#and angone who does like me never actually tells me. so i go on thinking no one actually does.

[softshuji]

i saw a post was like 'lets talk about how you need to be leaving the man you love for the man you deserve' and while that may be sound advice, no man seems to want me at all let alone one that i deserve.

[mdhwrites]

Okay, don't you think you're being harsh to think Dana Terrace is incapable of creating anything good and dreading it when she creates something? Like, the idea Owl House never should have existed (based on what that one anon said) is way too harsh and insulting to Dana.

Like come on, Dana's a pretty nice person. Heck, a lot of the people and creators who work at Disney TVA like Alex Hirsch, Matt Braly, Frank Angones, Matt Youngberg, Daron Nefcy, Chris Houghton, and Shane Houghton have nothing but nice things to say about her. Ditto with the rest of the Owl House cast and crew (a ship is more than its captain after all) being saying nothing but nice things about Dana.

And it's not like Dana's the only Disney TVA creator who has caused people to go against Disney. Alex Hirsch has badmouthed Disney several times (even making a Twitter post on how much Disney meddled with Gravity Falls), Matt Braly was frustrated with the last minute True Colors delay and expressed frustration with them here ( https://twitter.com/Radrappy/status/1746706435080323397), and Bill Motz has made comments on how Disney treated Molly McGee that worsened the opinion of how Disney treats their animated shows.

So I had considered saying that the ask did go a bit far in how angry it was at Dana. I mentioned that being unprofessional does not make you a bad person. Some of the actions are frustrating to me but I am not trying to say Dana is wrong for having made a product in such a flawed way. I am at least trying not judging her as a person, just as a creative. I also don't think TOH simply shouldn't have existed. It had plenty of good ideas but at the end of the day, its captain should be the one who is in charge of those ideas and making sure that they're focused on telling the story and staying consistent. Dana wrote Reaching Out, one of the episodes of the show that most destroys both character potential and the believability of the world. It's also not by any means the only episode with a main writing credit for her like that, such as The First Day. As a writer, I genuinely just don't get the impression she has the attention span to be leading such a large project, especially if she is going to complain about not having full control over it while also lacking more concrete ideas to what it is. When I say I am not interested in the next work Dana is the director for, I just mean director because these flaws in her style make me think that unless it's an anthology series, anything she makes is going to have me get frustrated by the work over time.

NOW as for the stuff about her being unprofessional: Time and context is HUGE here. Matt getting upset about True Colors leaks? The COMPANY is also going to be upset by them and while it might berate Disney for lack of security, it is a genuine fuck up on their part to do with his show and him lambasting the leaks also pushes the audience not to spread them. There's nothing unprofessional about that nor that might harm the show. Alex Hirsch released that video about the censor board for Disney on Gravity Falls YEARS after the fact (this also goes for the tweet that you quote from Matt which is literally two weeks ago, well over a year past when Amphibia ended). The show was already a success and a video like that might make Disney look a little silly but it won't harm how people see the product or trying to get into it. In fact, with the current state of things, it might actually be seen as a PR bump.

Meanwhile, Dana was shit talking her own show and blaming it on the company she CHOSE to work with regarding literally half of the content that was out at the time. Worse yet, the first half. The half that theoretically needs to sell you on the show. What is a new viewer supposed to think of that if they haven't seen the show? "Well, even if it gets good, even the creator admits the first half is at least underwhelming. I don't want to have to put up with half a season of subpar work just to get to the good stuff."

And as I said with Hirsch: How people feel about Disney, and how clearly Disney actually does want the rep in TOH to be a selling point for them (they immediately were willing to do Lumity marathons or have them featured on Disney+ for Pride Month, as well as Lumity being the only t-shirt released by Disney that wasn't of just The Owl House members or the logo), means that Dana getting upset about them for the homophobic acts in Florida probably was seen as at worst neutral. Buuuuut that shifts when she starts trying to accuse the treatment of their programming onto their homophobic ideas because suddenly part of the company's selling point on the show is being actively damaged by the creator. Worse yet, she is doing it as speculation rather than sticking to the reasons given by Disney. Feeding into people's anger about the company while eschewing responsibility for why the show was shortened like it was. This is admittedly less of a strong argument, I do still support her lambasting their homophobic politics, but it's a moment that has stuck with me for something I'll get into later.

This is also without getting into the fact that one interview with her specifically mentions her first response to the shortening being to end S2 on a massive cliffhanger and then just GTFOing on them, a statement that is going to make ANY production company start sweating about you as a creative they want to work with. After all, the crew and other creatives may love Dana... But what do actually publishers and people she has to clear this stuff with think of her? You know, the people who decide funding on these matters because that is just a part of the majority of animated work currently unless you somehow manage to get enough patrons to be able to go independent like Vivziepop with Helluva Boss.

All of this also gives the impression of someone who would rather blame other forces than learn. Honestly, one of the best things I've heard her say is that the shortening did push her creatively. Force her to make decisions and try harder. That gives me hope... But she spent so much of TOH complaining about corporate oversight or riling up her fans against the company who shortened her that... I don't know if she'll take that to heart. If she's going to treat this as a learning experience or if she'll double down. Again, one of the biggest regrets she has is not getting to do more Raeda, despite their one episode already being almost entirely pointless.

Even if she is a wonderful person, from a publisher's standpoint, she seems like a high risk gamble for honestly not that incredible of numbers. Someone who might turn on you if you ever force a decision she doesn't like or push her too hard. That's not something a big corporation is going to want. It makes it sound a lot more like she's someone who indeed should just go independent if she really found working for Disney so rough.

I would love to be wrong though. I would love for her next work to be a knock out of the park. I just know that I'm probably going to pick it up AFTER it's done and I know it actually knew where it was going instead of just scrambling to put the tracks in front of it.

======+++++======

I will probably try just not to talk more about Dana as a creative because I REALLY don't like talking about the creators themselves instead of just judging the quality of their work. I genuinely wish Dana the best but... Man, after I've had so many people dismiss everything I've ever said about this show because of the shortening, or because Disney was too restrictive on LGBTQIA+ elements or because they forced Hexside onto Dana, ruining her plans, excuses Dana has herself pushed for the fans to use by using them herself...

It made learning just how little of any sort of plan she ever had so exhausting and infuriating, amplified by just how much this fandom screeches about TOH's unfair treatment when I don't see any of them going to bat for Molly McGee right now the same way. Not in my corners at least. Edit: I have been corrected that people are pretty mad for Molly McGee which good. They should be.

[mrgladstonegander]

please tell me everything about dt47 (?) gladstone

dt47!gladstone is named Oliver Oca!

He grew up in Barnevelder Town (not equivalent to Duckburg) along with Frankie (and his siblings), Phoebe and Percy (Fethry, Della, Donald)

I do think his parents died and that he's taken in by Ludwig, but i haven't really thought about the logistics of it (and it's never gonna be plot relevant for what i have planned so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

He has similar experience to O Lucky Man and other comics like it where he feels lonely and that people just want him for his luck, and how his house is more of just a place to store the things he wins. HOWEVER, Oliver has issues with being passive and letting his luck handle things. If something seems to be going badly, it'll probably end up fine somehow, so while he'd rather avoid being in those sorts of situations, he wouldn't really do anything to get out of it. If people are using him for his luck, he just goes with it, because there's not really any harm in it, and things get good for him anyways*

(the exception to this is DT47's equivalent to Gal for Gladstone, where Umbra (Magica) tries to use him to get to Graham (Scrooge))

*stole this from Angones saying that he likes everyone because that's like. An interesting twist that gives him depth (bad coping mechanism).

** you know how stories make gladstone consider character development, only to get immediately distracted by a thing his luck is waving in front of his face? yeah imagine that but as a really shitty coping mechanism

With how his luck gives him things, he doesn't really have any attachment to objects (except to his hat. He's matching with Frankie :) ) because he'd probably just win a replacement anyways. There's no point in decorating a house if he's always on vacation or just using it to store things. (Definitely gives away the things he doesn't need. His house would probably be good for dumpster diving now that i think about it LOL)

He'd also rather be passive about things because then he avoids responsibility. nobody would really expect anything of him, and he's probably more comfortable with people attributing anything he does to his luck (because the man would die if any attention was on HIM)

The root of his character development is gardening. Because after a few houseplants die due to negligence you start to feel bad, lol. And if you have a garden, you care about the house that's connected to it, and if you know you're actually going to be in the house often, then you'd start decorating it. You can't just move on, you actively have to take responsibility.

but the actual breaking point for his character development is post-phoebe (because he's not being told anything about it, so he can't do anything), when he gets trapped in the casino. Because it forces him to confront if he's actually fine with not doing anything if he is given a comfortable life, even if it's alone

also, he's a foil to Luna (Lena) with how she wants to separate herself from magic, while he doesnt. among other things (spoilers)

TLDR: dude is the most passive man ever who would ever live and would rather do anything but self-reflection unless forced to. his identity is inherently mixed up with his luck. hobbies can SAVE you

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow, Tanner Johnson

Written by: Colleen Evanson & Tanner Johnson

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Kristen Gish, Victoria Harris, Ben Holm

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

Spin it!

Before doing research when Don Karnage first came to the series, my knowledge of TaleSpin began and ended with me having that awful Genesis game as a kid. I do know that the show took place long before the modern day, which is when DuckTales 2017 takes place, and it appears that the events of TaleSpin in this universe still goes with that. Why do I know this? Because this episode does not start with Baloo piloting the Sea Duck...

...but a grown-up version of his surrogate son, Kit Cloudkicker, who is now running Higher for Hire by himself. However, while things have definitely changed for Higher for Hire since Baloo's apparent retirement, mostly for the worse, some things remained the same. Namely, he is still being tormented by the nefarious Sky Pirate of the Skies, the corsair of the air, Don Karnage. Or Dan, as he calls him much to Karnage's annoyance. The good news is that Kit is now an ace pilot who can easily fight off sky pirates like he did back in the glory days. The bad news is that he can still do what he did as a kid with a giant cargo plane. He even says it, and with most of his dialogue in this cold opening suggests this is going to make him look foolish.

Even worse news for the business is that the fragile box addressed to F.O.W.L. is just sitting in the center of the cargo bay with no security whatsoever aside from a caged chicken and a goat. After rocking back and forth due to Kit fending off against Don Karnage, the box breaks to reveal a rock with a blue lion carved into it, and when that aforementioned chicken and goat touch it, they both turn into some sort of chicken-goat hybrid that Kit has to fight. How is able to fight this goat-chicken while piloting the plane? Simple: he puts a crowbar in the steering wheel, just like Baloo did in the original. Here, the idea is played as silly as it would be to someone who had never heard of TaleSpin. It is doubly sad when one considers Kit treats this crowbar like his only crewmate, because it is.

I do like that this first scene introduces this show's version of Kit very well. He's obviously an incompetent pilot, and not one that is lovably incompetent like Launchpad, and this incompetence is pretty well known among his customers judging by this line:

Kit Cloudkicker: Who's the terrible pilot now, everyone?

He's surprisingly cheerful about that, which, again, makes him look foolish. Despite all of this foolishness, he does appear to still be competent at coming up with plans to defeat his enemies, whether they be sky pirates or mutated goat-chickens, even if those plans end up putting the cargo he was supposed to deliver into the water. This includes that lion stone. He looks onto this and says "my bad" in a way that shows that his business is definitely going to be in the red in a few years.

A few years later, we see that Della is taking Huey, Dewey, and nobody else to Cape Suzette, and she's even allowing Dewey to fly the plane along with her. It is easy to see why Huey is extra prepared even if Dewey is doing surprisingly well, as Huey is not only using extra seatbelts, but having a Safety Boy helmet as well. Huey's also prepared with the knowledge of that Lion Stone we saw go into the ocean in the previous scene, which, you guessed it, is a Missing Mystery of Isabella Finch. Specifically, it's the Stone Of What Was, which was described with the mysterious phrase "what was once two becomes a-new." Huey does not seem to figure that one out. The good news is that it was found, but the bad news was that it was found by F.O.W.L, but the better news is that they lost it, but the worse news was that the stone was made of potassium benzoate. Okay, that last one was made up. There's a few throwaway lines to fill in how Huey even knows F.O.W.L. had the stone in other scenes, and those plot holes are really not that important.

After nearing their destination, which we learn was based on a clue from an intercepted F.O.W.L. transmission from a throwaway line from Huey slightly later in the episode, Della has the bright idea to let Dewey land the plane. Letting a little kid fly a plane? Not a good idea. Letting a little kid land a plane? Also not a good idea. Telling that little kid that there's nothing wrong with a basic landing? May be a good idea in the off chance it could even come up, but definitely not a good idea when it comes to Dewey. To Della's credit, at least it was Huey that did that last one.

After the crash landing, and not a Launchpad-type one, they arrive at Higher for Hire, which shows an advertisement showing its legacy playing on a television screen with plenty of TaleSpin references. This includes one shot of Baloo and another shot of a younger Kit and Molly Cunningham riding on an airfoil done in the style of the original show. This is great for people who were not aware of TaleSpin, which the target audience for this show may not have seen unless they have Disney Plus. Kit, still shown to be the sole employee years later, assumes anyone knocking at his door is the bank demanding payments, but he's delighted to see one of his former classmates at pilot school. He constantly has to tell Della that he is an ace pilot now. Most likely, he's telling that to himself too, as we'll see in the next scene. He at least has reason to believe he's a better pilot than his former classmate, as it doesn't look like her plane is in good shape. Della could have explained that this state was because she let one of her less competent sons fly the plane...and that would have probably made her case about a thousand times worse.

That television commercial also inspires a sort of B-plot that also ties into Kit's character arc, as seeing young Kit cloudkicking makes him want to do it, too. Despite his failure at even mimicking it, Kit is happy to see a fellow cloudkicker and would be glad to teach him the ropes. Della is not too excited by this prospect, but ends up allowing it, because she doesn't want to be the mother that does not support her kid. They aboard the plane, which ends up being a very bumpy ride, and Della goes to investigate, only to find that Kit was in the bathroom, letting his only other employee, the crowbar, be his substitute.

Kit tries to stop what he calls "mutiny" by saying that he's the only one who knows where the cargo could be, only for the crowbar to slip and reveal that he's been keeping a map in the glove compartment. The map actually has some Xs and a circle on it, which suggests that Kit may have been trying to correct his previous mistake, but either never getting the motivation to go through with it, or, more likely, he isn't competent enough to deal with whatever is on that island he circled. Maybe I am thinking about this too hard, but I would say it would be fitting.

Kit decides to distract everyone from him getting kicked out of the pilot's chair by giving Dewey his airfoil and the cloudkicking rope for him to hold onto, and a shot of Dewey's excitement instantly cuts to Dewey screaming for his life, holding on for dear life as he can't seem to. The parallel between a former cloudkicking guy who isn't really a good pilot, and a kid who can actually fly a plane who isn't really a good cloudkicker is easy to notice, and the episode plays around with this. For starters, similar to Kit and his not-so-ace piloting skills, Dewey also tries his hardest to hide how terrified he is at the cool new thing he wanted to do. Of course, it is very possible that Kit is acting the way he does because he's in a certain someone's shadow. Dewey just does it because that's how he is.

Despite that difference, this parallel is enhanced even more when they get attacked by the Sky Pirates, and Kit has to intervene and show that he, at the very least, can get Dewey out of the danger that Kit himself has caused. And yes, Don Karnage's Sky Pirates are now working for the very organization that they indirectly harmed years before by attacking that cargo plane and making them lose that precious stone. That does not come up at all, not even as a throwaway line. What does come up is that Don Karnage is delighted that one of the people after the Stone of What Was is his new arch-nemesis, Dewey. It's a long story that started all the way back in Don's debut in Season 1. It's neat to see these old references. After they all make a landing on the circled island, some more safe than others, they get to meet the wildlife of the island. Let's say there's a good reason why this island was circled, and why Kit could not handle it by himself.

It's a rhino and a gorilla crossed together, either a rhinosorilla or a gorillanoceros depending on whether one likes Dewey's word for it or Kit's. Clearly, this is the result of the Stone of What Was...what was...Wuz...Wuzzles! Admittedly, the Wuzzle was also not a show I grew up with, though that could be because it lasted only a season. In fact, I just now notice the lion carved into the Stone of What Was happens to have bumblebee wings. These animals are a little more realistic here, as they don't talk, and they're not cute or fuzzy like the original Wuzzles were. In fact, the character this gorillanoceros was based on was actually a monkey-rhino. There is a difference, even if they are very similar species genetically!

They eventually get to the stone, only to see that Don Karnage and his crewmates have found the stone first. Hiding, they see Don Karnage command Hardtack Hattie, his strongest crewmember, to lift it up. Unfortunately, she happened to lift it as a bunch of ants were crawling on it, turning her into an ant centaur to her and Don's horror. Despite that horror, and fitting for someone who just wants to finish his mission, he tries to get some of the other crew members to lift it...

...leading to these freaks of nature, which is what Don Karnage actually calls them. DuckTales 2017 isn't too afraid to show the horrifying nature of some of these fusions, continuing with the theme of how they portray the Wuzzles as these monstrous beasts. I would not call it nightmare fuel, but I would not be surprised if it already has an entry on TV Tropes. What makes these even worse is that there is no way for these guys to revert back to their normal forms. There's no "if the stone feels like it, it'll separate you" clause here, that snail-dog is permanently a snail-dog, and that pirate will have to live with a hand for his head for the rest of his days. These guys just end up getting forgotten.

Della tries to sneak by climbing around this horrific scene, only to be caught on some sort of sticky rock. Dewey decides to try to save her with his airfoil-riding skills, much to Huey's disagreement. Dewey's got to Dewey it! Oh yeah, I forgot, Dewey ends up doing "Dewey" puns for most of the episode. It's not funny, but I have a feeling it wasn't meant to be funny, and it's certainly not funny when he ends up falling down near the pirates. Face to face with someone who considers him his arch-nemesis, he tries to save face when he notices Kit stole Don Karnage's plane...which he immediately crashes into a rock.

As for the rock that Della was stuck on, it turns out it wasn't a rock. Nor was it a rock lobster, either!

It hatches into another classic Wuzzle character: the Butterbear, or the Bear-terfly as Don Karnage calls it. They never quite match the original Wuzzle names, and it is not like they would know them. There is one part of this where Kit and the Bear-terfly cross paths, and it almost seems like they're going to bond because they happen to be a similar race. Then, it instantly cuts to Kit running away from a rampaging Bear-terfly. How are they going to continue from this? Have the Bear-terfly get caught in some rope, and have it run in a way that ties up the stone, and have it fly away with Della still on its back. It is a bit convoluted, but it works in the end as it is a way for the stone to travel without it mutating even more people. Whether any of these fusions can use the stone to combine into other fusions is left unanswered, which is for the best.

One may notice I didn't talk a whole lot about what Huey did, and that's because he really didn't do much for most of the episode. He delivered the exposition, he tries to stop Dewey from "Deweying it", and that's about it. However, he does have a major part in the episode: he gets to take part in the scene where the two bumbling fools realize what they have been doing was foolish. Namely, they needed to realize that they should do what they were good at: Kit should cloudkick and Dewey should fly the plane. It is a good lesson that had some good buildup. Sure, they were pretty much failing throughout the episode, but there were scenes where they were surprisingly competent, like the scene where Kit rescued Dewey with his Cloudkicking skills, and Dewey managing to fly the plane in the beginning before he decided to "Dewey it" and crash it. It does not come out of nowhere. Speaking of which...

Dewey: Okay, let's do it.

What would be an unremarkable line actually works really well here, mainly because he decided not to make a pun on his own name, which he did way too much. It does show development, as if this fun-loving showboater is actually learning his lesson throughout the episode. I expect this from DuckTales 2017, and there are certainly cartoons where I don't.

Fittingly for a TaleSpin episode, this all ends with a flight chase scene. No, not the usual DuckTales 2017 fight scene, though there are some fights here and there, especially with Kit and Don Karnage, armed with that crow bar and sword, respectively. The scene actually manages to make Dewey keeping the plane steady an action packed scene, as he has to save his Mom while trying not to let the stone fall into the ocean and make an octopus-fish-squid hybrid that would rival the Eldritch horrors. Again, whether any of these fusions can use the stone to combine into other fusions is left unanswered, which is for the best.

It's not really a spoiler to say the good guys win, but I will say the TaleSpin part of the plot is very much all tied up in the end. If Kit only makes a minor appearance in the finale, and I'd actually be surprised if he didn't appear considering how packed the clips were, it would be completely understandable. Also, there's a cliffhanger and we finally get to hear Don Karnage sing another song, if a very short one. It seemed like he just couldn't do it in his other appearances.

How does it stack up?

With the genius way of using not just one Disney show's legacy, but another Disney show as well, there's a lot to love about this episode, though I wouldn't say it's among the absolute best. Four Scrooges.

Next, Scrooge gets indicted.

← Beaks In The Shell! 🦆 The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck! →

[babywonderlandwerewolf]

Frank’s hints about season 3 part 2

Time for more season 3 hints and hype!

sleaveheralone asked: How would you describe Scrooge's relationship with his sisters?

Frank’s answer: Spoilers. (I’m excited!)

sazxofone asked: Will we ever see Fergus and Downy again?

Frank’s answer: Yep (technically they were in a flashback in Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks but could still appear considering the above)

drummergirl231 asked: Has DT17 Donald ever had to balance family relationships and a romantic relationship before?

Frank’s answer: Not yet. And his kids’ reactions aren’t the people he has to worry about the most. (Lookin forward to Della’s reaction)

cinnabun asked: ooc daisy quote please i’m begging

Frank’s answer: “You do not need to fall for another man that needs saving.”

aprilcruelsday asked: Could you spare an out of context Penumbra spoiler?

Frank’s answer: Doesn’t trust cars.

pilyarquitect asked: OCC Bradford please?

Frank’s answer: “We are not villains. We are FOWL. ACT LIKE IT.” (partially said in Double O Duck! You Only Crash Twice)

maximumlightcolor asked: Ooc steelbeak quote??

Frank’s answer: “Prepare to be OUTSMARTGUYED!” (Double O Duck! You Only Crash Twice)

moonstoneflowers asked: Are we going to find out anything about Webby in the upcoming season?

Frank’s answer: Sure seems like a good time for it.

lynxuwu asked: OoC Darkwing Duck spoiler?

Frank’s answer: Has never fought an actual supervillain…yet. (Looks like we’re referring to Tarus Bulba or NegaDuck)

rumblewithwendy-moved asked: ooc taurus bulba quote.

Frank’s answer: “Reminder: order more dramatic tarps.”

shizu-twg asked: Would you be willing to share an OOC spoiler/hint/line for the first episode of Season 3?

Frank’s answer: Lots of young adventurers look up to Scrooge. Who did Scrooge look up to? (It’s Isabella Finch from Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks)

doritoarts asked: Are we gonna see more of Jim Starling?

Frank’s answer: We have a long-term plan for Negaduck/Jim Starling, if Disney lets us do it. I love that character something fierce.

catboooks asked: spare an ooc kit cloudkicker quote? please mr angones im begging you

Frank’s answer: “SPIN IT!”

toospicy-peppermint asked: Are we gonna cry this season??

Frank’s answer: I have.

egonspenglers asked:Do you think Dr. Bushroot will ever make an appearance?

Frank’s answer: I think he might. Sort of.

pyrot0xin asked: Please I am B E G G I N G you Are Heron and Steelbeak gonna interact I N e e d to know

Frank’s answer: Oh yes very much so. (Double O Duck! You Only Crash Twice)

raheyyy asked: out of context donald?

Frank’s answer: “Namaste.” (The Lost Harp of Mervana)

maximumlightcolor asked: Launchpad ooc spoler maybe 🤘😪

Frank’s answer: Is bad at video games. (Double O Duck! You Only Crash Twice) 

trixielulamay asked: OOC Goofy spoiler

Frank’s answer: Still a photographer. (Quack Pack)

prettysureimbatman asked: OOC Violet spoiler?

Frank’s answer: Is the best there is at what she does. (is a Senior Woodchuck in Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks)

trixielulamay asked: OOC GYRO QUOTE

Frank’s answer: “I swore I’d never go back there again…” (Astro BOYD)

prettysureimbatman asked: Are we gonna see Violet and Lena act more like sisters as time goes on?

Frank’s answer: Yep. (Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks being first of them)

get-em-wright-back asked: ooc fenton spoiler?

Frank’s answer: Has two secrets that aren’t his secret identity.

pixiesphere asked: Will we see Selene again?

Frank’s answer: Uh-huh

i-am-marcus-pines asked: out of context darkwing duck quote plz

Frank’s answer: “Can’t…let her��down…” (probably referring to Gosalyn in an intense moment)

undertelevisionskiess asked: Ooc Gladstone quote?

Frank’s answer: “NOT THIS! ANYTHING BUT THIS!!!”

saturngears asked: ooc boyd quote or spoiler?

Frank’s answer: “This was the best day!” (Astro BOYD)

lynxuwu asked: are we going to see more of the caballeros in the next season?

Frank’s answer: Si. (Louie’s Eleven)

cosmicdelta asked: How worried should we be for Huey in season 3?

Frank’s answer: Nobody worries about Huey better than Huey.

spectrum270 asked: So do you have any sort of story in mind for how Steelbeak got his namesake attachment? It never got explained in the 90s.

Frank’s answer: Yep.

aria-daize asked: Is the shadow blot tied to any epic mickey lore in this series?

Frank’s answer: Our version of the Blot is a new character that takes bits from the original Mickey nemesis, Shadow Blot from Epic Mickey, and Blot from the original DuckTales. He has a new context, and a new obsession with vengeance against one of our long-standing characters. (I wonder who that character is between Donald, Scrooge, Beakley, Della or even Duckworth)

rumblewithwendy-moved asked: ooc lp quote!!

Frank’s answer: “I just want to be good enough!” (Double O Duck! You Only Crash Twice)

heroanalysis asked: Which one the kids will Gosalyn meets first?

Frank’s answer: Dewey!

moonstoneflowers asked: What are some of the major characteristics you've always liked about Goofy and have incorporated into DT17?

Frank’s answer:Goofy is best dad. (Quack Pack)

meeobug asked: Will we get any more shadow magic related things in s3?

Frank’s answer: Yep

backtothefuturefan88 asked: Will F.O.W.L. Eggmen be in the series?

Frank’s answer: We call them Eggheads, as there are both men and women in the ranks. (Double O Duck! You Only Crash Twice)

animator320-deactivated20200207 asked: Will Mark Beaks try to come back for B.O.Y.D.? What will happen to him now that he lives with Doofus? Is B.O.Y.D. safe at all?

Frank’s answer: I cannot stress this enough: BOYD is not safe. Avoid him at all costs. (Astro BOYD)

jillybean2011 asked: Ooc three caballeros quote? Please?

Frank’s answer: “WHY WILL NO ONE TELL US?!” (Louie’s Eleven)

alongdwdfan asked: Will Morgana Macawber appearing this season?

Frank’s answer: Not this season.

rumblewithwendy-moved asked: what has drake seen while stalking the rooftops

Frank’s answer: Spoilers.

swirlmist asked: Anything you can tell us about Drake/Darkwing or Gosalyn?

Frank’s answer: Darkwing and Gosalyn both try to come off as bigger, more fearless, more competent, and more epic than they actually are because deep down they fear they may not be very good at all. They may never be those perfect versions of themselves, but they’ll never stop trying to be and that’s what makes them heroes.

beaglelover62 asked: We've seen Lena have a pretty great moment against Magica last time, and her wicked aunt didn't have any powers. How bad can the conflict between the two of them be in S3?

Frank’s answer: Not all conflict is physical.

cartoons4ever77 asked: Which Woodchuck badges has Huey not earned yet?

Frank’s answer: Spoilers. (isn’t a Senior Woodchuck in Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks)

animator320-deactivated20200207 asked: Which kid will B.O.Y.D. interact with the most?

Frank’s answer: Huey. (Astro BOYD)

animator320-deactivated20200207 asked: When will Rockerduck be thawed out?

Frank’s answer: Mostly immediately.

hdisndihduxujsidjjxj asked: What kid character will Louie interact with most?

Frank’s answer: Dewey. (Louie’s Eleven)

sleaveheralone asked: What will be the biggest challange that Scrooge will have to face this season?

Frank’s answer: That he’s not as unstoppable as he thought he was.

empro-8 asked: Please don’t tell us Boyd will be an enemy. Boyd is a good boy

Frank’s answer: Boyd is a very good and definitely real boy. (Astro BOYD)

sleaveheralone asked: Is the character Scrooge looked up to,one of his relatives or someone else?

Frank’s answer: Someone else. (Isabella Finch)

lophiii asked: Frank you’re scaring me please give us some calm info

Frank’s answer: Dewey gets a sidekick. (Maybe Gosalyn)

moonstoneflowers asked: Will Doofus ever come around to having a little brother?

Frank’s answer: No

yulinfantasy asked: Will Drake and Gosalyn interact with Huey?

Frank’s answer: Yes. (looks like Gosalyn is looking to be the eighth addition to the kid group (currently with HDL, Team Magic, and now BOYD))

beaufonvilleranger1 asked: Who will give Drake Superhero Advice in Season 3 *first*, Huey or Dewey?

Frank’s answer: Launchpad.

prettysureimbatman asked: Will Gosalyn appear in multiple episodes?

Frank’s answer: Yep

lophiii asked: will gos ever meet boyd??

Frank’s answer: Yerp.

kingoflizardss-deactivated20200 asked: Will there be more Falcon Graves?

Frank’s answer: Perhaps (Louie’s Eleven)

saturngears asked: which adult other than the drakes will boyd interact with the most?

Frank’s answer: Spoilers. (Gyro and Fenton in Astro BOYD)

bulletrat asked: does gos interact with Team Magic at all?

Frank’s answer: Yerp

sleaveheralone asked: An out of context spoilers about Branford?

Frank’s answer: Has been plotting for a long time.

pure-heart-muses asked: Is Branford a better strategist than Lunaris was?

Frank’s answer: Oh yes. But in the most business way possible.

shadeslime asked: Will anyone be having their first crush this season?

Frank’s answer: Donald? (Louie’s Eleven and other upcoming ones)

15sok-deactivated20200303 asked: Whose the most dangerous FOWL agent

Frank’s answer: Different answers for different characters.

thealmightykingprawn asked: Describe Steelbeak in one word.

Frank’s answer: Steelbeaked.

dontkillbugs asked: Would it be accurate to say, in terms of screen time and development, Boyd is to season 3 as Lena was to season 1?

Frank’s answer: No probably not.

[disneyboy53]

The Story About A Boy With Autism. A Boy Who Had Problems In His Life. A Boy Who Couldn't Think Properly, And Because Of This Couldn't Stop Messaging Them Without Thinking And They Left Him. Part 1.

This post is important to me as it's about someone who had difficulties with Autism and when he went on Tumblr some people ended up leaving him. And it was all his falut. It's also a story about a someone who has been struggling to fit in with society and someone who tried to be friends with people on here. Injust didn't know how to handle social media and as a result some of those friends left him an abou who sometimes wants to even commit suicide over his problems thinking that everyone would be better off without them. And the most saddest thing of all. This story...... is about me. That's right I am that boy. And trust me this is quite a sad story we got here. I think my troubles began when I was in School. I did have friends. But I kept doubting myself and kept telling myself I couldn't do it. I also couldn't and still can't make a decision when someone asks me to make one. I also have an explosive temper and have been arguing with people when I disagree or when they trigger me. I do admit that at middle school I was basically dynamite ready to go off at a moments notice. I was a lose cannon. I even ran one time in anger and kocked a kid over accidentally which snapped me out of it. I got into frequent fights with my Mom over homework sometimes and sometimes i still do over other things. I ended up taking medication which had helped but occasionally something does slip through the cracks. I'm also over dramatic which makes things worse as I have threatened to do things I don't want to do even though I think about them. To make it worse in the aftermath of then I would laugh.... it makes me feel like I'm going insane even though I'm not. I actually almost attacked someone three times because of me. I feel guilty for everything I have done and sometimes actually want to commit suicide or run away. I always think that it'll be better for evryone if I just go went away but they would tell me how devastated they would be if I did that. I also have a attitude problem when I get mad and don't usually think before I say things which leads to problems getting worse. It got worse when I got my phone which leads to this part. I'm Nomophobic. If you're wondering what it is it's a condition where someone becomes obsessed with thier moble phone and some symptoms are texting constantly. And that's where the problem comes in. Because I'm autistic and can't think straight I easily gained Nonophobia and here is one of the problems. Constant messaging. I just couldn't stop responding to people as after awhile from not hearing anything I panicked and tempted people by asking them to respond. My attitude and not thinking before I said something didn't help either. Worse is that I was always thinking everything revoled around me for some reason and that's why I kept demanding things from some people. As a result those people have blocked me and left me. And so after some years I have realized the error of my ways and want to apologize to everyone who I have wrong and hope that you can forgive me. Here are the people who I caused to draw away from me and made me notorious as a bad person as a result.

Figmentjedi- I'm sorry I caused you to get rid of your story Odyssey of Dreams. Ok so I don't know who was responsible as you said it was an embarrassment but I didn't find it an embarrassment. I thought it was great. I loved how you made Figment a Keyblade Welder and what I tried to tell you later on was that i wanted to continue it. I didn't know it would lead to that. I hope you can forgive me and bring the story back as well as tell me what you had planned for it next and I'll leave you for good.

dominon- I'm sorry if I kept bothering you on Ducktales. When I first got on the website I didn't know you never worked on Ducktales. However by the last time I talked to you on Tumblr I knew you didn't work on the show. I guess I never told you. And those periods. I was nervous. I just didn't know if I would do something wrong. And that constant messaging. It was I habbit I'm finally getting out of for the most part. It may take some time but it rarely happens and I hope that soon it will be gone for good. And that last time we talked I had just forgotten some things in the initial apology. I hope you can forgive me for what I did.

toxikku- I'm sorry about they way I acted. I have a bad temper, an attitude and didn't think of what I was saying so that's why I sounded so threatening. I just hope you can understand that soon.

thatsweetnessdream- I am sorry for constantly asking you to contact Frank Angones becasue I didn't know that you guys weren't working on the show. I was a newbie and I had no idea how this while thing works.

Bronwyn- I'm sorry for that constant messaging. I was naive and couldn't stop constantly messaging you. I didn't mean to be creepy or annoying. I just wanted to help you. I'm not a Stalker but just someone who wanted to help you and as I result drew you away. I hope you can forgive me. My last message was out of anger after I felt that you emotionally had hurted me. I was wrong. I should've listened to you. I was such a fool. I was also tired and I also usually don't think when I'm cranky. I'd had just gotten out of bed so I would be cranky. That's another problem with me that I feel ashamed about. After this I'll leave you alone for good.

[signor-signor]

Fan-Written First Part of S3, Cold Open Idea, CM Permission, and D23

It’s been 6 years since the sneak peek of the third episode of Wander Over Yonder premiered (The Greatest was first, The Egg was second, The Picnic was third). It’s also been slightly over 4 years since The Greater Hater premiered. And in case you haven’t guessed by now, I recently had one of those “Fine, I’ll do it myself” moments.

Taking into account what @suspendersofdisbelief said about the start of S3 as well as my fan-made premise of The Stranger, I put together a mini-script of how I think the first minute would go. Disney’s apparent inability to appease Wander fans has given me cause to take on such a task. Remember, I came up with it all by myself. I may be a full-fledged Disney employee, but I doubt the majority of what you’re about to read would be used in the real thing if S3 actually happens.

OUTER SPACE - WIDE SHOT

DOMINATOR, livid and ragged, is shown on the left side of the screen, still walking in her orbble.

DOMINATOR: (cursing to herself) Sazza-frazza galaxy...

FULL BODY SHOT of DOMINATOR

DOMINATOR: My ship... My bots... My powers... All GONE! (screaming at the top of her lungs) HOW DID I LOSE TO A BUNCH OF DORKS?!!

Dominator sits down and grumpily sighs.

DOMINATOR: What’s the point? (looking behind her at the recovering planets) That bonehead Hater overpowered me, the planets I destroyed are teeming with life again, and I’ve got nothing.

MEDIUM SHOT of Dominator

DOMINATOR: (pulling out her smartphone) If it wasn’t for that fuzzy banjo guy and his zbornak friend, I totally would’ve won!

Dominator’s POV - The PICTURE she took in The Flower appears on the phone’s screen.

DOMINATOR: Still, I had so much fun tormenting those two...

MEDIUM SHOT of Dominator

DOMINATOR: (smirking a little) ...and I’d do it again if I could. (putting the phone away and standing back up) Well, that’s enough reminiscing. I gotta find something else to eat. (looking straight ahead with wide eyes) Huh?

FULL SHOT of a FAMILIAR SPACE DOOR

DOMINATOR: (approaching the door, quizzically) What the grop...?

Dominator sticks her hand through the orbble, turns the knob, opens the door, gasps in amazement, and enters the VOID, closing the door behind her.

Cross fade to a shot closing in on a DOWNED SPACE POD from the USA, flashing green lightning irrationally.

A faint figure in a space suit steps out. All we see are a silhouette and a pair of eyes, on which the camera zooms in. The eyes very briefly glow green.

The face of the figure fades to that of LORD HATER in a close-up shot.

And that’s my prediction of the first minute of S3. Don’t ask me to keep it going because I still have no idea what the threat of S3 looks like. If someone can make a storyboard of this, great. If we get Noël Wells to record the lines, also great.

Also, since Disney’s still taking WAAAY too long to appease the fans, consider, if you will, a cold open taking place before the new title sequence, which would take place just before the first minute of S3 with Dominator...

In this one, Ms. Myrtle the Eternal Turtle would read from a massive book and give the viewers a recap of the important highlights in Seasons 1 and 2. She would then find the last chunk of pages missing from the book (representing Season 3) and suspect that Phan Gnee (AKA “Dizz” Gnee - get it?), a stubborn archivist who is shown with a large paper bag on his head, was responsible for hiding the pages from the public for a very long time.

Ms. Myrtle warps to a recovered planet that is home to the Dizz Gnee Company and asks Dizz why the book is incomplete. Dizz claims that no one was interested in Wander’s story because everyone was more interested in the more popular properties, including the Mystery Kids Mysteries cartoon, Storm vs. the Demons of Doom anime and manga, the QuackTales reboot comics, and the new Phunnie Phinster (mascot of Phunulon) shorts. He also says he published the book and only he gets to call the shots.

Ms. Myrtle tells Dizz there’s so much more that must be revealed, especially Lord Hater’s origin story, as evidenced in the book’s table of contents. She also states that the author of the book has many years of experience (referencing Craig himself) and most likely worked harder on it than anybody else did on the works favored by Dizz Gnee. Lastly, she kindly asks Dizz to save the book so anyone who reads it will have complete satisfaction and be even more inspired to help folks and spread kindness. When Dizz refuses, Ms. Myrtle menacingly talks him into giving back the last pages or she’ll destroy the universe, and when he does as he’s told, she politely asks him if he would like to hear more of the story of Wander’s adventures in the Watchdogs’ galaxy.

It’s all just an idea. I thought this would be a fun way to summarize the overall story so far, acknowledge the executives’ incompetence (like Futurama once did), and get S3 started. It might turn out to be a 2-3 minute pre-S3 short instead. Who knows? I may even come up with a transcript in the future.

Anyone who loves the show and shows interest in the plans for S3 deserves to know everything about S3. I wonder, are Cast Members such as myself able to take a peek at the pitch for WOY’s third and final season? I mean, I didn’t work over 3 and a half years at Disneyland, sign the highest beam for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, get an education in life painting and engineering technology, spend a number of weeks working on fan stuff with Illustrator, or put together a Star Nomad microgame to be denied to know what was presented in February of 2015. So please, Disney bosses, prove to us Wander fans there’s kindness in your hearts and show the world how @crackmccraigen would make the world a better place (once he’s done with Kid Cosmic, that is).

Here I go again, rambling as usual. Anyway, if I as a Cast Member can see the pitch, I promise not to tell the public.

And one last thing: if anyone is going to the D23 Expo this month, please-please-please spread awareness of the show’s existence and its unresolved cliffhanger. Just be sure you do it in a way that isn’t off-putting, though. Believe it or else, Wander Over Yonder was promoted there back in 2013. This is the 10th anniversary of D23, so it should be a good time to bring up our interest in WOY’s shelved S3 plans. If you find anyone who worked on WOY, especially Frank Angones, let them know that SaveWOY will never surrender! Also, while you’re there, feel free to share my Illustrator images - you have my permission.

The Season Covers (inspired by the Star Wars trilogy VHS set)

The First 5 Years (includes a Hidden Mickey)

The Drastic Attempt to Escape (intricate way to portray ownership)

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - "New Gods on the Block!"

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Megan Gonzalez, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow

Written by: Megan Gonzalez

Storyboard by: Sam King, Kathryn Marusik, Stephan Park

Directed by: Jason Zurek

Does this episode have the right stuff?

Scrooge and company have reached the Helmet of Hengis Khan, which is currently being guarded by a bunch of giant silkworms! Just take my word for it. However, Scrooge is ready, and knows that his nephews and honorary niece are up to the task to take on those mere worms. He's got Huey, the planner, Dewey and Webby are good as the distraction, and Louie is just good at doing something greedy like snatching the helmet while the silkworms are distracted. They lock hands together, a universal showing that they are an inseparable team, and Dewey does one of his classic one-liners to start this amazing fight scene.

In fact, the fight scene was so amazing, it just couldn't be animated.

Instead, we suddenly cut to the kids walking through the door of the Manor, where we learn that the fight scene would have amazing for the silkworms rather than the Ducks, as they have apparently failed. Outside of a few lines suggesting that Huey's inability to predict the unpredictable was a major factor in it, they don't go much further than the mission was a failure. They didn't seem to get any battle damage from them at the very least. I'm obviously not expecting blood, but I would think their hair would be a little messed up.

While Della couldn't predict that this mission would be a failure, as she had confetti cannons and a giant banner ready for what she assumed would be their triumphant return, she does tells her kids exactly what happens when Scrooge fails, something she should know from participating in countless adventures with him. First comes the wallowing, then the anger, then he just shakes it off and comes up with a new plan. Webby decides to add to that; each failure is just a reason for the team to grow. Scrooge tells Webby that is a great idea: he should grow the team by getting better, more experienced people to join it!

In other words, after trusting Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby ever since they proved themselves in the first episode, this one failed mission that didn't even get a scratch on their clothing gives Scrooge a reason to abandon them for a different team. On one hand, a team of non-children would be better for Scrooge's PR, but on the other hand, this just feels like an overreaction to make this plot work. Della seems to agree; she tells the kids that they would be able to handle whatever is going to barge through that door. No, she did not put it that way, but she may as well have.

In comes Zeus, Selene, and Storkules, a trio of gods from the Greek pantheon. The moon goddess Selene and the demi-god Storkules have successful taken the now former god of lightning/king of the gods Zeus's godly wreath, and now he's merely just a powerless jerk rather than a jerk that can smite people. As Selene says, he hasn't done anything good since locking up the Titans, a reference to the original myths, so it was coming to him.

Why are they here? Because they now need a god who can take his place in the Olympus pantheon, and they each have their own idea that happens to currently be in the Mansion. Storkules thinks it should be Donald, Selene thinks it should be Della, and Zeus thinks it should be himself. I can't help but think Storkules and Selene are not even trying to hide who their true loves are among the mortals. Nobody tell Penny.

As the children mope about how the gods surely wouldn't choose them if even Scrooge couldn't, Della decides to reject it and say her kids and kids' friend deserve it instead. What Della would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery. Selene is convinced because, while they're children, they're still less immature than her father, who still threatens to smite people with lightning despite not having any powers anymore. I still like this slightly more accurate to the original myths version of Zeus.

As the children mope about how the gods surely wouldn't choose them if even Scrooge couldn't, Della decides to reject it and say her kids and kids' friend deserve it instead. What Della would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery. Selene is convinced because, while they're children, they're still less immature than her father, who still threatens to smite people with lightning despite not having any powers anymore. I still like this slightly more accurate to the original myths version of Zeus.

Storkules wasn't there to see this plan change, as his candidate for godhood was still in the houseboat preparing his houseboat. After Donald takes out the garbage, Storkules bursts through the door and gives his friend of friends the biggest hug, and is impressed that he even prepared a celebratory feast as if he knew what Storkules was about to offer him.

Much like Della, what Donald would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery, because he's got bigger plans on this day. That celebratory feast was actually him preparing for a big date with the only person who can stand his singing.

Don't worry, Storkules takes his friend of friends going on a date with someone else very well. Maybe a bit too well, and it's not just to Donald's chagrin, as he decides to do a labor worthy of being among the twelve he did that one time: make the perfect wedding feast! Anyone who knows this character will know where this is going.

It's also pretty predictable where the other half of the episode is going, even if I did think at least one of them would have done better than the others. Selene decides to give Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby each a chance to prove their worth on being in the pantheon. They each decide on an ability similar to the ones in the myths, they get a little test run at a random location, and, if they fail, Selene can just clap or snap her fingers and everything reverts back to normal. Even if she didn't reveal the last one, it would be just too good this early on if we had any victors here.

Louie wants to be the God of Fortune, so he gets the Louie Touch, which he instantly trademarks despite being a clear knockoff of a certain king's. This is most likely because he never really heard of the tales of King Midas's golden touch, as he ends up turning the entire park he was put in into gold. This includes a dog. Not a dog-person, a dog much like in real life.

Huey wants to be the God of Intuition, so he gets the power of prophecy, similar to Cassandra minus the "nobody believing him" problem. In fact, he has the opposite problem; Huey doesn't seem to catch the hint that telling the misfortunes that are going to happen to people aren't going to make people happy. It doesn't help that his powers are causing his brain to expand.

Webby wants to be the Goddess of Friendship Sunshine Get-A-Long Time, so she ends up being able to control the weather. Oddly enough, controlling the weather was one of Zeus's specialties in the original myths, so this should give her the biggest chance out of all of them since this is supposed to be "who is going to replace Zeus." Unfortunately, just giving the boardwalk a sunny day and getting Glomgold off of a kiddie ride he had been hogging doesn't cause everyone to hug, so she ends up striking everything with lightning in the end. With Webby becoming mad with power in the span of a minute, I don't wonder how Zeus ended up the way he did.

Dewey apparently wants to be the God of Dance, and tries to woo the judge with a dance. Even if he didn't manage to torment a random location to the point where it would have to be reversed by a moon goddess's snap, the lack of any god powers disqualifies him as well. I know it can barely be seen in that screenshot, but that reaction from Selene makes this whole scene even funnier.

It's not like these abilities aren't fitting, but it's such a foregone conclusion that they were going to fail these tests spectacularly that it just felt predictable.

While these trials are happening, Zeus decides to call up one of his more notorious brothers: Hades, god of the underworld. Despite only showing up as an unknown number, which would make sense even if Zeus was calling from a cell phone of his own rather than Scrooge's house phone, he picks up to hear the voice of the guy that trapped him in a world surrounded by bones. He's not too happy about his situation, needless to say.

Following in the footsteps of not following the Disney version of the Greek pantheon besides Hercules being treated as a 100% god, Hades is more like a goth who doesn't really care about anything. He doesn't go with Zeus's idea of causing an undead rebellion, reminding Zeus that he's too busy keeping the Titans locked up, which gives Zeus a different idea. Hades won't be involved with this idea, as, other than revealing that one of the few things that delights him now is Zeus being powerless, he decides not to do anything else. Despite this, it's neat to see this amount of world-building with the pantheon, and it makes me wonder if we'll see him again.

Being failures at being Scrooge's teammates and Greek gods, we get another mope scene. Scrooge actually calls this his "special ops" team, which makes me think that Scrooge actually wanted a different team for different situations, and it seems like they're hinting at an ending that would cast Scrooge in a better light: he was just planning a B team. Such a shame that doesn't really come up anywhere else.

I think the other plot is better, with Hercules acting like the unwanted friend getting in the way of Donald and Daisy's date, and it eventually falls apart. Even with Storkules in the background holding a tied up Cupid, a part of one of his earlier plans, one can really feel Donald's pain as he floats in a garbage-filled pool. This feeling of pain is even shown in-universe, as the normally oblivious Storkules decides to get some help.

Sadly, he goes to his father, Zeus, completely devastated that he had forsaken his best friend, and asks what he could do to help out two people in love. Zeus tells a story about how Hera fell in love with him after he defeated the titans, and that if Storkules can defeat one of them, maybe they'll be impressed. He laments that it's too bad there's no god with god-like strength that can unleash one of them.

To make a long story short, Storkules hits the ground, a titan comes out, Scrooge and the rest come out to see this madness, and the titans ends up eating Donald right in front of Daisy's eyes. I love this line that reveals, among other things, that Donald is still okay:

Storkules: (keeping the titan from eating Daisy) Don't worry, we can salvage this!

Daisy: You killed my boyfriend!

Donald: "My boyfriend"? (reveals to be in the Titans see-through stomach, still indigested) Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

It reminds me of that scene in Coco. I can't spoil it, but there's a similar line there that also made me smile.

Della and Scrooge are climbing up the titan, Shadow of the Colossus style, where they talk about the other plot. This is their way to get the plots to converge, and it’s a good idea. In fact, while this goes against the idea that Scrooge was merely trying to expand his team rather than remove his kin from it, Scrooge getting confronted with his negligence while trying to deal with an even bigger problem is a pretty powerful moment.

The stakes are set pretty high, as the titan manages to turn pretty much everyone except for Daisy and the kids into dinner. Even Selene, the one that could reverse problems with the snap of her finger and the character that was pretty much treated as the Queen of the Gods until now, as Hera is only mentioned, manages to get caught in the titan's grasp, dropping the godly crown on the ground as she joins the rest of the party in this titan's stomach. Considering all of this eating of his fellow gods and mortals, maybe this titan is meant to be Cronus. He even manages to do what Cronus wanted to do in the original myths.

Whether or not that generic titan is Cronus or not, that victory doesn't last too long, as we get this really cool scene where Daisy manages to startle the titan with her own roar, and, using that as a distraction, Webby takes the crown, splits it up, and gives herself and her friends the god powers they wanted. While I wasn't that much of a fan of this plot, I can safely say it ends really well. Not only does Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby prove themselves as helpers of Scrooge, but kids worthy of have the powers of Greek myth. The latter doesn't last, of course, but still, it's great.

In the end, everything seems to work out just fine, and I really do mean everything, as the other plot also ends very well. While I don't want to ruin the moment, I'll say this: I find it very funny that Zeus ended up helping with Storkules' problem in the end, even if it wasn't his intention.

How does it stack up?

At first, I was a little miffed on this episode; I just don't think Scrooge would just throw away his team just because they failed miserably on one mission, especially in an episode after he trusted them so much, and especially after the episode after the one where he outright recruited one of them to go through his deadly danger dungeon. However, this episode has plenty of ways for me to forgive that: the scenes with Donald and Daisy, the cool god powers in the end, and Zeus being Zeus all throughout.

Still, this ended up being just merely in the middle for me.

Next, we get to see an Scrooge adventure with young Della for the first time outside of the IDW comics!

← The Split Sword of Swanstantine! 🦆 The First Adventure! →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “How Santa Stole Christmas!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Colleen Evanson

Storyboard by: Sam King, Kathryn Marusik, Stephan Park

Directed by: Jason Zurek

The Last Christmas...episode of DuckTales 2017.

Twas the night before Christmas, and all throughout the night, The kids are reminded of Scrooge and Santa's fight. Previous episodes have brought up Scrooge's Santa furore And this is the episode where we get the whole story.

The episode starts with Della, tucking her children into bed, Feeding them stories to put in their head. It's not the usual story, as her children moan, but reasons for that old elf to not be allowed in their home.

But outside of Webby, the kids aren't Santa-haters Even if he's known by the McDucks for being among traitors They hear thumps on the roof, and the kids will go to the Manor's ceiling, where they see a shadow

As the figure shows himself, their childlike wonder was not blessed...

...as it was someone else whose name starts with S.

Scrooge was preparing his defenses against any reindeer, and ensuring on Christmas, no Claus will be near. He ensures the kids they don't need him, as he is rich. See, he's able to give them all hats that itch.

It's practical, he says, though the kids think it's lame As they wanted a trampoline, a cell phone, and a video game. Before Scrooge can explain, he hears the doorbell. Carolers, Scrooge assumes, and the lies that they tell.

He opens the door, Webby readying weapons she possessed and it turned out to be our jolly old guest. Scrooge grits his teeth, and the children shout with glee...

...and then Santa falls down, nearly crushing Dewey.

It's here that I realize this rhyming is annoying you, and that's okay, because I'm getting tired of it, too. I can really only do this for a short review-ey, So the rest of this are normal paragraphs, ah phooey.

So Santa falls down and breaks his leg, and even Scrooge, with his pretty low opinion on Santa Claus, is concerned for his well being. He even has to motion to Webby to put down her grappling hook that she was apparently was preparing to put into Santa's chest. She then slowly brings out a sword. It's a joke on the same level as that spork one from a previous episode; it's a classic Webby moment.

After hearing that Frank Sinatra-esque Christmas-themed opening from the last Christmas episode, now with 100% more Della, Santa wakes up near the chimney fire. I like the detail that it's barred up to prevent Santa's usual Christmas travel, though as I was told as a kid who lived in a house that didn't have a chimney and this episode proves, he can use a door just fine. In this universe, he's real, and he proves this by giving Huey, Dewey, and Louie their video game, trampoline, and cell phone, respectively. He tries to do the same with Webby, but she pretends to like her hat better. Got to look good for the man she idolizes, after all.

That man, Scrooge, decides to reveal exactly what Santa did to get his ire: he stole something from him. All but one of the kids can't believe it, and the one exception couldn't figure out exactly what that something could be. Don't worry, this is not going to become one of those Christmas Carol pastiches, as DuckTales 2017 is a lot more clever than that and didn't feel like competing with that rat that must not be named. Instead, it's more like Santa Claus is Coming To Town, where we get to hear the origin of the holiday that Scrooge says was stolen from him. The title isn't wrong, it really is actually Santa that stole Christmas this time!

Santa doesn't have time for this, as he needs to get Christmas finished before sunrise. It is still Christmas Eve, after all. He asks Scrooge, with his belt so tight, to drive his sleigh tonight, and it takes some begging from Huey, Dewey, and Louie for him to oblige. Well, that, and Santa offers him to never come to the McDuck Manor if he does the deed. That's not the only offer, as Santa decides to tell the kids a story I thought would be the noodle incident of the cartoon.

The story begins with Scrooge during one of his business stints, selling heat-giving coal to the populace of a snow-filled village, with no buyers in one particular cottage. He finds a polar bear with a sleigh singing about bells that jingle, and Scrooge comes over to help him out. Introducing himself as Santa Claus, Scrooge finds out that he does have similar goals, though Santa prefers to warm people's hearts with toys rather than coal. Santa tries that same cottage, offering a gift for free, and they happily let him in, and he was so kind that they even allow him to bring that guest that was yelling at them to buy his coal.

The big guy ends up being the life of the party at the cottage with his new hit song, filled with people of short stature with colorful costumes, until the fire burns out. Scrooge's coal ends up saving the party, though Santa had to use his own way of selling it by just grabbing it right out of his bag and throwing it in the fireplace. This warms the hearts and the house of the cottage dwellers, though Scrooge could tell it's more because he's a friend of that jolly guy than anything else. It's quite clear Scrooge has more reason to start his hatred of that red guy beyond being named after that classic Christmas-time villain.

The hatred doesn't start just yet, though, but he is a little bewildered by an idea that Santa Claus has: not only does he want to bring this heat source to this cottage and the people who were just visiting it, but to everyone in the world in one night! Scrooge knows this is impossible, but Santa feels he knows some way he can do this. This begins a brand new friendship, and this is where Webby is confused.

Webby: Wait, Scrooge doesn't have any friends!

Understandably, Goldie is more of a frenemy, being friends with Launchpad is far too easy to count, and it's debatable if anyone is Gyro's friend, either.

We cut to what's happening in the present, where Scrooge gets on the sleigh with all of the reindeer kids would know. All the kids know Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. If they think of any other reindeer's name, well, let's let another Christmas special sort that one out:

Olive, the other reindeer: By the way, where's Rudolph?

Comet: There's no Rudolph. It's just one of those urban legends.

Along with Santa and himself, Scrooge decides to only let the one kid who knows Santa is a fraud, Webby, on the sleigh. The kids protest, and Santa implies to them that if they go to bed, they would be on the nice list. They already got their gifts, and if Santa ends up doing his end of the bargain, it wouldn't even matter, but the nephews decide to go back to bed. One could argue that Santa could boop his nose and instantly turn the video game, cell phone, and trampoline into coal, and that one is confusing this episode with another special with siblings that wear the primary colors.

As the reindeer fly into the sky, Webby continues her anti-Santa creed, saying that she wouldn't be wooed by dolls, candles, or crossbows. That last one does end up piquing Webby's interest enough, and Santa does reveal that, yup, that's what she was getting. Scrooge tells Santa it's going to take more than that, and Webby isn't trying too hard to prove that's true. In fact, she actually blurts that she's worried that Santa wouldn't be able to finish Christmas in time, and Santa tells her, and it's all because of another artifact from that legendary Finch journal. No, I'm just kidding, there's no journal in this episode; along with the Halloween episode that also doesn't feature it, this episode was written before anything else in this season.

That artifact is the Feliz Navidiamond, a diamond that can slow down time to the point where the mission to give coal to everyone on Earth is a possibility rather than pure fantasy, and Scrooge happens to have a map that leads right to it. Said map leads to Cascabel Cavern, a cavern known for having creatures of legend defend it, including the Los Renos Voladores. Those who know their Spanish, as Scrooge does, may see where this is going. Santa didn't just have the flying reindeer show up at his doorstop one day, he had to encounter them at the cavern along with his new friend. While Scrooge attempts to use his cane to fend one of them off, he notices that Santa appears to be taming the flying beasts with his jingle bells. Again, the contrast between the charitable and caring Santa and the practical yet uncaring Scrooge shows itself here, along with the contrast between how much they're enjoying this partnership.

Webby says she can figure out why Santa decided to keep them, as reindeer are known for their long horns and good efficiency. Scrooge asks her why she even cares about this, and Webby, once again, tries to say that his fantastic flying reindeer aren't really her thing. For a super-spy in training, she is surprisingly bad at this. Her Santa hatred breaks throughout the episode as she slowly develops from someone who blindly goes with what Scrooge says to realizing that this elf may be a little more than what her idol says he is. I could see parallels with this character arc in this one episode and her development from the sheltered Scrooge fangirl who can't figure out how the real world works of Season 1 to the caring girl with some Scrooge fangirl tendencies she is in Season 3, and that's neat to see. I do think her just blindly believing in Scrooge’s stories in the beginning is a little bit of a negative, though.

While the story is happening, the episode decides it's montage time. To the tune of Scrooge's least favorite song, guess which one, we see Webby and Scrooge give gifts to various people, including Webby taking her time to give both Violet and the still-looking-like-she-did-before-that-one-episode Lena a kiss, though the latter is understandable because, as mentioned before, they wrote these holiday specials first. We also get an extended scene where Scrooge has to wade through all the Beagle Boys in the naughty list to give a gift to Bouncer Beagle, who somehow managed to get on the nice list. I did question at first how time appears to be flowing quite well in these scenes judging by the giftee's reactions, but I could understand that the Feliz Navidiamond only works when they're on the sleigh. After Santa saves Scrooge from the Beagle Boys, he says they're even, referring to something that happened after the taming of the not-Rudolphs.

In the Cascabel Cavern, we get to see the rise of a guardian, who some people might call Jack Frost though they don't call it that. No, not the Jack Frost from those guardians, I say to the people who still remember that movie exists.

No, it's a Jack Frost like the movie with the snowman. I'm sure Santa could sense that Michael Keaton film from nearly a century later, as he tries to calm the roaring snowman with a delightful gift. Hopefully it's Campbell's Soup, and then we'll find out inside that guardian was just a really, really cold little boy that's mother decided to leave out in the cold for way too long. Unfortunately, that too was the wrong Jack Frost, as this one's more like the 1997 one that had 100% less Michael Keaton and 100% more killer snowmen.

We get our big fight scene of the week, as Scrooge rescues Santa by pelting the snowman with his flaming coal, riding a flying reindeer. Which reindeer is it? It's so awesome, nobody really needs to care. With this help, Santa grabs onto the Feliz Navidiamond, slowing down time to the point where it almost seems like time has stopped, and they can just waltz out of the cave with it. In their words, they're running on Christmas time. I should point out that they don't create Christmas, as they refer to it all throughout this flashback, they just create the tradition that happens on Christmas. They don't go further than that, and that's all I will say on that subject. Rule of three dictates that there should be some other monster after this, and...well, let's just say the next enemy Christmas has to face may not be a monster or some animals with abilities beyond regular animals.

As Scrooge leaves to deliver one final Christmas present, telling Webby to keep a present as he's got it, Webby decides to ask one question that's been on her mind: why would Santa do all of this without getting paid? Santa replies that he gets the greatest gift of all, and I jokingly thought this was going to lead to him talking about the Santa Bills that he sends to the children's parents. Of course, that would deter kids from asking for those Disney playsets, so we get a heartwarming speech from Santa about Christmas being about the warmth of the heart one gets from giving gifts. A much better alternative, I'd say, it's a good speech and one fitting for a Christmas special.

There is one major thing in this Christmas origin story that hasn't been brought up yet: how did Santa giving coal to everyone to warm up their homes become only giving coal to the bad children and giving toys to the good children? They really only show the idea of the latter once, with Doofus getting a nasty looking box in his stocking, and even then, it doesn't look like coal.

The next Christmas, Scrooge barges in the door, singing his own version of Jingle Bells involving his favorite practical black rocks, and Santa has a small suggestion to make about Christmas. Instead of just giving out coal, why not bring them a special surprise on Christmas morning: a special gift for free as a promotion for their coal distribution business! Scrooge immediately balks at the idea of giving out handouts. Oh, rich people. This eventually leads to Scrooge getting into a big fight with Santa, and they break up.

This isn't the monster part, as that happens much later in the history of Christmas. In fact, they're remembering it right now, as they find that Santa's sack appears to be still filled with Christmas presents. If those are the presents with all the toys, what did they gave the children? No, not just a practical gift meant to warm people's homes rather than their hearts...

...but a practical gift meant to warm people's homes rather than their hearts and an invoice for it, too! We even fade to Scrooge, making a rather evil grin that feels like it came from another famous Christmas special. He really is a mean one, Mr. Scrooge. Now, being an outright villain may seem a bit out of character for him; he's usually only a villain when he has to play one in a wrestling ring. But, come on, do you expect a guy named Scrooge to be the good guy in a Christmas story, never mind give out handouts? I will say that his evil grin does go against any interpretation that he's doing this for good, as he implies. I mean, he's so much of a Grinch...

...he even has his own Cindy Lou Who named Jennifer, a poor girl in desperate need for anything, including warmth. She even takes this lump of coal he gives her and turns it into a toy. She's that desperate for some warmth in her heart, and no speech from Scrooge about how practical that coal could be to warm her home could change that. It doesn't take a genius to find out if this causes Scrooge's heart to grow three sizes.

To make a long story short, we get another speech from Santa about why he even bothered to have Scrooge help him, and there's even another twist about Santa here that makes this trip just that much more special. The ending is quite clever, too, and it does fit into the family side of the Christmas tradition. Since this is most likely the last DuckTales 2017 Christmas episode, it's a great ending in many ways.

How does it stack up?

I was greatly entertained as this episode arrived, As I humbly give this episode a Scrooge number of five. Now I'll say, to everyone reading this site, Happy holidays to all, and to all a good night.

Well, that's it for now, as DuckTales enters yet another hiatus. In fact, this is the last big review I'll make this year. Have a Slightly Better New Year, because it sure couldn't be worse than this one.

← The Fight For Castle McDuck! 🦆 Beaks in the Shell! →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “Quack Pack!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Bob Snow

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Kristen Gish

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

TGIHD. Thank God It’s Hump Day.

Our episode begins with Huey preparing his Uncle Donald for his big family photo opportunity, an opportunity he never seems to have due to various mishaps. He hired a professional photographer, and even had him practice his million dollar smile. Huey says that nothing is going to stop this day from being ruined, and then Dewey, the one-liner-spewing stand-out sibling, shows up. We know he's the stand-out because the laugh track cheers as soon as he comes in. Yes, a laugh track, just like this series always had.

Some other characters show up, mostly to reintroduce them to the audience. We have Louie, the schemer who is currently trying make his mother jump off the roof and get people to pay to see it. Said mother is Della, a former moon-dweller who is perfectly fine with because she used to be on the moon, and will seemingly bring that up with almost every line of dialogue she has. Finally, we have Scrooge, the relatively down-to-Earth, no pun intended, person who knows this is ridiculous, though he does ponder if he can make a lot of money from that dangerous stunt before saying "no".

Instead, they have to get the study ready for the photo, something Scrooge promised he would have done already. Though he tells Donald that he would never break a family promise, the sweat he's wiping off his brow is telling a different story. He, Della, and Louie slowly back away into the office, and nobody is the wiser. Oh Scrooge, I’m sure he has some money related reason for it.

As they back away into the office, we get two more stand-out characters: Mrs. Beakley, who constantly has to deny being a spy despite coming in through one of those wires on the roof, and Webby, who introduces her grandmother as a professional spy. She's the quirky one!

At this point, Huey starts to think that something is very off with everything around him, and asks his Uncle Donald if he feels the same way. Donald turns to Huey, and responds in the familiar way we all know and love.

Donald: (clears throat) Well, everything seems perfectly normal to me!

Ah, Donald, with his distinctive voice by Don Cheadle; perfectly normal, and yet suave enough to make the laugh track cheer. See, everything is normal, from the way Donald Duck talks, to the laugh track laughing at even Dewey's cheesy one-liners, to the 90's TGIF sitcom-like establishing shot this scene started with. Nothing wrong at all...except for everything.

Yeah, if this is the first episode of DuckTales 2017 somebody watched, they're going to be very lost. I mean, people are saying this is an adventure show where they go all around the world, using their wits to fight criminals, monsters, and aliens, but this is a sitcom with a laugh track! There are some ways people could figure it out already, namely that cartoons would never use laugh tracks unironically, but it's good that this originally aired right after a normal episode.

After a really short version of the usual theme song that consists solely of "DuckTales, woo-oo" and a commercial break, we get the theme song showing off the cast of characters. This includes Launchpad McQuack, who even has his own rock band, the Crash Happies. In we end, we get our title screen: Quack Pack. Yes, this is what the show's called now, taking the name from the infamous DuckTales spinoff where they decided to age up Huey Dewey and Louie to teenagers.

Outside of the title and a very similar pose for the title shot, it doesn't take anything from that show, just the 90's sitcoms it was trying to ape. Huey, Dewey, and Louie are still kids, and the plot for this episode is kind of pedestrian compared to the teenaged siblings turning into superheroes and battling a planet-sized Uncle D who just wants them to clean their rooms while his rage makes him destroy the galaxy. Even the theme song is just instrumental soft rock. It is possible they felt lines like "I feel like quacking, so I think I will, I'm gonna quack quack quack until I get my fill" are too cheesy even for a parody.

As our episode truly begins, we meet another soon-to-be-beloved character, and one that isn't one of the familiar ones: Knox Quackington, that photographer Huey hired. He's an artiste, as described by Huey and himself, and he has the accent for the kind of stereotype that term was made for. Unfortunately for him, he describes himself as someone who uncovers the world's secrets, and Webby knows that could only mean he's a spy. That quirky character ends up taking him to a dark room, where she beats him up. Oh, Webby!

While this is happening, Scrooge decides to try to ready up that study.

Unfortunately, the study is in even worse shape than he imagined. Scrooge didn't want to pay for actual repairmen to fix his problems, and the problems just got worse and worse. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere. Louie responds that Scrooge's lack of responsibility legally makes him liable for his own lack of responsibility. He didn't really change much at all for this sitcom plot, huh.

Huey and Donald show up to see Scrooge's study in ruins, and Donald explains why he can't just go to a different room: this is the only room where the buttons glint in the way he wanted! Louie says, with sarcasm, that the button glint issue is so much more of an unsolvable problem than a broken room, and everyone just makes an "oh, Louie" pose as they pause for the laugh track. Huey is a bit more optimistic, as he happens to have a Junior Woodchuck Guidebook...

...a Guidebook that is completely blank. Donald speaking like a regular duck and the blank book makes him notice that the mysterious laughter that happens constantly doesn't seem to be coming from anyone in the room, and realizes something is very, very wrong. He runs out of the room as everyone else makes an "oh, Huey" pose as they pause for the laugh track.

This episode definitely gets the sitcom parody down to a T. They even have transitions where they're just dancing or flicking hearts from their smartphones. It reminds me of That 70's Show, and I don't watch enough sitcoms to know if there's an earlier example than that.

Distracting us from Huey slowly figuring out what's going on is Dewey doing what he does best: giving himself and Donald mohawks. Oh, that rascal, that's going to be a real problem for the photo op. Huey shows up only to see that they paused in place, because it's time for a commercial break. Of course, Huey is the only one aware enough to realize everything is getting darker. Plot important forth-wall jokes is this episodes forte.

After all the real commercials, because it would have been a missed opportunity if they didn't do a real commercial break there, we get a commercial for the fictional Pep, featuring a guy who's clearly played by the same actor as the photographer. If Disney XD didn't require "now back to the show" bumpers, this would have caught people a little off-guard. This ad specifically features him opening up a can of pep, causing a tidal wave of Pep. This actually becomes important later, though I won't go into detail.

We then cut to the channel ID, which is exactly like the old and current Disney Channel channel IDs. The big difference is instead to drawing Mickey ears, Dewey, the lovable breakout character everyone loves, is drawing a lamp. It's the kind of lamp that would hold some sort of djinn, and not the djinn that looks for found lamps, either! Also, it's the Baba network...hey, just like that Baba guy the show is now credited to! Hmm...

Huey, of course, managed to notice all of this, and he runs back to the study after Donald tries to convince him to get some rest. Meanwhile, Mr. Quackington is all tied up by Webby, thinking he is some sort of suspicious special agent, and has Launchpad keep an eye on him. This leads to Launchpad and his band thinking he's a different kind of agent. Those are all about as far as they get with those plots, to be honest; it mostly focuses on Huey's plight and a plot with a certain other character that will appear in a few more paragraphs from now.

Huey's plight is about why he's in this strange realm where people are constantly laughing at him. He then sees tiny versions of Randy and Johnny from the Ottoman Empire. No, I'm not going to do the joke this time. That's in the past, much like 3 tiered rating systems. Huey figures out that is is an ad, and the dominoes just drop from there as he realizes the guidebook he was holding was a prop, the room doesn't actually have any pipes, and one of the doors just leads to a brick wall.

Nobody is convinced, and they're just thinking he's going coo-coo. However, he does have a fool-proof plan: point to the fourth wall, which they only now notice is missing.

They see some lights and some strange creatures that look sort of like those hairless apes Ludwig Von Drake was warning us about, but that can't be it! This is definite proof, and they all take it. Glad they won't take the entire episode to realize this.

Meanwhile, Donald shaves off the mohawk, only for him to have a bald spot. What's only slightly better is that Webby, who wants a meat tenderizer for some "cute girl stuff", still doesn't want to tell Donald where the photographer went. What else could go wrong?, says Donald, clearly signalling for something to go wrong. Though, if anything, something is going to go very right for us, because what would a sitcom be without a guest star?

Appearing for the first time in DuckTales is Goofy. This is heavily based on the Goofy from Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie, even wearing the same outfit and making the same pose he does in the former's intro a few seconds later. Donald doesn't seem to think too highly of him, though, and the way he "borrows" some ketchup by squirting it into what I hope is his pocket is not helping matters. Nonetheless, his appearance is just like one would imagine an appearance of Goofy would be like in DuckTales.

He does fit into the photography plot pretty well, as his job in this appearance is a photographer, but I'm more willing to focus on how Goofy is also someone who notices a change in Donald. Maybe it might be something else, but I'd like to think that Goofy is more familiar with Donald's usual voice. As in, he's a real person and not just a construct of whatever this is. There's hints of this throughout the episode, and we did get to see Roxanne and Powerline before, so it's not that much of a stretch.

It doesn't take long for the A plot of Huey dealing with this strange realm he's in and the B plot of the kidnapped photographer to crash into each other. I mean that literally, too, as Team Believes They're In A TV Show collides with Team Gotta Impress The Agent as the floor of the study collapses right into the room the photographer was kept in.

Slowly but surely, Huey convinces the rest of the people that something is wrong by simply saying that they should be going on an adventure. This is supposed to be an adventure series with an adventurer, and the biggest adventurer of them all, Scrooge McDuck, realizes it, too. However, he has no idea what would happen to get them into this realm.

Dewey: If only I could remember... (scratches his chin)

Everyone notices the world around them swirl around, and they panic until it stops. Huey tells them that this is a flashback, and they could use this power to try to figure out how they got into this mess in the first place.

At this point, Donald is the only one that thinks trying to get out of this world is just a waste of time, even stating that they should get back to the plot, er, photo. Yes, in that way. At this point, it was pretty obvious who is the culprit, but this scene in particular reveals a different co-culprit.

Finally, we get to see what was really happening: during an adventure to find the lost lamp of Collie Baba, they were stuck in a trap involving a ton of scorpions. Donald, in the barely comprehensible voice we all know and remember, decides to wish to himself that he would have normal family problems.

Donald's actions in this episode do make sense. Even though one of the main reasons why Donald Duck gave up on adventuring has been resolved, one cannot help that Donald just wants to be with his family, doing family things, and not getting into adventures that may risk his and his nephew's lives. I'd imagine being kidnapped by Moonlanders would do that to a guy.

After they get out of the flashback, they notice that the photographer is slowly trying to leave the room, and everyone knows at this point that this guy is not who he says he is. I mean, we got to see him quite clearly in that flashback.

The photographer is revealed to be Gene the Genie. We managed to get two rebooted characters out of Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and somehow they're completely separate from each other. He's here to make his master's wishes come true, and that master happens to be Donald. Donald still has two more wishes, and he could use his second to undo the first. One problem: he loves it here.

We also learn the reason why this show is dated: he hasn't been out of the lamp since 1990. This is another nod to Treasure of the Lost Lamp, as that was its release year. Goof Troop was a few years after that year, but I'll let that pass. What I might not let pass is the sheer amount of internet references, something that wasn't too widespread in 1990. Huey sure wouldn't have his emoji hat, also. Maybe their modern technology combined with Gene's sitcom world, but I felt that was a little missed opportunity to see some time-related shock.

Anachronisms aside, I have to mention this particular scene when the siblings ask how long they're going to stay in this realm if Donald decides against ever letting them out.

Gene: Probably at least three seasons, plus spinoffs. And I assume they'll reboot the show eventually!

It's pretty obvious why that line stood out. He really must be stuck in the past; most reboots are softer and rounder nowadays. I'd say more, but I'm trying not to fill that "YOU-KNOW-WHAT potshot" jar.

They want to go home, forget the three seasons, the spinoffs, and the dark and gritty reboots. Not speaking of softer in any sense of the word, that line does not go too well for those fourth wall dwellers...

...and we get our answer to how the ducks would react to hairless apes in the same universe as they are. Granted, when they're all grinning these horrifying open mouthed grins, it would make even people in this universe shudder. I know I am!

We get this big scene where they beat up the humans while they wait for Donald to come to his senses and wish them out of here. I'm not going to describe this scene in detail because there's just so much here. The mentioning of different episodes, the realm trying to fix itself, and a big rotation scene, pictured, that was put to good use in the trailers.

Another line in particular that stood out for me: Louie says that the episode where his pet snake gets loose isn't a well written plot. Gene tells him everyone's a critic. I can't help but feel that one.

I will mention that we do get to see Goofy have a parent-to-uncle talk with Donald, and, yes, this leads to even more for the Goof Troop/A Goofy Movie fans. This is a very pivotal moment in the plot, and it's all because of the guest star. Honestly, even if they're trying to get out of the sitcom, that is a very sitcom thing to do!

It shouldn't be much of a spoiler to reveal that they do manage to get out of the sitcom universe. We got a F.O.W.L. plotline to get to. How exactly do they do it? Does Donald get his two other wishes? Go watch the episode and find out for yourself, but I'll say that it is satisfying.

How does it stack up?

This is a very interesting and very funny episode. Purists may be a little upset by this episode focusing more on mimicking the 90's than take any inspiration from the comics, but this is a good tribute to the era. It all hold up together, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Fantastic episode, 5 Scrooges.

Next, we finally get to that F.O.W.L. plot, not so oddly enough!

← Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks! 🦆 Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice! →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - "A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!"

Story by: Francisco Angones, Emmy Cicierega, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Emmy Cicierega

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Emmy Cicierega, Victoria Harris, Ben Holm

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

A sweet dream.

The episode begins with a big friend-adversary sleepover for Lena, and Webby, the Nephews, and her newest friend Violet were all invited. Even she does not really know if it's been a year since they met, so nobody should think about that too hard. She made them cake, and she even made friendship bracelets for all of them! The boys question how she can be so nice, and Lena says there's no way she can't do something nice for her friends in a tone that does not convince them. The cake making her look like The Slender Man probably did not help.

After accidentally making the candle flame flare up in an evil way, Lena laments that she's just too new to this "good guy" thing. Webby attempts to comfort her by saying that being Magica's living shadow and still being good is good enough, and I can see where Webby is coming from. I honestly forgot she was ever an outright bad guy. Sure, she worked for Magica for most of Season 1, but it's not like she had a choice in the matter. It looked like she had a choice, until Magica revealed she could just take over her body whenever Lena strayed too far from her. While I was taken aback by that at first, the reveal that she's a shadow and not a niece did soften that for me.

Going back to the present, where she is at least an 80% good guy now, Webby prepares for the best friend-adversary sleepover ever, as Lena looks aside with a worried look on her face.

That worry could be a reason why this sleepover does not have that much sleeping. It's 4 AM, and everyone but Lena wants to go to sleep. Even Mrs. Beakley went to sleep, though her spy talent to sleep with her eyes open makes Louie question that. Lena goes to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face, because she really, really doesn't want to have any bad dreams tonight.

Lena: Like Webby said, I don't have to prove anything. Bad dreams can't hurt you.

As if she said "nothing bad could possibly go wrong", Lena starts to get some black strands in her hair feathers, and her eyes go yellow with triangles, much like that evil witch that cast her. As Webby knocks on the door to ask if she needs any you-know-what paper, Lena snips and inevitably gets ready for the next sleepover game...

...actually going to sleep. Lena being out of the room turned out to be a good reason to get that precious sleep. Webby tells Lena that she knows her secret. Simply put, she does not, as she assumes Lena is afraid of the dark. Looking at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, Lena closes her eyes, and her and her surroundings are shrouded with pink rings.

Lena and the rest of the sleepover suddenly wake up on a deserted island. Louie tries to phone Scrooge for help, only for his phone to have emojis instead of numbers. While doing an okay job at improvising what his "number" would have been, it then turns into a banana. Then a unicorn shows up to give Webbigail the opportunity to go through an extreme obstacle course.

Magically given a top hat and a cane much like her idol, Webby is excited that this mission of her dreams is happening! Lena tries to deny that dreams has anything to do with this, but, Violet says this could be a lucid shared dream state caused by Lena's magical powers. She proves this by making a living flower pop up in her hand, and asks Lena if she's been having any bad dreams.

Lena: Okay. (pulls up black hair) No more secrets.

This one line really shows Lena's character in this episode. She has to continuously hide her feelings while evil seems to sprout from her being, while everyone else gets to enjoy this wacky ride through their dreams. An easy tell for this plot is when the boys decide to take this dream world opportunity to fly in the sky.

Lena gets horrifying evil bat wings that fit the horrifying evil personality she is trying to run away from. Needless to say, she decides to walk. As for the unicorn ends up blinking out of existence, as nobody was around to dream him.

Eventually, that walking turns into running, as she runs away from a giant tree-like-hand in a purple forest. We don't quite get exactly what this hand is supposed to represent yet.

After falling into a hole, she gets up as all of the others land after a great time flying in the sky. We can tell because it's all blue, and that's something that will be consistent with everyone except for Webby's. I guess they wanted to have this being a dream be a surprise, or maybe she's the only one who could dream in color. I would not put it beyond her.

We get to see that school does exist in the DuckTales universe...at least in Dewey's dreams, where he's the biggest teenage star in the school. Clearly inspired by a certain Disney Channel Original Movie, he's a musically-inclined basketball jock teenager who is so cool, even his hair does a thumbs up.

And that's only the tip of the Dewey-berg, as Dewey shows off all the beauty of his dream. He can get basketballs from the tap, perfect for when Lena accidentally busts one open with her suddenly appearing talons. He has a love interest that hasn't formed because he's still terrified of such a concept. Considering the alternative, I am so glad that is the case. There's also this out-of-place section that apparently appears in all of Dewey's dreams, where we see a Dewey crying on a moon made of all of his tears.

Huey: I have some theories.

Distracting from all of that, we have a lovable mascot character named Dewey Dude. He's the best! That silly duck can teleport around, sneak up behind Lena, and, while only Lena is looking, he can even take his head off to reveal...

Magica De Spell: Miss me?

As far as Lena could tell, Magica De Spell had regained her magical powers somehow, and is in a mission to goad her former shadow into embracing the dark side. She pulls down a fire alarm, causing the sprinklers to start, which, because this is Dewey's dream, turns out to be Pep. It's easy to get the chills from this scene...I cannot imagine that Pep could get out of their feathers that easily, even in a dream.

Dewey is not too happy that his dream has been soaked, even if he takes his time drinking that sugary substance. This doesn't become a theme. Louie decides to go into one of the lockers into his dream, and we learn that that they spent all of their creativity points on Dewey and Webby. Definitely the former.

To be fair, how much water can you squeeze out of Louie being a cat? Being a lazy cat who may or may not have a taste for lasagna is pretty fitting for Louie in any case. While everyone else, except for Huey who is just irritated by this, Lena shows up as a rabid dog. Dream Mrs. Beakley, speaking in gibberish to enhance that dream feeling, calls on the dog catcher. Guess who? I kind of wish they found more ways to dress up Magica; most of the time, she just shows up with her hand outstretched.

But what about Huey's own dreams? Dewey already has school-related dreams, so playing on Huey's intelligence by making him go to a super-university for the super-intelligent would be a little redundant. Instead, he just has bigger legs. Not because he wants to be a baller, which would also be made redundant by that lovable blue scamp, but just because he can reach high places. Even the others make fun of how generic this is, and Magica does not even show up.

Instead, Dewey, of course it had to be Dewey, decides to interrupt that leg plot that was going nowhere into a montage. Literally, he says he wants to do a montage, and it happens, because dreams! We see Dewey riding on the Spear of Selene, which could also lead to theories, and we see all of kids walking around a candy rain, with Huey chasing after. It's a neat reference to "Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!"

Speaking of references to previous episodes, "What Ever Happened To Donald Duck?!" had Dewey pretend that a Phooey exists beyond an old comics in-joke. In this episode, we get to see him as a dream construct! We finally have a canon representation of this character in this reboot's universe, and that is something I did not expect to see.

This montage flawlessly ties in Lena's part of the plot by having Magica show up again and again. That candy rain ends with Lena getting a rotten apple. Phooey turns around to reveal Magica's face. The Launchpad whale...actually doesn't do anything else other than have something weird for the trailers, but we do see Magica creepily climbing up a chasm.

The kids do the opposite of climbing, as they literally drop into Violet's dream world, where all she does is read books in a library. I can attest that one can definitely read in dreams, despite what that Batman episode might say. Yes, that is all I really have for this one. Violet does not get to do much in this episode. She's only here because she's the most fitting character to explain that lucid dream thing, and because it would be odd to have the new friend from the last Lena episode be left out.

One character that wishes she was left out is Lena, who gets a small glimmer of hope when Scrooge's knocking ends up getting into the dream. Unfortunately, that hope turned out to be false, as it wasn't enough for Lena to wake up. I would imagine the sleep deprivation from earlier did not help. She eventually falls into her black sweater, and the rest of them fall after her to see the cliched scary evil castle. The cliche works very well, since this is supposed to be Lena's dream getting to her most evil point.

In the end, after having an unwanted talk with Magica, she can't stop herself from becoming a monster, as much as she denies it. In fact, she even says:

Lena: (turning into a monster) I AM NOT A MONSTER!

The rest of the kids barge into the door in their dream-sonas to confront who they think is Magica De Spell. Dewey has his basketball skills, Huey has his legs, and Louie even gets to use his cat-like abilities as an actual cat. As for Violet, she just looks the same as she always did. Again, not much to her in this episode.

Unfortunately, Magica-Lena turns out to be too powerful, as basketballs and cats do nothing to her. Huey's legs do not even do anything to Magica-Lena; he just bumps into a chandelier that loosens and stars to fall on where Webby is standing. Oh, not again! Lena does manage to save Webby this time, and, because, this proves that, despite her current looks, she's still the "good guy" Lena.

Well, that, and she was wearing Lena's friendship bracelet, so it must be the real Lena. It would have been hard to see because they forgot to draw it until Webby talks about it.

This all ends with a big tug-of-war between the "good guys" and the Magica in the mirror, sort of summarizing the Lena plot from Season 1 in a more abstract way. It's here where the friendship bracelets come in; it's neat to see that come full circle.

At first, I thought there was going to be some sort of cop-out. I was just waiting for Lena to wake up and realize that this whole scenario was just a bad dream, and that the others were just sleeping as usual. That doesn't turn out to be the case, thankfully.

In fact, there is quite a bit more to this than I expected! I would have been fine with certain elements just being in Lena's head, but the ending throws a small but significant twist that will be expanded on in a future episode.

How does it stack up?

Another episode in the Lena plot, and another one with some twists and turns. Just like the last one, I'm going to put this in the Jaw$ column as well.

Next, gentlemen, behold! Corn(ielius)!

← Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake! 🦆 The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Duck Knight Returns!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Francisco Angones

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Emmy Cicierega, Ben Holm

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

The big mid-season finale!

I knew right from the beginning that, yeah, this episode's going to be the big one. It turned out to be even bigger than I imagined. I must say something first.

If there's anything that should disqualify myself from reviewing this episode, it's that I'm barely familiar with Darkwing Duck. I have watched a few episodes, knew about some of the villains, and, of course, know that amazing theme song, but I wouldn't call myself a huge scholar of the subject. In another way, that should make it even better for me to review it, because, for the most part, the little kids this show is targeting have likely never watched any episode of Darkwing Duck. It's not on Netflix, for one. Let's get to the episode.

This episode begins with a masked villain who aims to blow up an orphanage by setting up bombs in the sewers. No real reason, he just wants to be bad. He is going to be stopped by the terror that flaps in the night, the pebble in the penny loafer of depravity, and someone who is willing to do things in a non-comfortable way. He words that slightly differently, of course.

He's not too sharp, ending up stepping on every land mine. However, he never gives up, and ends up living up to his notoriety, as whoever this bomber is seems to know his name. All in all, a good way to introduce the character for people who don't know who he is. He grabs the villain, and then decided to reveal who he really is...

...himself?! To be concluded...coming absolutely never! This turns out to be the cliffhanger series finale for the series. This was first detailed in Friendship Hates Magic, but this is the first time we actually get to see what would have led to Darkwing Duck's Finest Hour. There was this one villain from the original that could easily be what the payoff was, but there's no way anyone would known in-universe.

This all turns out to be something shown by the ever-so-proud-of-being-Darkwing-Duck Jim Starling at a special event attended by the biggest fans of Darkwing Duck. A comics convention? A Darkwing Duck convention? A Darkwing Duck comics convention?

No, he's at an opening for Siesta Rick's, a furniture store, being a last minute replacement for the much-more-fitting-for-this-event Johnny from the Ottoman Empire. No, Djinn, not that one. Can't help but notice it was just Johnny, too; apparently the two brothers have yet to make up after their incident from The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck. However, there's no time for that plotline.

I wasn't lying about how it was attended by the biggest fans, the plural only justified by Launchpad not being alone. This guy is just as excited as he is, wondering what he could possibly say to the actor who played his biggest idol as a kid.

I felt this episode was a lot longer than most of the previous episodes, though a reason for that is that we get an even shorter intro than usual. It's longer than just having the DuckTales logo fade in and out, but far shorter than the shortened intro that appeared after certain episodes. However, they did color the logo purple.

Right from the get-go, we see that Jim Starling is this washed-up superstar, sitting mostly alone, telling his agent that he is "the one and only Darkwing Duck" and he deserves better gigs. All he needs is an exorbitant price tag for one of his autographs, and I think that was mostly implied by him snatching the bills from the president of his fan club before he can even say his name. By the way, his name isn't revealed until the very end of the episode, and it's actually a minor twist to people who know the original. I'm just going to call him That Guy.

He's far more excited to see a young kid, in this case, Dewey, which makes a lot of sense. Darkwing Duck was a kid's show, and seeing someone from the next generation. Unfortunately for him, Dewey's just here to get an autograph for the pilot who's fainted a few feet away. After taking a photo of Jim Starling awkwardly smiling with a fainted man with his signature on him, Dewey notices a logo popping up as soon as he types the hashtag #DarkwingDuck.

Darkwing Duck has become a trending topic on their version of Twitter, alongside theories about Gizmoduck, National Pants Day, not that widely celebrated in this universe, and some horrible opinions. Hopefully not mine! The reason why it became trending is because a new Darkwing Duck movie was announced, and the boys take it to themselves to investigate. You'll see that will be fitting for pretty much all of them for different reasons.

While trying to keep Launchpad from looking at the rear view window to see the faint-causer, Dewey does raise that question of why they have to be the ones to bring "the one and only Darkwing Duck" to the studio making his new movie, and Launchpad merely agrees with the sentiment. To Launchpad, Starling is Darkwing Duck, and Starling lifts his head up and agrees in a way that indirectly calls him a buddy.

In an obvious chain of events, he ends up crashing. This fainting gives it a different reason beyond any inability to park a car, so it's still up in the air if that "surprisingly good parker despite everything else" gag is still happening. Dewey gets worried about this studio not taking kindly to someone who crashed a car into their studio opening, but it turns out said studio is owned by someone who knows that Launchpad and crashing go hand-in-hand.

That someone being Scrooge McDuck, who is in a meeting with Alistair Borswan, who is totally not Christopher Nolan. He's trying to get some more funding for the big finale of his new Darkwing Duck movie. This will be tough, as not only has he spent a lot of money already, Scrooge hasn't seen a film since the 30's. The only films he ever funded before this were instructional videos starring Donald doing stuff that workers shouldn't be doing. Kind of wish we could see those, actually; the DuckTales equivalent to those Goofy shorts I always loved as a kid that didn't need any guy to say "BLAAAM" over them.

Before Alistair can prove that he can use those funds to give Scrooge his much wanted profits, and be convinced by Scrooge's idea of giving the villain a giant mustache to twirl, Dewey, Launchpad, and Starling show up to crash this meeting, all for different reasons. Dewey wants his cinematic dreams to come to life, Starling wants to begin this great creative partnership, and Launchpad starts to stare at the poster for the upcoming film.

Launchpad: Aw, cool! A big budget reboot of a thing I loved as a kid! Those are always great!

See, it's funny because it's usually not true. See, not only is this going to be a new Darkwing Duck film, it's going to take Darkwing Duck in a different direction! In other words...it's a reboot. I was practically destined to review this episode, it seems. I review nothing but reboots on this site; it wasn't an intentional theme, but it became a theme nonetheless.

Alistair can think of only one thing to stop all of the questions: show the trailer. Hey, it would be good focus testing!

Unlike certain reboots, it's quite clear we're seeing a very different Darkwing Duck, not a continuation. One could say it's a Beginning of a Dark Knight that will eventually Return. People are running away from the "Dark-Wing", the entire movie is set in the nighttime, and Darkwing Duck is told by the not-Commissioner Gordon character that he shouldn't go flapping in the night, but he's too dark to go by anyone's rules, like "don't set the streets on fire with your initials". Darkwing: First Darkness, not suitable for children!

We do get one early reaction shot from the well-established biggest fan of the show, and let's just say that this trailer is not going to get a lot of thumbs ups.

We get to see the reactions from everyone involved, with only Alistair grinning at his own work. Launchpad is offended at the prospect of a Darkwing Duck that sets fires and harms innocent people that aren't accidental. Starling liked it, if only because he still thinks he's going to be a part of this. As for Dewey, he absolutely hated it; he couldn't tell who the villain was, or what was even happening.

He then describes his ideas for this movie. See, everyone has their own ideas to reboot a beloved series. Look at, say, Looney Tunes. Along with the normal "Bugs Bunny in the forest outwitting his foes" reboots, it's been a sitcom with everyone in a house, and even an anime-esque superhero show set in the future. What I'm trying to say is that Dewey seems to be batting for a Loonatics Unleashed, suggesting that there should be aliens and ninjas.

Scrooge decides Dewey should be in charge, because, hey, this is for children, and Dewey's the most childish child he knows. This sets up a sort of B-plot. I don't really remember too much about it, to be honest. Jim Starling has different ideas, and it should be him that should have them, because he's obviously going to be the star of this movie. Even though he did not appear in the trailer, nor did he know anything about this movie until Dewey told him, he has to be the star, right? Right?

What very few would have guessed, unless you took a good look at him and realized he's practically a splitting image of Darkwing Duck sans mask, is that the role is going to That Guy. The one grown man that wanted his signature who didn't faint at the mere sight of him. Hopefully, the guy who claimed himself as the "one and only Darkwing Duck" isn't too stabbed in the heart about it.

...sorry, I had to reference that at least once.

To make a long story short, Starling ends up getting thrown out of the building. Launchpad shows up, and his dislike for the movie's new direction has cured his inability to stand along Starling without fainting. Either that, or they realized that fainting joke was getting old.

Starling goes into his limo and comes out as the one real, original, don't-call-him-old Darkwing Duck. Jim Starling's to bring the glory of his original masterpiece in the only way he can, and calls Launchpad his sidekick. Hey, just like the original! This makes Launchpad faint again, which would have been a little more powerful if it wasn't a gag.

Starling's first plan: while Darkwing Duck distracts the guards with his ability to disappear into any role, which is definitely exaggerated by the far-too-over-himself Starling, Launchpad has to break into That Guy's trailer. Launchpad questions if this is really "heroic", but Starling talks him into it anyway.

Launchpad: Now I wait for that phony actor, lock him up, and us, the good guys, wins. Totally heroic.

I'll be honest: I know, it's Launchpad, he says stuff like this. Practically every line seems to be him unsarcastically saying something that should be said sarcastically. He does think he locked himself inside the trailer, until his savior shows up. That Guy recognizes him, and asks what he's doing in his trailer.

This leads to a fight scene, though Launchpad is completely apologetic about all of this. Eventually it stops when he finds out he was going to beat him with a vintage Darkwing Duck shampoo bottle, and almost suplexes him into a complete run of the Darkwing Duck Adventures comics.

Eventually, this just leads to two grown men playing with their toys. I mean, that's pretty much what this show is; a bunch of grown men who grew up with the Disney Afternoon playing with action figures of their childhood favorite shows, except it's animated, fully funded by Disney, and is generally really good. Eventually, we get to hear That Guy's story, and not just in any way, either...

...but in comic book form! Much like Launchpad, he idolized Darkwing Duck as a kid, buying his merchandise, and even using him as an inspiration to stand up against his bullies. Even if he got knocked down, he'd always get back up, and he has Darkwing Duck to thank for that. If the art style looks familiar, that's because it's drawn by Michael Peraza, as his signature at the end of this comic proves.

There's easily a contrast between the two Darkwings. That Guy just wants to inspire kids just like his idol did, while Starling, the man who played said idol, just selfishly wants his most famous role back, seeing himself as the "one and only" Darkwing Duck.

While That Guy convinces Launchpad to change his motives, Starling is a bit busy with the guards. What could possibly be a good cover for a purple-cloaked guy with a cape?

How about hiding in a crowd of several other purple-cloaked guys and girls with capes, courtesy Dewey and his wacky ideas? Finally, the Dewey plot actually managed to tie in with the other plot. The only real time it does outside of one other thing at the end.

With some convincing from Launchpad, That Guy confronts Starling, saying he's sorry for everything. He offers him the chance to teach him how to be the best Darkwing Duck, give him the opportunity to fix the movie, and just maybe, this new Darkwing will inspire generations to come!

This seems like this would be the passing of the torch from the old actor to the new actor, and it almost seems like it as he begins to shake his hand. And...there's 8 minutes left, is there?

Jim Starling: Yes...

Jim Starling: ...I will!

Right from the beginning, it seemed that his only problem with the movie is that he's not in it. But maybe he just needs a little more convincing of his own!

Forcibly taking over That Guy's role, Jim Starling tells a wandering Launchpad that the new guy told him he can be in the finale. Launchpad really questions this, far more than the apparent villainy from the last couple scenes. When Launchpad is not buying it, that's really something.

The scene is the big finale, directed by Alistair, Dewey, and a little mustache-related advisory from Scrooge. This is where, in a shocking twist, Darkwing will have to surrender to the classic villain, Megavolt, who, most important to Scrooge, has a villainous mustache.

Starling is not too happy about that script, though Dewey's new lines making Megavolt say that he's awesome doesn't exactly please Alistair either, and he ends up doing some improv. He ends up doing everything Launchpad didn't want a true hero like Darkwing Duck to do: harm innocents and cause fires!

Launchpad is certainly not happy about that, but before he can point out the obvious, he hears someone in the distance. It turns out it will take a lot more than just doors getting slammed into his face to stop That Guy.

We even get a fight scene, a real one with no apologies, between the new Darkwing Duck and the old one. I've seen FV shows with less violence, and I don't even just mean that other show! Not a bad thing, by the way.

In an excellent bookend with the first scene, we see that That Guy is well deserving of his role when it comes to not giving up. And not in the way that Starling "didn't give up" by not following the script. A box full of dynamite detonates below him? He just gets back up. A piano falls on him? He gets back up, spitting out those piano keys like that old cartoon gag. He even takes on Megavolt's gun, which was actually electric!

Launchpad eventually comes in. Even Scrooge talks, in a more in-character way, that this seems way out of character for him. However, since he is a huge fan of Darkwing Duck, Launchpad is actually far more qualified to speak to two Darkwing Ducks. Speaking of electric, he's also a guy who's really qualified to get into some sort of accident, as this electrical tower is about to electrocute him, and this could be a good chance for either one of them to show their heroism.

I don't like spoiling episodes unless I have something significant to talk about it beyond just outright ruining it for anyone who didn't watch the episode. Honestly, I felt the same when I spoiled the commercial break twist here, but this review would have been quite short.

Well, maybe I could talk about the ending of the Dewey part, which just ends with him apparently recording over the footage of the fight scene he wanted to use the salvage his movie. When did he even get the time to do this? I don't really care. The Dewey plot is definitely the low point of the episode. Really, that isn't saying anything, and it's really just low compared to the rest of the episode.

There's a lot of spoilers I didn't want to show off here. It's shocking, satisfying, and well worth a watch. In the end, at least one of them proves that he is worthy of his namesake, and the other...well, you'll see.

How does it stack up?

With good commentary on reboots, great new characters, and tons of twists and turns, this episode is just incredible in every way. The Dewey plot would have just taken away from it if there was more to it, so it's not that much of a problem. A Top 5 episode, a must watch.

What's going to happen next? A trip to the moon, that's what.

← The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee! 🦆 What Ever Happened To Donald Duck? →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Madison Bateman

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzaga, Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

Della's first big adventure!

They didn't want to wait a single episode, we're already starting off with Della on the wheels of the Sunchaser, er, Cloud Slayer going into an adventure. Della gets to join in with Scrooge, Dewey...and that's it. Dewey does imply that Huey and Louie have decided against going on this adventure. No mention is made of Launchpad at all outside of his chosen name for the plane.

They're going to the Ludwig Von Drake Doomsday Vault, which contains every seed known and unknown to man. Scrooge wants to get a contract to get his security company a stake in renovating that vault and keeping it secure. As he leaves the perfectly landed plane, though the process was a little rocky, he finds that he's not the only one.

This is another episode with Flintheart Glomgold, in his continuing quest to win his bet. Even if I wasn't a big fan of the last episode he had a major part in, he is almost always the highlight of any episode he appears in. I wouldn't consider this episode an exception; I wouldn't say it's him at his best, but he's not at his worst, either. Don't expect a lot of Zan Owlson, as I'll explain later, but he gets a different "straight man".

This is our cold open, a little more literal one than usual, and I wanted to say something about the opening here: it's the same one as the one that started this season. Donald is still on the moon and Della is here, but Donald is still running along in that incomplete V formation and Della is nowhere in sight. I do understand that re-animating the intro would probably take a lot of time that may not be worth it depending on when they're going to conclude that plot, but it does lessen the weight of Della being here.

But enough about the opening, let's get to a meeting! One of the key points in his speech is the Fabled Money Tree of Aurum Oros, with branches of gold and leaves that perfectly resemble dollar bills. He wants to lock up this seed in particular, so no soul can even look at it until the end of the world. See, just taking the seed would be a Glomgold move, as proven immediately by Glomgold suddenly waking up when he hears about this.

It's apparently also a Della and Dewey move, too, as when they hear this, they immediately venture off to go get it before Scrooge locks it up. They even jinx themselves by saying their plan at the same time, right down to them saying "jinx, double jinx" after they say it. Scrooge leaves...only to find the plane missing, and he knows immediately who could be responsible for that. It's not Glomgold, he's still in the building trying to get that contract with a speech that consists of "give it to me and I'll use that money tree to become richer than Scrooge." It doesn't work too well, even if he was apparently the only other one who had an interest in this vault.

We suddenly cut to Della and Dewey listening, singing, and dancing along to "Stand Out" by Powerline, as made famous by A Goofy Movie. The real focus of the plot is Dewey trying to get Mom to see him as this great adventurer, which shouldn't be too hard as they're practically the same wavelength here.

Della: Nailed it!

See, she's even saying his catchphrase! She loves him so much, she'll let him pilot the Cloud Slayer! Sure, he's about 6 years too young to drive a car, but as long as he closes his eyes and feels the sky, he'll get it right! At first, it seems like a glurge moment as this appears to be working...

...for the first few seconds anyway, before the obvious conclusion happens. While Dewey apologizes for this, Della tells him that he shouldn't, because this was a great first try! It's quite clear that Della is nothing like her brother Donald or her uncle Scrooge, as they would probably never encourage his kid to take the "fun route" over the safe route. Della does that pretty much immediately when she reaches that fork in the road.

Back where the plane used to be, Scrooge is talking to Mrs. Beakley about what just happened. Suddenly, he finds his hand hand-cuffed by Glomgold, who intends to drag him along to help get into that Doomsday Vault for that precious money tree seed. He also wanted to steal his plane. Why couldn't he just use his own? Because his usual scheming antics caused Zan Owlson to take that plane back home. I mean, I wouldn't blame her for finally giving up and just attempting to leave him, but leaving him to die in the cold seems a bit much. Hidden sinister depths, perhaps?

This hand-cuff plot does lead to a B-plot with some funny moments. Again, not as funny as Glomgold at his best, but still good in its own right. Scrooge tells him he's on thin ice, and Glomgold assumes he was talking figuratively. Scrooge at least knows how to use the word "literally" correctly.

After going through the "fun way", they end up at the Doomsday Vault, as they get the first of many, many greetings from Ludwig Von Drake in prerecorded form. They never outright confirm if he's dead or alive; it wouldn't be too out there if he was still alive, but it also wouldn't be too out there if this is actually his ghost. I mean, if Duckworth can do it, so can he.

One thing against the ghost theory is that this video congratulates these survivors from getting away from various monsters, including those mythical hairless apes. Thankfully, these survivors have made it to this vault that is protected from every possible disaster he could think of.

Della: Yeah, everything except climate change.

(Della and Dewey hi-five)

Even if she isn't wrong, one can tell that hi-five was a laugh track substitute, just like the fist-bumps in the other show. One joke I definitely can say was worth some sort of hi-five is the joke involving his first obstacle for any would-be werewolves: a color-coded keypad. I knew what song was going to come up, and I'm so glad it did. Since these buttons are frozen solid, Della helps Dewey into a vent that leads to the other side, and Dewey can't help but start singing a song while he crawls through it.

Dewey: Gotta earn the love I want so Dew-sperately!

Della: What was that?

Dewey: Nothing, Mom!

Yeah, that's pretty much the whole A-plot. After a few seconds. After a few seconds on the other side, Della tells him that there may be a panel outside. Yeah, attack while itʼs tailʼs up, Cloud!

It'll fire by crushing your mom! I find it interesting how this series is not afraid to say that Della is going to get killed by this. Wow, Ludwig even had a failsafe if someone accidentally activated the second longest death trap and needed to de-activate it!

We get the cliched “which wire should I pull” scene, With the threatening and yet fitting for him countdown of Ludwig Von Drake giving it a needed twist. Della praises him again for saving her in a way that made it really dramatic. Dewey goes along with it, but the way he looks shows that's he's only doing this because heʼs desperate. She wonders what other monsters could lie beyond this door.

Well, they don't really get to that, because they're already at the seed room. Another Von Drake video appears, where he explains that even mythological seeds are here. Hopefully, he left out that one that eats people and takes their form. This is pretty high-tech stuff: it has a computer that can search and highlight which of these containers contains a certain seed, and it even has an easy-to-use crane!

Still needs a bit of maintenance, though, as the crane starts to spark and smoke, eventually crashing into one of the vats full of Van Drake's patent pending super growth formula.

Della Duck: Aw, phooey.

It's not that I dislike Della as a character, far from it, but I have to ask: does she have a catchphrase that is actually her own? Yeah, there's "nothing can stop Della Duck", but she learned not to use it. As Della ponders what she could possibly do next, Dewey is walking on the crane, attempting to jump right to the money tree seeds. It's here that Della finally gets a bit of reserve about letting her child go through this reckless endangerment, and asks Dewey if this is too crazy.

She still cheers him on, because it's better than being an overprotective mother for the sake of being an overprotective mother, but it's clear by her tone of voice that she wishes Dewey would just let her save him from this. How would she do this?

We never find out, as Dewey does manage to get to the money tree seeds. However, he ends up dropping them right into the ground, which had a bunch of super growth formula poured into it. It's easy to guess what would happen next.

We occasionally cut back to the cuff-buddy plot, where Scrooge and Glomgold are glad to know that they're reaching the same destination, one far more than the other. They end up suffering through the aftermath of Della and Dewey going through this Vault and essentially breaking everything. Granted, most of this suffering is caused by Flintheart Glomgold finding ways to unintentionally cause fires.

Despite said fires, Scrooge's main focus of his anger is at Della's actions. Scrooge says it’s been over a decade, and she still acts like a child who doesn't think things through. This anger allows him to lift a steel door just by himself! No comment is made of that; it can just be assumed that he lifted it because he's Scrooge McDuck.

Back to the quest for the money tree, we see that growth formula still works just as well as Von Drake hoped, as the room is now filled with an ever growing tree made of gold and dollar bills. Della is still trying to cheer Dewey on and telling him to do even more crazy things, but this is where Dewey finally breaks.

Dewey: No, I can't do it!

This is the big emotional moment of the episode, which seems to be a requirement for every episode.

They basically repeat the same scene from the last episode, but this time with Dewey. It doesn't have as much weight when it's the Mama's boy.

Scrooge and Glomgold make it into this room, and Glomgold is already picking at the money tree.

After a series of events causes the crane to land right between the two handcuffs, freeing Scrooge from the B-plot, Scrooge finally confronts Della on her childish quest. His main question: did she even think about how she was going to get out of this?

It turns out, she did think of it. They all slide down the tree to a bottom floor with an emergency exit. She did explain that she knew about the hidden exit because an offscreen Ludwig video had a map of the entire place. She pays attention to everything, she says.

In the end, Della uses the gold and the goldwelding skills she learned on the moon to fix up the vault, Dewey learns that he doesn't have to prove anything to his Mom, and Flintheart Glomgold learns absolutely nothing. As it should be.

How does it stack up?

This is the first episode in a while where I didn't really get any major reaction out of it. Sure, it's supposed to be this filler episode, but it's also supposed to be Della's first real adventure beyond escaping the moon or meeting her kids for the first time. In the end, it just feels like a lesser version of the last episode.

This is not to say I felt this episode was bad in any way. It has its funny moments, especially with Glomgold and Ludwig Von Drake, but, compared to most of the show, it's merely adequate.

Next, they finally bring up that one shadow in the room from the Season 1 finale.

← Nothing Can Stop Della Duck! 🦆 Friendship Hates Magic! →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “Treasure of the Found Lamp!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Christian Magalhaes

Storyboard by: Jean-Sebastien Duclos, Mike Morris, Sam King

Directed by: Jason Zurek

Part 1 of the big catch-up!

This episode's title is going to bring our hopes up a lot, since it's an outright reference to Treasure of the Lost Lamp, the movie for the original DuckTales. I am sorry to admit, I did not watch that movie. I will defend myself by saying that most of this cartoon's target audience is not familiar with it, either.

With that aside, let's see what this reboot does with a certain character from that movie, as the episode starts out with him.

We see this cloaked man making a long trek, traveling through a desert via a motorcycle, sneaking into a boat, and jumping across trees. It's a pretty powerful opening, I'm not going to lie, these are some pretty dynamic scenes, and a great introduction to this character.

It turns out that this stranger was heading towards the McDuck Manor, as he reveals himself to a red hat/sleeping cap hybrid wearing boy brushing his teeth. I did learn two things: ducks do have serrations on their bills that happen to look like teeth, and Googling "duck teeth" is not recommended. Huey is so used to this, that he immediately calls for Uncle Scrooge to ask what his visitor wants. Cue the theme song.

The next morning, they all gather together for this intruder to introduce himself. This is the reboot's version of Dijon, or Faris Djinn as he's called here. From what I've heard, not only does he has a very different personality and morality from the original, he's not even the original character in-name-only. Let's just say he never loses his pants in this one. He did lose one thing, though.

)

TThe main point of him being here is that he was sworn to protect the Lamp of the First Genie, a clear reference to the titular lamp from the old movie, and he needs to find it. The major difference is this journey to get the lamp was already done, as Scrooge found the lamp and placed it somewhere in his manor. That's why this episode is called Treasure of the Found Lamp, after all.

We see Louie and Scrooge trying to find it somewhere deep in the garage. Louie does manage to find a chest filled with a bunch of lamps, including the Ferryman's Flame, a lamp that acts as a portal to the land of the dead. Unlike most of the items he has found, Scrooge found nothing supernatural about the lamp, and saw it as a mere "cheap bobble". Djinn seems to disagree throughout the episode, which does add some intrigue to the object of the week.

Once Scrooge gives a description, Louie at least recognizes what it could be. That's the good news, and the bad news can be read right from his worried facial expression. They decide to tell Djinn at least the partial truth: they lost the lamp.

Yeah, that was not what he wanted to hear, as he starts to slash through the house, saying he'll raise this home for it, brick by brick! I love this guy's dramatic flair, and I won't be alone even in-universe. Left with no choice, Scrooge and the kids decide to come up with a story he would accept. In short: it must have been stolen by the Greek gods! It's clear they're making this up on the fly...

...but Djinn buys it completely, and, not phased by the aspect of having to travel all the way to Ithaquack to get it, begins the great fake quest for the Lamp. The real quest will be put on the triplets, because Scrooge reveals to them and the viewers that Louie told him he sold it.

While he's away at Ithaquack, the triplets are tasked to do the actual quest for the lamp, which won't nearly be as fantastic. It's like this mystery, where people have these alibis of what happened, and the first stop is Louie.

Louie decided to take the lamp, because Scrooge didn't care about lamps without genies or portals to the dead in them, and decided to sell it at a garage sale. About a few minutes into this garage sale, he gets bored, so he decided to give the job to Duckworth. I would think having a ghost would scare away many potential customers, but that's Louie for you. Huey scolds him for being so lazy, while Dewey makes this prose about having to confront the soul without a soul. He's desperate to find a role in this episode, and trying to act like Djinn is not a bad one.

If only there was some mystical item that can guide them through it, like a flame of some sort. Louie might have an idea about one, and I'm glad to see it wasn't just some random gag that didn't really have a joke.

They make it to Ithaquack, and Webby guides them. Djinn seems to take all of this seriously, as if this kid knows all the secrets. Well, she mostly does, but he wouldn't know that. To him, the Ifrit’s Dawn is coming, and if he doesn't have the lamp, the consequences will be dire. Mostly in his words, he has this dramatic flair throughout the episode.

One major aspect of this episode is that there's a few returning characters in this, including Selene, the Goddess of the Moon, who decided to take the job as an actress for this charade. She had a big deadly temple, and she had to use it. She's not the only one, either.

Turns out, Charybdis is happy to play a part in this charade, too. You know, the big monster that turned out to be a nice person once people don't want the sword he was guarding. He's not a good actor, as he constantly has to ask for his lines from Webby. Eventually, this leads to Djinn, unphased by his poor acting but phased by his stalling, desperately slashing at this monster, while the monster complains that this wasn't a part of the script. Selene doesn't seem to be good at improv, either, seems to be a thing with the residents here.

While Scrooge, Webby, and anyone they can coax into this elaborate stalling can deal with Djinn, the triplets use their plan to get Duckworth to tell them his side of the story: use that Ferryman's Flame from a few scenes ago! See, there was a point to showing that. After accidentally unleashing a dragon, mostly so there would be some sort of tease before the commercial break, Duckworth appears.

Duckworth: (in his demon form) How dare you interrupt my long overdue vacation!

However, he does regain his composure and his usual form once they ask about the lamp. He tells his story.

He says this fellow bought it, with a $20 bill that managed to land right in his empty wallet right when he opened it. Even the triplets know only one guy has that much luck.

Gladstone Gander has been lucky enough, yeah, I had to say that, to be in a few cameo appearances, but this is the first time he gets more than that since his first episode. It wasn't like he was a likable character, intentionally so, but it's neat to see him back.

One of the best bits is when he offers the kids all of the valuables he accidentally came across, like winning lottery tickets, and a bunch of diamonds he found in a bag of ice, and Louie tells him there's no time for such things...as he pockets some of the diamonds.

He traded it to some rich kid with a treehouse with really, really sticky fingers. The triplets realize in fear of the only person that could possibly fit that description.

So yeah, the triplets parts can pretty much be summed up like this: the character does one gag, the triplets get their next big hint, go to the next location, repeat. It's more mundane than the other part, but it's not not nearly as interesting since everyone just gives them the information without much trouble.

Speaking of the other part, as Djinn got past the monster, Webby has moved on to the Appendix B of her great quest: the riddle of the Minotaur! Scrooge and Selene have to team up for this one, doing the classic "two people in the same suit" gag. They come up with a riddle so hard, Djinn couldn't possibly come up with the answer.

I am more powerful than the gods

more evil than the demons

the poor have me

the rich need me

and if you eat me, you shall die.

He may be naive enough to believe this is a minotaur and not a Halloween costume, but he proves almost immediately after being told this riddle that he's smart enough to know the answer to that one. I wouldn't want to spoil the answer to this riddle, so I'm saying nothing.

...

Aw, phooie.

I will say this episode does a decent job at balancing these two plots, though in different ways. There's more comedy in Djinn's parts, while the triplets just deal with...Doofus Drake. If one doesn't know, they completely changed Doofus's character to this weird spoiled and sheltered kid nobody wants to hang around with. He's not a pleasant character, needless to say, and their reactions to having to go to Doofus Drake's house give people who didn't watch his debut episode an idea of that.

Once we see him, he outright proves that idea, as he forces the boys to watch his hour-long Theremin performance, while his parents are forced to dance to it. It takes him a while to realize what they mean by "lamp", because he knew it syrup boat. Thankfully without any attempt to kidnap the boys to be his one true friend, he reveals that he threw it away, because his father's hands worked better. The context will not help you.

On the plus side, the triplets now have a good answer for Scrooge McDuck, because they know it must be at the junkyard, the home of the Beagle Boys. Well, okay, it usually goes to a landfill, but we do see a Beagle Boy on the truck, so it could be just a good assumption. It's a good thing they got to this, because his quiz is starting to run on Djinn's patience. It probably doesn't help that he's using a joke book now. It’s too bad we don’t hear how he solves those "riddles". "The chicken wanted to get to the other side, of course!"

Selene tells Djinn, reading from a card Scrooge gave her, that Ma Beagle stole it, and they have to go all the way back to Duckworth. It's funny how the Goddess of the Moon is relegated to poorly acting how the lamp was stolen while he was busy with the minotaur. After so many questions from a "Minotaur" who was definitely not stalling him, this poor acting, and how this "Ma Beagle" was able to sneak past him, does he buy it?

Short answer: yes, he does. Maybe he doesn't suspect a thing, or maybe the importance of getting the lamp outweighed everything else. One can interpret that in any way, really, though the former seems a little more likely.

They come up to the landfill/junkyard where the Beagle Boys live. As soon as Ma Beagle hears that this lamp is called the Lamp of the First Genie, her interest gets piqued immediately. She wants better kids, much to the chagrin of the Boys.

Djinn finds out that the lamp was discarded in the trash, and it is here that Djinn finally makes the connection that maybe that whole quest was just a diversion. He asks Scrooge if it was true, and Louie admits that it was, and that Scrooge tells him nothing.

Oh no, it's one of those Liar Revealed scenes. Got to prepare for that five minutes of moping, and then Djinn realizes, hey, the journey might have been bunk, but getting the lamp is more important.

Djinn: For the lamp!

(Djinn jumps down and attacks a Beagle Boy)

Okay, never mind, he thankfully skips to the end of that. He really wants that lamp, or dire consequences will happen! No time for moping!

A fight scene ensues between Djinn, Scrooge, and the Beagle Boys, including Big Time and Bouncer Beagle making appearances. It would have been cool to see the Tuggle Bums or the Black Arts Beagle, but sadly, there's just the generic red shirts. I don't believe I saw Burger either, maybe they couldn't find something for him to do.

Hmm, a lamp on top of a pile that looks like the hill Scrooge and Glomgold climbed up in the original's intro. One can easily guess where that is going, and that's not a bad aspect at all. Who manages to take the lamp? Is the lamp really supernatural? You’re just going to have to watch the episode for yourself. It did feel like a giant cop-out at first, but an explanation did make it a lot better.

How does it stack up?

I found this episode entertaining. Both plots led to interesting places and characters that were nice to see again, there's a lot of jokes I left out of this review that are pretty funny, and Djinn is a pretty good character with a bit of potential. I wouldn't wish for anything better.

Next, we see another character that hasn't been seen in a while.

← The Shorts 🦆 The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck! →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 – “Friendship Hates Magic!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow, Rachel Vine

Written by: Rachel Vine

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzaga, Victoria Harris, Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

No ponies here, headless or otherwise.

While we've seen a conclusion of at least one part of the Della plot, one other little thing from the season finale hasn't really been elaborated on outside of the occasional mention of Magica De Spell. Specifically: while we know whatever happened to Della Duck, and have a clue on whatever happened to Donald Duck, we never really found out whatever happened to Lena since she became Webby's shadow. Needless to say, it's a long story.

This is the episode where that plot continues. I will say this: Lena plots don't have good track records with me. I liked Jaw$, and The Shadow War was great, too, which was pretty much a foregone conclusion since it was the season finale. However, there's also Terror of the Terra-Firmians and The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck, two episodes I almost gave a Disgusted Donald to. Granted, neither are because of Lena in particular, but still. Which column will this episode fall in? We're about to find out.

Our episode begins with Webby going to the library, because she loves the smell of thinking in the morning. Gotta get that reference out of the way. Oh, and Lena is here now, as an invisible, unhearable shadow being. While nobody else can see or hear her, the audience sees her as this black and green version of herself. Lena says that she's fine with her current situation, though it's quite clear from the tone of her voice that it's more in comparison to any alternative.

Webby doesn't want to do that even if she could hear Lena, so she's continuing her impossible mission to find a book at the library that can teach her about the shadow realm. Yami Yugi is nowhere to be seen, but we do get Mrs. Quackfaster. I guess Scrooge isn't paying her enough so she has to double as the amount of libraries she works at to get that sweet retirement at Birdaydos. Er, Bird-baaaaaay-dos. She tells her that she can't offer the particular book she's looking for.

It's because this new character already checked it out. Webby is shocked, because this book is only in Ancient Syriac, but this "odd girl" happens to know a lot of ancient languages. She introduces herself as Violet Sabrewing, and, after bonding over knowing conversational Akkadian, she offers to stay at her place, possibly overnight. In other words, and eventually Webby's: a sleepover.

Webby, of course, accepts, but Lena does not.  It's almost as if she's read Disney Now's description of this episode, which refers to her as this "suspicious new friend". Then again, it may be because of the way Webby's last sleepovers ended. She wouldn't be the only one to remind her of this.

As Mrs. Beakley gives us the excuse for why we're not going to see Scrooge or the boys in this episode, they're busy in the office for Bin-ventory Day, Webby barges in and tells her grandmother she's having a friend come over for a sleepover. Mrs. Beakley is proud that her granddaughter wants to do another sleepover after the last two ended with money sharks and unicorn fights in the other bin. Gotta love those casual previous episode references that could still work as fantastic off-screen adventures to those who don't know.

Lena is excited that Mrs. Beakley could talk her out of this, and tries to jinx Webby again by saying "cancel the sleepover." Needless to say, that jinx doesn't work out like the library one, as Webby has a different idea.

Instead, Webby decides to have the most normal sleepover ever, as she tries to hide everything that is supernatural in the house, and try to just be normal. Mrs. Beakley attempts to say that the best way to make a good impression on her new friend is to be herself

Mrs. Beakley: ...barring from that summer undercover in Paraguay.

Webby brushing aside what is most likely the origin story for one of her parents, hey, we were all thinking it, she tells her Granny that she's not like her, because she needs friends. After Webby walks away, she tells her to name one person she doesn't get along with.

Enter Launchpad McQuack, inept pilot and ruiner of any plan to make this the first DuckTales episode with only female characters. To disprove Webby's accusation, she decides to invite him for a "sup", and spends a little more time than she wants explaining what she meant. Lena episodes sure seem to love the B-plots that, for the most part, never really seem to converge with the A-plot. This will be another one that fits with the "for the most part".

Going back to the other planned meeting, Webby is all done storing magic rocks in the attic, and her new friend has arrived for the normal slumber party for normal people. She tells Duckworth to get the door, and then realizes that ghost butlers don't help out at slumber parties. Surprisingly, that's not one of the Bailey School Kids books.

After slicing Duckworth's ghostly form in half, him not appreciating it in the slightest, she opens the door to Violet and her totally normal pie. As Webby shows her awkwardness with this whole situation, Lena is not amused, saying she isn't buying it. See, I didn't pull that out of nowhere, Lena hates this girl. I mean, maybe it's a bit convenient that this girl happens to have the same shadow realm-related interests as Webby.

Violet is then brought to Webby's room, and Violet looks around to see all the places that clearly used to have mysterious objects in them. She just says it looks clean, but I can imagine she did not miss that.

Meanwhile, Launchpad tries, and struggles, to drink pea soup from a straw. Mrs. Beakley tries her best to deal with this.

One section she was focused on was this section about Tulpas, an actual concept in the world of mysticism. This whole concept sort of reminded her of that one time all the shadows came alive and...

Webby: Who wants Baggle?!

Violet actually does want Baggle, but wants this obvious distraction some other time. Webby responds that it's just her way to get to know each other a bit more, and suggests asking some ice-breakers. Violet's first icebreaker:

Violet: What do you know about Magica De Spell and the Shadow War?

Lena, feeling completely vindicated, tries to tell Webby that she said the "M" word! I wouldn't say she forgot that nobody can hear her; she's like those people who yell at the characters while watching TV. Heh, nerds. Webby has a different "M" word in mind: makeovers! Violet is clearly not buying this at all, but goes along with the makeovers anyway.

Violet ends up leaving her backpack behind, fully opened, and Lena notices something that definitely shouldn't be in there if she was an ordinary girl who just happened to really like shadow people: Magica's amulet! She runs off to try to warn Webby, and...okay, maybe she still thinks she can hear her, even though she never once acknowledged her existence. She does end up at least finding Webby, except she's now a zombie, complete with one of her eyes falling out.

That fake-out turns out to be Violet and Webby's idea for a make-up session. Webby praises her best friend's make-up, saying that she looks just like the demon named Rakshasa. She's definitely a great friend, I don't know a lot of people who would take kindly to being told "you look like a demon!" Webby should know what Rakshasa looks like, because she met him in a previous adventure, and she has proof...that is definitely not in the attic. Oops.

Webby relents and lets her into the attic, as this cover was completely blown. She was obviously interested in these things, so she doesn't mind that Webby happened to have some magic rocks. They never really explain what those magic rocks are, and I'd like to think I am a little beyond the obvious joke there. She also notices some ectoplasmic energies from that friendship bracelet.

The scene switches from their point of view to Lena's in a neat way, where Lena still thinks she can alter anything here. Sadly for her, Lena is also intangible. Thankfully for her, Webby distracts her from that bracelet, and offers that game of Baggle again. Violet agrees on one condition: they need to use Demogorgan runes. I don't want to reveal that I'm just looking up every one of these words on Wikipedia, so I'll be quiet.

Meanwhile, Launchpad tries, and struggles, to color a coloring book, and then eventually tries to get Mrs. Beakley to get into Darkwing Duck. Mrs. Beakley tries her best to deal with this.

...okay, maybe I shouldn't just brush this off for this running gag, since this scene has quite a bit of lore to get into Jim Starling's eventual big role in The Duck Knight Returns...but maybe I'll wait for that one.

Back to this game of runes, it just so happens that book has the right chant to make those dice-like runes glow green. Lena tries what might be her 50th attempt to actually affect anything as a intangible shadow person. She's shocked to find that it actually worked this time!

She then tries to rearrange the runes to spell out a message. Unfortunately, since these people are nerds, they think it's the writing on the runes that have any meaning, and not how this layout is shaped like the words "don't trust her." Not getting anywhere with these mysterious messages about rat messages, Violet tries another shadow spirit summoning trick: humming this melody. It works...but only Lena can see these white spirits ominously creeping out from the dark. She has to think of something.

She tries to manipulate a white sheet in a form of a ghost. This actually works, because of ghost cliches that even Lena is aware of, but it doesn't solve the "they can't hear me" problem. Violet decides to use a weapon against the one evil spirit they can see, and it turns out this weapon happens to be Magica's amulet. One side effect is that this amulet allowed her to actually see and hear Lena for a second, which is enough to clue Webby in on what is really happening. However, that is only the second most of her worries.

The main side effect is that it finally gets Webby to realize that maybe this girl may not be what she seems. Just like Lena wanted her to, she starts to question their future friendship, and asks everything she knows.

It’s here that we finally get her backstory, or at least her claimed backstory. She was just an ordinary Muggle, having no interest in magic or anything else of the sort. Then, everything changed when the Shadow War happened, and. Oh, and she just stumbled across Magica's cane, which turned back into the amulet. That's pretty much it. We don't know if she's completely telling the truth...

...but Webby buys it completely, to the disappointment of Lena, and they start to do a seance. You see these shadow beings that look like the shadow of Magica De Spell. This, of course, gets Lena to attempt to grab them again.

I hate to spoil this, but I will say that this seance does lead to Lena being able to drag Webby and Violet into the shadow realm. No, not that one, thankfully. We get a big reunion, but this hug doesn't get to last long, as Webby and Violet finally get to see those white shadow ghosts.

That was spoiler enough, so I'll run through this: a big chase scene happens here, and it all leads to a good conclusion to this episode. Even the "tulpas" from the earlier scene comes up, as that turns out to be a little bit closer than one might guess from the opening of the scene. Here's a hint: they don't just stay in this Magica-like form.

In a sort of fake-out transition from that mayhem, we see what is the conclusion to the Launchpad trying to get Mrs. Beakley into Darkwing Duck plot. Turns out, they both got really excited over a cliffhanger ending. Unfortunately, in this universe, that was how Darkwing Duck ended, with a Woody's Roundup-esque cliffhanger. I usually don't talk about future episodes, but this will be given more detail in The Duck Knight Returns.

What were those shadow beings? Will Lena ever learn to trust Webby's new friend? Should Lena ever learn to trust Webby's new friend? Most importantly, while we got the reunion, will it last? At least some of those questions will be answered by watching the episode. It was a treat to see one of those answers in the end, something I thought I wouldn't see until the end of this season.

How does it stack up?

This episode didn't give me anything to dislike, and a lot to like. The biggest challenge this episode had was introducing this new character. I'll say this, without spoiling anything: while she doesn't have any Earth-shattering twists like Lena did, yet, she has potential.

I kind of skipped over the Launchpad bits, I can admit they're all pretty funny. Obviously, it wasn't going to be something as big as the A-plot, but just something minor and maybe even a little bit cute.

In the end, it's definitely in the Jaw$ column.

Next, I actually find a way to talk about The Powerpuff Girls...and not those ones!

← Raiders of the Doomsday Vault! 🦆 The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee! →

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The 87 Cent Solution!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Bob Snow

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzala, Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

The last part of the big catch-up!

The episode begins with Huey's concern for Scrooge McDuck's stuffed nose. It took him until now to realize that all of this adventuring must be taking a hard toll on Scrooge's, ahem, advanced age. Of course, Scrooge shoves him away.

Manny the Headless Horse shows up in what seems like another appearance just to prove that, hee hee, it's Scrooge's head on a horse, but there will be a point to this. It's quite clear Scrooge has more important things to attend to than putting away science waste, like taking a dive in the money bin!

After closing the vault, he dives in, swims a little, and realizes that something is horribly wrong. He looks to the left, he looks to the right, and makes a startling announcement to himself: he got robbed!

Anyone can see the joke in this: it doesn't look like he lost a significant amount. Unless this is the first episode of DuckTales 2017 you ever watched, and noticed how shallow the money bin is compared the original. Trust me, it's a different reason, and you should start with a different episode than this one.

After the theme song, we see Zan Owlson trying to give a lecture to Glomgold on how to run his business while doing _n_o _e_laborate _s_chemes _t_oday. She even has a acronym ready for it, and Glomgold desperately tries to find a loophole, only to suggest times that also start with the letter T. While the last episode continued the Louie Inc. plot, though there is a very, very slight nod to that later in the episode, this episode focuses on the bet made in The Ballad of Duke Baloney. I was waiting for that to continue.

Scrooge barges in, accusing Glomgold of doing this wrongdoing. It's a pretty good guess, considering that aforementioned bet, so I can't say he accuses him out of nothing. Glomgold starts gloating that he bested the richest duck in the world, though doesn't understand what exactly he did. Owlson tells Scrooge that he's acting the opposite of sane, as if it was any better than outright saying the antonym, and that doesn't make anything better. This will only be the beginning for Scrooge.

Leading absolutely nowhere, Scrooge decides he needs to amp up the security, only allow authorized employees at the bin, and find out who or what could possibly be behind this. He's going to need his top men!

Sudden cut to three children coming out of an elevator. It is a bit heartwarming to see that he sees his next of kin as "top men". Sure, it may be alluding to child labor, but try not to think too hard about that. Thankfully, he probably meant something different than what that cut suggested.

He walks into Gyro's security room, where Gyro shows off all of the new security features he has installed in the bin, complete with some test footage. This includes Donald Duck running into a force field of Gyro's creation, becoming a duck-blur while Gyro is standing by him. Besides the different victim, another big difference is that this Gyro is just taking notes, with no real shocked expression on his face like the original cartoon's Gyro.

Not the least bit comforted about this, and ignoring Huey's offers of chicken soup, Scrooge wants more. He wants Gizmoduck.

We get Gizmoduck in this episode, in a rare episode where we only see him as Gizmoduck and not his not-so-secret identity. Gizmo is able to give the location of all the villains, at least the ones that would be interested in stealing money. The most interesting suspect brought up is Magica De Spell, whose location is unknown. Her appearance has been teased since the first time they changed the opening to include her, and while it will remain a tease, it is interesting to see her nonetheless.

With all of the security set up, he still can't get over how anyone could just waltz in and steal his money. Speaking of waltzing in, Louie appears just as worried as Scrooge. Louie instantly loses all of his worry when Scrooge tells him the total value that he knew was stolen: the titular 87 cents. Louie and Dewey utterly scoff at this.

But, Scrooge tells them it's not about the money, it's about how the bin was compromised by someone undetectable! If he can't outwit his thieves, he wouldn't be "smarter than the smarties"! He spends a lot of time on this one saying. Smart and the opposite of sane aren't mutually exclusive, but his actions will cross that line eventually.

Huey tries to reason with him with a bit of realism: Scrooge couldn't have possibly known that those coins were stolen from him! They'd have to count every coin in the bin, and that would be crazy!

Much to the annoyance of everyone involved, this leads to the kids having to count every coin in the bin. Dewey even takes the time to insult Huey for this. Thankfully, the kids don't have to do the insurmountable task, because the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook ends up giving them a big distraction. He decides to look into what could make Scrooge so out there with this really minor theft...

...and the page was turned right to this rather large-print section of the symptoms of a fatal disease called Gold Fever. They look at Scrooge, who is walking back and forth in confusion, itching himself, and knowing fully well he's going to outlandish extremes, and Huey makes the one conclusion: he has it.

After realizing this, Huey puts on a surgical mask. This will be used to separate the "gold fever" believers from the skeptics. It's a neat visual trait that gets more apparent throughout the episode, though nothing in this page says it's contagious.

If he does have Gold Fever, it's only going to get worse from here, as Scrooge decides to record a special message for the news, offering a bounty of way more than 87 cents for the 87 cents. I get it, he loves his money so much, he will spend a lot of money to protect it. It's a good reason for Louie to put on his surgical mask. They happened to know when to carry those on them.

Webby's still of the opinion that this isn't too out of character for Scrooge. Yes, she does use that kind of wording!

He gets more and more coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs throughout the episode, even down to commanding Gizmoduck to shoot missiles at the invisible demon that was stealing. Yes, that ends up being his hypothesis. It's not too out of the ordinary for this series. Gizmoduck tries to open his copter, only to find that he can't open it.

This leads to him accidentally shooting missiles at Launchpad's plane, which almost lands on Dewey. It's supposed to be dramatic, but you just kind of feel sorry for everyone.

Thanks to all of this craziness, McDuck Enterprises's stocks start going to low levels, causing his investors to switch sides to certain other companies. Even Roxanne can't believe that Glomgold's company is getting the most of it. You'd think Waddle would have been the better choice; Mark Beaks at least has the courtesy of not being outright evil. Yet. I'm sure something like that would be his slogan if Disney can get it past Google's lawyers.

Scrooge doesn't even think about this news, as he's still staring at all the monitors. Suddenly, GizmoDuck shows up to tell him there's been a breach!

However, this turns out to be an intervention from his increasingly masked "top men." His actions are even harming his reputation, as shown with Dewey also putting on the mask. Apparently, Dewey only cared that his uncle's actions almost led to him getting hurt. Eh, I guess?

Sadly, that didn't work, as Scrooge has gone full invisible demon theorist, complete with the "strings around photos on a board" trope, and he plans to dive right into the gold to truly protect it from him. Even Webby, the honorary sibling that's the closest to him, decides to put on the surgical mask. She doesn't disagree with the demon hypothesis, but she knows that Scrooge needs his sleep. He ain't having it, as we see that he gets the strength of 10 Scrooges when he's kept from his money.

I usually don't want to outright spoil episodes. I spoiled the vast majority of the last episode, but left out the plot twist that may be important to the rest of the series. Unfortunately, because it would kind of weird if I just jump to my final opinion of this episode without talking about my major sticking points with it, I have to talk about two of the biggest twists, one happening right after the other.

Let's start with the first real doozy of the episode: thanks to those stock market investments, Glomgold became the richest duck in the world, with him winning the bet! He can't wait to gloat at his arch-enemy's face about this! A major breaking news shows up, and those plans have to change.

This episode goes for the ultimate amount of shock value and attempted tear jerker, as it turns out that Scrooge has succumbed to gold fever. I'll admit that, while I certainly never believed they would actually go through with this. They don't pull any punches, they say he's dead. They do have one joke, though: Donald runs crying saying that he died so young! Get it, because of his advanced age!

No villain decided to show up to see that their nemesis is truly dead. Right when Gizmoduck takes out his appropriate bagpipes, we see there is one minor exception, though.

Suddenly, Glomgold crashes the funeral, dancing to "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khaled. No, not a generic rap song that happens to sound like that song, they actually licensed the real DJ Khaled song to play over this scene. The only recent cartoon I can think of that did that is that one episode of Rugrats that managed to get "Vacation" by the Go-Gos to play during the beginning of the episode. Oh, and the Super Mario Bros Super Show. Kind of easy to forget since they removed them from the DVDs.

This is probably the closest this reboot has ever gotten to the infamous literally-can't-even into butt-shaking scene from the other reboot...

...maybe a little too close to that scene! But, I actually don't agree with that for two reasons.

This action fits Glomgold perfectly. He would be the kind of person who would wear shades and a backward cap, invade a high-school, and say, "how you doing, fellow dude-meisters?"

His main goal is to win, win, win, so why not have a song about winning?

Regardless of anyone's opinion of this, nobody in-universe liked this crashing of the funeral...

...especially not Zan Owlson, who shows up to apologize for Glomgold's actions. Eventually, he's pacified with a lollipop. Zan Owlson also explains that this does not mean he won the bet he made in Duke Baloney, because that bet was Glomgold beating Scrooge, not a disease beating him. Glad that was cleared up.

They go back to being a heartfelt tribute to the fallen hero...at least that's what it seems to be when Huey comes up to the podium. Instead of talking about all the great adventures they had, or how he was a great uncle, he talks about how whoever did this must be a mastermind! If this wasn't some big scheme, this would be very inappropriate! "Yeah, he may have been murdered, but wow, that murder method was so impressive!" However, it was not a mastermind who defeated him, but gold fever.

Glomgold finally snaps, and decides to take the credit that was rightfully his! He's even going to explain exactly how he did it, because it would be convenient for the audience, because there is no way anyone would guess what exactly he did.

It just so happened that, along with all of the science junk Manny was carrying, there was a kind of stopwatch that managed to drop to the ground. Glomgold just happened to be in the same room as Scrooge at that point, and he decided to pick it up. Hey, he may not be able to get into the room, but he's got to steal something!

Fiddling around with that stopwatch, he hits a button, and everything becomes blue, not like him, inside and outside. He tries to talk to Owlson, but for some reason, she won't respond back. He yells at her, but still, no response, she just keeps that one expression that looks like she's still talking.

It's like that Twilight Zone episode with the stopwatch, except, thankfully for him, he never breaks it. The big joke is that he's a maroon and didn't get what was actually happening until a year later, the vast majority of that year trying to beat a time-stopped baby at a staring contest.

Finally realizing that watch's power, he caused everything that went wrong in this episode. I think this isn't supposed to be all at the same time, so I shouldn't complain about how he was able to predict, say, GizmoDuck using his head copter. I can also appreciate that he can play the part of Scrooge's money stealing demon. In fact, Glomgold is one of this episode's saving graces.

Unfortunately for Glomgold, a certain someone gets up, and it's not exactly who anyone watching this thinks it is.

Turns out, it was Manny that was playing the role of Dead Scrooge. Got to say, if nothing else, this was a pretty good episode for Manny getting involved beyond a cheap joke. If you actually thought that they were going to kill off one of the most iconic Disney characters...

...you get indirectly called an idiot by Scrooge, who is very much alive and was just in disguise at his own funeral.

But, how did he survive? We do get a few more flashbacks showing that, just before he jumped into the gold, he decided at the last second to get some rest, and, after regaining his sanity, he saw that page slip off of the book. Either everything Scrooge did before that was genuine, or he played an act that involved endangering his kin, spending a ton of money, lowering his stock value, and making himself look like he wasn't "smarter than the smarties" despite wanting to keep that title earlier in the episode. I don't buy the latter, and I don't buy the former. I just don't buy anything.

Outside of Glomgold and Zan Owlson, it appears that everyone in the room was in on it, judging by their expressions. It does makes sense for certain characters; while I don't think he wouldn't be crying, I'm sure Louie wouldn't be able to hide being joyous about any kind of inheritance. Especially after saying a line like "what happened to my, er, your money?" But one question that was on my mind constantly is how this affected the citizens of Duckberg. None of my screenshots show it, but Roxanne Featherly, the newsreporter that announced his death, was there as well. It's possible Scrooge paid for her to make a fake news segment.

Then again, we do see proof that being there doesn't mean they're in on it, as Donald comes back in the room and is shocked that his uncle is still alive! The only other explanation is that Donald Duck is stupid, which would not be very fitting.

Unless that stock price drop was fake too, how was that reversed? Now that Scrooge is now alive, does that mean Glomgold is the richest duck now, or did that not count? Honestly, I kind of stopped thinking at this point, so I might as well get to the end. The rivalry continues, and the episode ends with Mrs. Beakley saying that they could have just asked her to deal with Scrooge's behavior. Oh, and Scrooge gets his 87 cents back. I'm sure that would have kept people up at night if that wasn't resolved.

How does it stack up?

I just couldn't get into this one. It just wasn't funny, and the serious parts were just convoluted. We do get some good Glomgold parts, but that's about it.

The streak of Happy Deweys had to end eventually. People might disagree with me on this one, and that's fine. Maybe this catch-up week has given me DuckTales Fever, symptoms including bad opinions, but the better solution is to just skip this one and just watch that "A Sea Monster Ate My Ice Cream" scene from the original on a loop.

And that's it for the catch-up week. I'm going back to one DuckTales 2017 review a week next week, and it's a big one. See you on Wednesday!

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