DuckTales on Disney+! Old-School vs. New Cool.
It’s 1988. You just got home from school.
You’re not gonna do common core, or learn about stems and codes during screen time on devices like today’s youth.
There was only one screen that mattered; the TV.
I couldn’t wait to shake off all the sitting still and being quiet from school with ADD inducing, noisy, toy-based cartoons.
Actually, the toy-based cartoons at least had consistent stories and a moral message or something.
The other shows were kind of just noisy and dumb vessels for sugary food commercials.
Original DuckTales from 1987.
That is until Disney got in the afternoon cartoon game with “DuckTales.”
The animation was really high quality and rather than simple stories they were surprisingly smart plots with long story arcs.
Scrooge takes in his nephews Huey, Dewy, and Louie and goes on globe-trotting adventures in search of treasure and adventure.
Disney was the creator and didn’t need to sell a toy (more on that in a minute) or sugary cereal, they wanted a vessel for synergy.
It was the height of the Eisner era so a means to advertise all the great movies, rides and parks coming out made sense.
DuckTales was a huge hit of course, but back to me.
The well-conceived Duckberg Universe and far traveling adventures Uncle Scrooge and his annoying nephews were springboards for my young imagination.
What do you want to do when something captures your imagination at this age?
Play with rad toys of course!
Rather than base an entire cartoon show on a toy-line like most of the others did, Disney took the opposite approach and didn’t really release any toys.
Can you imagine; a Disney thing without merch these days?
While I couldn’t wait to come home and watch DuckTales and it was a popular show, it didn’t become a full-blown phenomenon like “Transformers” and “He-Man” did before DuckTales.
Almost all the big toy-based cartoons were on the wayside, however.
But I guess there was a hunger for it because not long after DuckTales quaked on the scene a new multi-syllable ninja based juggernaut was about to spring forth from the sewers.
Once “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” hit the scene that’s all anyone cared about years.
It was a fun show with awesome toys, an impossibly hard video game, movies, and that theme song!
I caught the bug and loved ninja turtles and the toys but I guess it stole all of DuckTales thunder.
Disney eventually wised up and created more good afternoon shows like “Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers”, “Darkwing Duck” and “Talespin” and licensed some character toys, but DuckTales sadly lasted only three seasons.
Then it just vanished.
I mean it was probably in reruns somewhere and I remember singing along to that theme song again in the late 90s when random mp3s first became a thing, but not much in the way of nostalgia for this great show.
And so it went that way for many years.
A couple of years back I heard there was a new reboot of DuckTales on the Disney channel.
I came across it, but like a curmudgeonly old hermit I thought “this doesn’t look like the old show, let’s not watch.”
Then Disney + came along.
Of course, I’m thrilled about the “Mandolorian” and Pixar stuff, but I thought it would be fun to revisit old shows like the original DuckTales which I hadn’t seen in years.
It was a trip to hear the theme song and see the crazy villains like Magica de Spell.
The stories still seemed good compared to what else was out there when I was little but it seemed a little dated.
Huey, Dewy and Louie were clearly all the same shrill voice and the one girl character Webby just gets in the way.
A little perturbed that it wasn’t as good as I had remembered, I thought I would give the new episodes a chance.
DuckTales 2017.
I was delighted!
The show is so smart, funny and full of adventure! I thought I’d look up the deetz on the show and was so surprised at the talent behind it.
“Dr. Who” Alums David Tenant and Catherine Tate play Scrooge McDuck and Magica DeSpell.
The rest is a great team of comedians such as Ben Schwartz aka Jean Ralphio from “Parks and Rec” and Kate Micucci of “Scrubs”, and half of the musical comedy duo “Garfunkel and Oats” among other things.
Even current “SNL” actor Beck Bennet who is best known for playing Pence and veteran SNL’er Bobby Moynihan are the voices of Launch Pad McQuack and Louie Duck.
With a lot of heart, action and great stars you may think what drawbacks does this show have? Well, it can be a little loud at times, but far less annoying than even most sitcoms aimed at adults.
The characters have cell phones, participate in social media and reference familiar millennial catchphrases all the time, but this modern-day twist on some familiar ducks is exactly what this show needed to be relaunched in this day and age. The adventuring is very much the same, with a good amount of selfies, looking up historical clues and facts on their devices and drifting through time portals every now and then but it’s got the same heart that it once did in good ole 1988 with even more comedy, and outrageous adventures.
Scoff if you will, but anyone who enjoys 1980’s type action-adventure cartoons will find this show really exciting and we highly recommend it!
-Mike O.
“Scrooge Bucks” by me, Mike O.
