary nervous depression" after the birth of their baby. They spend the summer at a colonial mansion, where the narrator is largely confined to an upstairs nursery.
After days, weeks in the nursery, she slowly became paranoid about he yellow wallpaper in the room.
She describes how the longer one stays in the bedroom, the more the wallpaper appears to mutate. With no stimulus other than the wallpaper, the pattern and designs become increasingly intriguing to the narrator. She soon begins to see a figure in the design. Eventually, she comes to believe that a woman is creeping on all fours behind the pattern. Believing she must free the woman in the wallpaper, she begins to strip the remaining paper off the wall.
I am watching the episode 4, "the twins" right now and when I hear the blind man describing how he went crazy seeing the "egg yolks eyes" everywhere and particularly in the wallpaper I immediately thought about the novel. BUT when I was coping Wikipedia I remembered the story and some part of the resume make me thinking of Olivia Crain.
Their stories are different but I see a pattern and I want you to let me know if you see it too !
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● What if there were no ghosts in the house ?
What if the dead were dead but the house by consuming them while they were alive could copy 100% of their appearance and personality, like the Crain family recreated for Nell. Just to trap its prey like a predator. Poppy, William, Hazel and others could be just the house playing tricks and no soul is involved.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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candyvenombites · 10 months ago
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Mickey and Friends X Madoka Magica
Wishes and Abilities
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Hey! It’s been awhile! I’ve been pretty busy with school and other personal projects, but today I had time so I’m gonna make a quick post about my Disney x Madoka Magica AU!
I’m gonna showcase some of the characters wishes, the ability they got, their weapon, and a little bit of info!
Let’s get to it!
⚠️Spoilers Ahead for Madoka Magica⚠️
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Mickey Mouse
Wish: ???
Ability: Energy Blasts
Weapon: Rapier Sword
Info: Much like Madoka Kaname, Mickeys wish varies from timeline to timeline and his main ability is unknown, but he can fire energy blasts through his rapier. I mainly based the weapon off of ‘The Three Musketeers’ because I thought he’d look cool in a musketeer like outfit.
Donald Duck
Wish: “I wish my boys could be with their great uncle…”
Ability: Water Manipulation
Weapon: Trident
Info: Donald is the Sayaka of the story, especially in wish sense. If you know you know. Donald’s ability and weapon are inspired by him being a sailor.
Goofy Goof
Wish: “Please…Heal my son and me…Save us…”
Ability: Advanced self healing
Weapon: Gauntlets
Info: Goofy is one of the most experienced magicals around. He was 20 years old when he made his wish and he is now 38. He’s kept the territory for a long time and is a very strong magical.
Minnie Mouse
Wish: “I wish my family could make things grow”
Ability: Plant Manipulation
Weapon: Bow and Arrow
Info: Minnie’s wish has a lot of head-cannon, but basically she grew up on her family farm and her family almost lost it due to her parents not being able to grow plants, so she made her wish. I imagine her outfit to be kind of fairy like
Daisy Duck
Wish: “I wish to be a successful fashion designer”
Ability: Cloth Manipulation
Weapon: Daggers
Info: Daisy was the first character I made for this AU and has a more simple yet elegant design in my head. The fashion designer idea came from Ducktales 2017
Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero Gonzalez lll
Wish: “Please help my brother sing. Help him become a famous star!”
Ability: Sound Manipulation
Weapon: Duel Pistols
Info: Panchitos story was challenging, because it was hard to make this upbeat and kind man into a Kyoko, but after giving him a little brother it was way easier! I knew immediately what his wish would relate to but I needed make a story that matched.
Jose Carioca
Wish: “I wish for everyone to forget my negative reputation”
Ability: Illusions
Weapon: Umbrella (Can split into a shield and spear)
Info: Josè has a lot of regret over what he wished for, but that doesn’t stop him from surviving. He survived purely for Panchito and his nephews. If anything were to happen to them then his soul gem would go completely black.
Oswald The Lucky Rabbit
Wish: “I wish that I could go back and save my brother…I want to be the one to protect him!”
Ability: Time Manipulation
Weapon: Shield/Explosives
Info: Oswald is 100% the Homura of the story. I was debating over Donald or him, but I eventually went with Oswald due to the relationship he has with Mickey. Obviously the love is different but he fights just as hard as Homura.
Extras
Felicity Fieldmouse
Wish: “I wish I could make news stories happen.”
Ability: Mind Control
Weapon: Camera (Takes control of people’s minds after snapping a photo and can freeze enemies)
Info: Taking Felicity and turning her into a magical girl was tricky, but after learning that she is devoted to her job, I made her wish also devoted to it. To provide for her family and to keep her career she made a contract
Della Duck
Wish: “I always want to be on an adventure!”
Ability: Creature Construction (Can create any creature)
Weapon: Sword
Info: What if instead of flying to the moon, Della became a magical girl and disappeared without a trace one day. Unlike her brother, Della would most likely make a contract immediately and not truly think about the risk of becoming a magical girl, thus putting her in a lot of danger.
Gladstone Gander
Wish: “I want nothing but good luck. Let me have my cousin's great luck!”
Ability: Luck Energy Manipulation (Gives a person bad luck or good luck for a short period of time)
Weapon: Long Circular Saw
Info: This one also has a lot of head-cannon, but I think that originally Donald had all the luck and Gladstone was very unlucky. He was so jealous that he made a contract to steal his cousins good luck. He didn’t intend to make his cousin miserable, but he doesn’t have a lot of regret about making his wish (Who would be when they’re so lucky all the time?)
Drake Mallard ( Darkwing Duck)
Wish: “I want to inspire others like my hero inspired me”
Ability: Temporary Emotion Manipulation
Weapon: Versatile Grappling Hook
Info: Darkwing was fun to make in terms of wish and abilities, but he was also fun to make in his downfall. Darkwing can have a black and white view of things, so when things start to get hazy, it might start taking a bad toll on him. Right and wrong start to blur and he just begins to lose it.
And that’s the last one for now! I hope you enjoyed and if you did, let me know if there’s anyone else to cover!
💕🍬Stay Sweet🍬💕
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shootingcookielover · 4 months ago
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Boom! Fun new design for my transformers oc! Mindwipe/Mini! Or, well, this is the Transformers: Prime version lol
(He/they) He still timetravels to the past, accidentally ends up on pre-war cybertron etc etc, but this time their family/friends dying wasnt related to the cybertronian war lol. They start out as a sort of double agent, pretending to be a poor hapless human who stumbles upon a fight between autobots/decepticons so the autobots take them in to keep them safe. (Atp they wear the outfit to the very left)
He eventually ends up siding with the autobots, gets real close to Optimus, too, but keeps the decepticon symbol on their shirt bc he wants to just kinda embody what the symbol used to stand for before the war that sorta thing
Also that grey thing on his chest contains a fake cybertronian spark that powers all the cybertronian bits of his body! He also has a suit-up mode that makes him virtuously indistinguishable from a cybertronian minicon but he's been wearing that thing basically non-stop for millenia so he doesn't like putting it on anymore, he just chills like this now
Still very much has mindcontrol powers, too
I also drew them as a ducktales character
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Dont ask me why idk i just wanted to
Theyre a red cardinal :D
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zelda-cooper · 2 years ago
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Friendly Four Redesing
Hey guys! Everything is fine? I hope so! Well, today I wanted to share some of my ideas about the Darkwing Duck universe, some universe concepts I made with my dear friend @anniesilveratl2room and also show my version of the amazing (and extremely underexplored...TnT) Negaverse. Don't get me wrong, I love the episode that this alternate reality is presented in and I love the concept, but... I don't know.. That dimension is kind of vague to me. The fact that their opposites are realities is an amazing idea, so much so that I love the concept of Scourge and Moebius from the Sonic comics (Ian Flynn, I love you for making this idea better explored), but my friend and I wanted to work with something different. Here, in OUR version of the Negaverse, it will not be a reality of "opposites", here it will be a "mirror" reality. I know that many people will say that it is "the same thing", but not in our conception. Personality doesn't change here, MORALS and CHOICES change!
That is, a different choice that the characters made would drastically change an event or something else important. Another note: Annie and I considered what we were shown in the 2017 Ducktales and also OUR alternate universe, so in addition to being different from the original series, it will also have necessary changes. That said... Now it's time to show off the designers I made for our universe's Friendly, all credit for redesigning the Fearsome Four from the original reality goes to my friend Annie (praise her please!).
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Let's start in order and the first one I want to show you is Nega Bushroot.
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This, in fact, was one of the things I most procrastinated to do with Liquidator, not because it was difficult, but because it was VERY SIMPLE! I wanted something in the design that would set him apart from the original but still resemble him, but just changing his hair color wasn't enough for me. So I wanted to give him a more "aggressive" look, with the hair here being more spiky instead of the fluffy one in the original, I put vines with thorns on his arms (which I will LOVE to explain their concept later on) and... I gave him a scarf for his neck because I wanted an extra change (this one I was in doubt about wearing because Nega Dator already had one, but I put one with a different style).
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Next member of the Friendly Four: Megavolt. This is one of the ones that I liked playing with the concept the most and you should already know that it was the inspiration... Static Shocker! I just LOVE this drawing, seriously! But then again... I wanted to do something new but leave the essence of the original, so I left details like the battery on the back, the color palette but being inverted and also the electricity theme. This is one of the ones I liked the most and found it fun to do.
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Now Quackerjack and, man... This one was difficult to make the costume, again following the concept and such... But the most difficult thing was the details of the costume, I wanted to still give the clown look, but keeping the color palette, so I researched clown clothes on the internet and went by instinct. Maybe I overdid the elements, but I liked the end result.
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And lastly (and my favorite Fearsome/Friendly), Liquidator! This one was actually the easiest... But still I procrastinated just because of the painting. Because drawing water is boring and annoying! But in terms of "outfit" design it was simple, I gave him a scarf and gave him bands on his hands (again one that I really want to show how it would look when he changes hands on any weapon). I wanted to give him an aspect of a fighter and give that air of a relaxed person, because I saw a lot of people who would consider the Nega Liquidator version to be "fearful" or someone more "passive", but I prefer to believe that he would not be like that, but that he would be just someone sentimental and who is someone who protects his family both emotionally and physically, but that's a story for another day.
But that's it... I hope you enjoyed it, stay with God and see you next time. BYEEE!!!!
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violetganache42 · 1 year ago
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Holy shit! I am freaking out right now, guys, and I am super excited to share it with you! But first: quick context.
I don't know how many of you here know about Lorcana, but it's a TCG made by Disney and Ravensburger that was released back in August. In it, you take on the role of an Illumineer and you wield different types of Ink (Amber, Emerald, Sapphire, Amethyst, Ruby, Steel), which allows you to summon Glimmers (canonical or different versions of Disney characters, designated as Storyborn or Dreamborn respectively). You race against other Illumineers to collect Lore, and whoever reaches 20 Lore wins. The gameplay itself intriqued me, but what I find truly captivating is the story it's building.
The second set for Lorcana was released today and is called "Rise of the Floodborn," which focuses on a type of Glimmer called Floodborn. These Glimmers were caught in an intense flood of all six Inks, changing them in unpredicatble yet exciting ways; they are also granted the "Shift" mechanic, which lets you turn existing Glimmers into their Floodborn versions. Much like "The First Chapter," a companion story was published on the official Lorcana website, and it already has me geeking out!
Right off the bat, an Illumineer named Venturo is checking out an artifact from Disney's vast lore, but which artifact, you may ask?
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Based on its description, it's not just Scrooge's No. 1 Dime… it's the DuckTales (2017) version of his No. 1 Dime! The moment I saw the words "10 CENTS," I immediately knew!
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But wait, there's more!
A couple of paragraphs later, we see that Basil of Baker Street is investigating a different artifact and deduces it as…
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That time, I knew what he was referring to, but I had to double check. One quick Google search later and what is the first result?
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THIS! The Sumerian Talisman that Basil came across is most likely the same Sumerian Talisman that Lena wielded for most of the series! I had a feeling they had to be one and the same because I distinctly remember Webby identifying the amulet as such in "The Beagle Birthday Breakout!"
Guys, I cannot stop smiling about it! I honestly thought Lorcana was gonna add the Duckverse characters/OG version of the Disney Ducks since they unveiled cards of Donald and even Daisy in their usual designs! Seeing these two artifacts get referenced was quite the bombshell to drop for me; not only does it continue the trend of DuckTales (2017) getting incorporated into the Mickey & Friends universe in some capacity (Minnie's Style Studio, Toontown, HDLW's cameo in Trick or Treats, Daisy's reboot design being used for Disney's Halloween 2022 season, a poster for Runaway Railway featuring the triplets' reboot designs), it could also mean that Lorcana isn't just focusing on the Disney animated movies and short films like I thought! They may also be including shows based on pre-existing characters, and DuckTales (2017) seems to be the first one!
I am beyond happy right now and I cannot wait to see what the next set has in store!
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